I'm going to school for Crst in Iowa. Need advice and info.

I am an atheist but I have a lot of Life Insurance so I don't worry either.

 

You have the right attitude to succeed in this industry.Good luck with CRST.

 

I don't think these comments are that extreme. CRST is probably the worst of the bottom feeders unless CR England could give it a run for its money. If you can go anywhere house you should. I heard a Horror Story during orientation for my current company. A team from CRST was there and had just quit because one of them had broken their ankle and they would not let them go see their own doctor at home. They got stuck in one of the terminals waiting to see a company doctor for 3 days while she was in agony with a broken ankle. Any company that would treat a driver like that needs to be avoided like the plague. We are all trying to keep you for making a mistake.

 

How does a company prevent a person from seeing a doctor? That's where you put your big boy britches on and take yourself to the dr of your choosing.

 

From what I remember they were within a couple hundred miles from home and they wanted to go home to see their family doctor and CRST refused to Route them there or allow them to bobtail there. CRST supposedly had their own physician and they said they could see the CRST dr. And they strung them along for 3 days with promises that this doctor would show up any time and never did and meanwhile she was suffering. Personally I would have told them where to go and bobtail home for my wife to see her doc. CRST told them that they would be fired and their l and I claim denied if they did that.

 

Well honestly, imo it's not the carriers responsibility to provide your transportation to a dr. I wouldn't of let them bobtail home either. And there isn't always a load going where you need to go. They could have either gone to any walk in clinic in the area, or if they really wanted to use their dr, rent a car. This sounds like a case of a typical company driver thinking their employer is their mommy.

 

If I broke my ankle and CRST didn't have the promised doctor there, I'd be calling an ambulance to the nearest hospital. Should all be covered under workers' comp.

But it sounds like CRST was threatening the driver with the workers' comp claim being denied if they did anything other than wait for the "company approved" doctor, which isn't unfathomable. In other words: this was the CHEAPEST solution for the company and they really don't care if it inconveniences you.

Folks, this is the kind of stuff you are signing up for with these bottom feeder companies.

 

Just a little FYI, the following story happened at a company that is not a bottom feeder, it is one where people are mostly happy and make good money. They have a few people you always read about in the trucking rags, some have even been on tv representing the company and all its virtues to the public.

I won't mention who they are BUT they are not CRST by any means.

I have a friend (owner operator) who got sick on the road, he was really bad off and it happened so suddenly he didn't know what to do. He called his company for help and they said deal with it. So he drove himself to the hospital four mile away (trailer and all) and then stayed there for the night, spent two nights in his truck next to the hospital just in case after that.

His wife only got his call on the way to the hospital, told her not to worry about it then he turned off his phone when he went into the ER. She called the company who told her pretty much to stick it, they are not going to do anything about it, not even tell her what state he was in, but he already told here what city. She called my wife who said she would help out, they were going to fly out to where she thinks he was to help him. They were actually at the airport ready to buy the tickets when he called, said he was alright and admitted to a short stay for the night to make sure he would be ok to drive. He wasn't happy about the company at all, one reason for him leasing with them was the way they took care of their own. Needless to say he didn't stick around more than a month to change companies. I think what cemented his move was the next morning when he got back to the truck, there were 10 messages on the qualcomm about missed loads he never even agreed to, he called and got such an attitude about taking himself out of service with a short notice and then not calling them to go back into service. Safety called him and told him he is out of service until his doc, who is 900 miles away, clears him to drive, they hassled him a lot over this. One thing about this incident, he told others owners at the company at a meeting a week later and they called him a liar because they could not believe that the company would do this.

 

It's sad that you have to record phone conversations to CYA in situations like these...

Kind of like the K&B Transportation driver who called in to relay his load because he became too tired to drive any further (they made him do two 10 hour breaks back-to-back in order to flip-flop his schedule.) The night dispatchers gave him a HELL of a chewing out over the phone, trying to get him to keep on rolling, even though he told them several times that he was too tired to drive safely any further. Since he had recorded the conversation, it made its way on to national TV.