I Should have listened: (CR ENGLAND!!!!)

I drove for CR England for exactly 365 days. I have witnessed many of the things mentiooned in this thread. I went to their Spartanburg SC school. My instructor was an ###, he would verbally abuse me while I was learning to handle a big truck, which made things much more difficult than they needed to be. He was an obstacle in my pursuit for a CDL so I just sucked it up and drove on. After I passed my test on the 4th try I had to wait for a week to get a trainer, no pay, just hanging in the breeze.

My trainer was much younger than me, he was 23 and I was 39. I didnt initially have a problem with his age until he would start telling me how to do non truck driving related duties. I was a soldier when I was in my 20's and he was the captain of the ship so I sucked it up and drove on.

Driver-Trainers are under an extreme amount of stress at a training company. They are dispatched on team loads and if they get a dud trainee they will get very little sleep for the next 3 weeks. The first several days they get virtually no sleep while determining what kind of driver they have on board. They dont sleep well because their life is in the hands of a total stranger that may or may not be able to drive. Heck they might be an axe murderer for all they know. It takes a little while to build trust. The trainer and trainee are roomates in a room the size of a bathroom for about 3 weeks, sounds like an idea for the next reality show. The trainer's truck takes all of the ground gears, dinged bumpers, scratched paint and punctured sidewalls a trainee can dish out, all on the trainer's dime (for a lease driver).

The trainee has no idea what he or she has got themselves into. While in school the trainee was taught how to pass the CDL exam "theoretical". Their trainer is showing them the "reality" of being a driver. In the real world sometimes procedures are streamlined in order to maximize efficiecy. I would sit at the smoke shack on the England yard in SLC and listen to horror stories from trainee and trainer and decided I would sacrifice the extra money and drive solo.

Driving a truck OTR is a very demanding job. The workdays are often 14 hrs if things are running smoothly and if something effs up they can exceed this amount of time. You are away from home for weeks at a time. You are constantly faced with problems that must be solved. Driving the truck down the road is the fun and easy part. I love driving! Shippers, receivers, lumpers, brokers, mechanics and some truckstops are a few of the crosses I must bear for the profession I have chosen. Oh dont forget the DOT. If you have always wanted to be a driver I would not go back to the cab. It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll. You got to pay your dues.

Like I said, I drove for England for a year and all of the things said on this thread are true, I have personally witnessed it. They will separate you from your money any way they can. I agree with a previous post about Schneider, I thought about training with them but I dont care for the color orange. The money they pay you is green though. Orange wont bother you though you drive yellow vehicle all day. After I left England I had enough knowlege to start my own trucking company (1 truck and trailer) with savings from my previous profession. You can do this.

 

I never worked for this CR England, but I did work for a few private nit wits. Now you worked for them for a year. God bless, from what I'm reading, they are the pits.
I even had my own truck or two, in the early years. The thing is with that the trick there, is backup money, and being a good bookkeeper, business man,and the truck part. As you know, them trucks are always in need of attention. My first truck was a cabover, and it was a nightmare, Pretty little blue Peterbuilt, I guess I had to learn the ropes with that part of trucking.
If after a run, you have someone in the family or a trustworthy person,that can do all the cleaning and stuff while you are catching up on shut eye, is a big help.
I never had to buy a trailer, wish I did sometimes, cause these companies I hauled for, well do I need say more on the matinence part.
I'll tell you out there, if I was Young again, with all them great trade schools out there, hitting the books is a #### lot easier then O.T.R. Business. I do have some good memories, and did meet some great people along the way. Once in awhile i drive for a guy near here, only local, don't need to do that everyday. Got my small engine repair certificate, plenty of small tractors, and chainsaws and what have you, since this is farm country.
Yeah sandlapper, many happy years with that white line fever. Now I just dated myself!

I'll tell you something funny. I'll never forget, when they raised the fuel to $.53 a gallon. Yes I said $.53 a gallon---now look at the progress they made since that time. Now there was a great uproar then, now what's the point in complaining, just hick up them freight fees and be done with it. They wonder why all the things in a store go up. gee I wonder why

But all you out there know why--no big mystery.
To finish this post. When your new, you have to take your lumps, and that's all there is too it. It was like that in my time too, but I had friends in the business, so that sure helped. My buddy jimmy family had a truck business with four trucks, and I learned a lot from there. Today to start cold like that, gives me the willy's

 

I keep my ears open and try to learn every day. I run mostly broker freight and have to weed through a lot of BS to get a good paying load. I can't run for less than $1.75/mile. I refuse on principle to run for less than profitable rate. Times are tough but with due dilligence a driver can still make a modest profit in trucking. Ma Monster, you didnt miss a thing not working for CRE. I had to get experience somewhere. It is like you said, you have to pay your dues at the beginning. I built quite a bit of character that first year on the road. If I make a mistake, I try to learn from it, so as not to repeat it.

 

Well sandlapper;
Let me give you a God Bless, and may he keep you safe on the road. Yes you build a good reputation, watch the bs (plenty of that out there), keep your business head on you, and you'll do fine.
We all should humble ourselves, and keep them ears open, that's a wise thing to do. There's a whole lot of life experience out there. It's like a library with books, except better. People's experience's that we could all learn from.
We all hear the bad side, but when I was starting out, I bent a mud flap, and being green didn't have a tool aboard. A fellow trucker at a truck stop I was at, saw I was having a problem, just opened his compartment and said help yourself to my tools, I'll be inside. I never forgot that. I finished and put the tools back, and closed up his compartment and went inside, and bought that guy supper. He said no you don't have to do that, and I said well, I figure I was in good company, and it was nice to chat while having dinner with someone. He told me a couple of tips, and pointed out a couple of things about my truck.
That was a long time ago, I hope that still happens today. We all can do a good deed along the way. I always offered help along the way, see that was my way of paying back what the good Lord sent me. So I pass on what I'ver learned, It may help, it may not. But it's there to offer. It makes them miles in life go much smoother.
God Bless

 

Yep, you tell these people you worked for a outfit and this is how they operate. And they go anyway. Should I have sympathy or gloat and say I told you so? When they come back later and say you were right?

Though I don't wish bad things to happen to people. I don't have much sympathy for anyone who goes to outfits such as CRE when they are warned by so many not to.

The only way to change these company's is to stop working for them and making them rich while your life and health are destroyed in the process.

 

I told my friend ROLLING THUNDER, who is by the way home, and back in the taxi business that. Trucking O.T.R isn't for everybody and be careful. He cussed at me and said I was killing his dream. Well actually, I was trying to keep him from a nightmare, for sure!

 

At least Rolling Thunder was able to wake up from the dream he thought we were trying to kill.

How many folks do y'all reckon went with C.R. England with dreams -- only to wake up to find those dreams were true nightmares?

OH!

S hip
H igh
I n
Transit !!

How'd I get into THIS mess?!!!!

SOMEbody!
QUICK!
Hit me in the head with a tire buddy -- and knock me back to sleep!

HeY, Ma!

Tell Billy I said "HI".
Who knows?
Maybe SOMEday, it'll be me hailing a taxi that he's driving. I just hope he won't leave the meter running while we enjoy a friendly conversation.
I'd be flat broke before I finished.

If you think my posts are long-winded ........ you oughta catch me in person.
Shux Howdy!
Folks wonder if I was vaccinated with a phonograph needle.

 

He's doing mostly dispatching now, and he's good at it. Yeap the grass is always greener on the otherside, till you hop over the fence into a cow cake!

 

A lot of times the grass is greener cuz there is a septic tank under it!

 

Yeah, all they have to do is stick their nose over the fence.