thanks dogtrucker, I've been searching these C.R. England posts for the past 2 days trying to find someone that would give this answer flat without all the bullspit. I was also wondering, how difficult is it to get dedicated accounts after phase 1&2. I'm signing on with CRE and start my training next week and would like to be pulling at least $600-800/wk come fall. is that possible for a newbie?
As long as you don't lease its possible with a little luck. I did the lease and suffered through that for two and a half years. Hopefully you will get a good phase 1 trainer and make sure you start learning which dedicated fleets you may want to get into and get the number of the account manager for those fleets. Had a student that wanted to get into the local intermodal fleet but they said you need a year experience plus hazmat endorsement. So he gets hazmat endorsement and calls the account manager once a week about getting into that fleet. So finally after about 4-5 months he gets the green light. He was making about $1200 a week gross but they hired more drivers than freight and his pay went down by half. He works for a food distributor now working graveyard and loves it.
The only reason you'd make less than your goal is if you stay on the OTR or Regional fleet you will be sent to in default of applying for any other job. Once you have a log-in for the CRE site, check out the "career track" page for all the jobs available. Then you just click a button to get on a list for that job. The Wal-Mart jobs are the best for decent pay and are mostly local. If you don't get one of these right away, you can ask to be part of the "surge" fleet for one of these accounts - just be persistent in asking and communicating with Operations and you should get one of these positions quickly. If you aren't making at least $800/wk average after a couple months you can just quit - there are companies such as Central or US Express that will pay you that and hire you with very little experience. They may even provide tuition reimbursement (England will bill you if you don't give them 6 months) Congratulations on your commitment. Trucking is a sound choice. I think it's a pretty cool job and enjoy doing it.
