Just sharing my story

Hawkeye is not a CRST school, but a community college that CRST has contracted too and uses to send overflow from Kirkwood in Cedar Rapids. I went there and I am inn my 6 month of my contract with them. Hawkeye is not a bad school, but you get out of it what you put into it. When my co driver and I were there, there were a couple of people who would sit around and whine, but most of us worked hard. If you wanted that truck time, all you had to do was be proactive and go do it. I had a lot of it. Some of the instructors were better than others, true, but that is the same anywhere. We had a class of 18 started, 9 of us graduated. So, they are not passing everyone who goes through. The school is audited by the state of Iowa, and with every class, 3 of the people from the group who pass at the school, have to go and retest with the DOT.



BTW, CRST redid it's entire safety department last year, and are serious about bringing their CSA score down. And it is slowly going down. As to the number of accidents, they have (I believe) 1200 trucks on the road. That accident rate is not unheard of with that many trucks.

CRST Malone, and STI, are owned by CRST, but are independent from Expedited Van, which does the training. Both those companies are either lease operators or owner operators, and none of them student drivers. STI, does not hire anyone without 2 years experience.

 

And BTW, CRST has done absolutely everything that they said in the orientation package. All you have to do to find what your charged for the lodging etc, is all in there, along with their rate of pay for contract drivers. The pay is not great, but I am in 6 months, have the raise to 31 cents a mile, with 2 months left on my contract. I have the same co driver I started with, and we get out and help each other when backing, at shippers, or in any tight spot. The thing about CRST, is if you are willing to learn and work hard, you can do all right there. You get your school paid for, and once your contract is up, you can move on. Yeah, you can get fired at anytime, and with their working on their CSA score, they fire people for speeding. 11 miles over the posted speed limit is an automatic termination. 6 to 10 in the right situation, like in a town or construction zone will also get you fired. We lose a lot of drivers in California.

CRST was the only company that sponsored a school, that would take me out of South Florida. I could have gone to a private school where I lived, if I had 6 grand to drop. I have no regrets about coming here. Once my contract is up, I am going to put out resumes, but if the offer is not right, I will stay here for a year at least, when I can be considered for more companies. There are a lot of people who do complete their contracts safely, that CRST offers better positions to, with better pay. They have a growing reefer fleet, that does not have students, and also quite a few dedicated runs, with some big companies.


My intention is to eventually go solo. My co driver is a good guy, but I dont want to live with him forever.

 

We have established ourselves as a number 1 rated team. We did 6000 last week. We're sitting tonight and probably tomorrow, but it is labor day and a lot of the shippers we haul are closed. Most of what we haul is airfreight. We established ourselves as a number 1 team by being on time with few issues. Yeah, a good FM is part of the mix, but, if you have a bad one, you can ask to change. Ours is good and takes care of us. The few problems we have had with CRST, he has gone to bat for us and got those problems fixed. Heh, there are a lot of guys out here working too who are running hard for this company. I talk to them all the time when I am at the terminals. Known several who have more than 10 years here. There is a high turn over rate at CRST, but that is true of all companies. Out of the 9 of my class that were hired, there are 3 of us still driving. Considering I was looking at a cost of 6 grand for a private school, this is not bad at all. My trainer had been with CRST for 4 years, and my co drivers trainer has been here for 11 years. You guys talk a lot of crap, but the bottom line is, there are a bunch of people making it at CRST, who dont have time to come in here and complain. I know the only reason I have time to be here is because its a holiday, and we have been running for 12 days straight and it's time for a break. See ya down the road.

 

I lost my car after going to work for CRST, but I was behind coming in, so they have nothing to do with that. BTW, the audit at Hawkeye is ALWAYS 3 people. I was there, was one of the ones who tested with the DOT and passed.

I dont know what your situation is, but....... like I said, I am happy for the opportunity. If you are failing, you might try and look at your part in the failing. I know not everything is in your control. My co driver, I met on the bus going to Iowa, and we are both the same age, (50s). We both have long work histories at high skill jobs, and mine in particular was a lot more difficult and dangerous than truck driving. I have owned businesses and both failed and succeeded at them. Raised a family, etc. I have a lot of life skills, and did not expect miracles. What I have found is a place where I can start a second career and get a leg up in a new career. If I fail here, it will be my fault. I would suggest start trying to get a new FM, and try a bit harder.


I know one thing, there is nothing in that paper work where CRST tells you what they will do that says they will coddle you.

 

Some people simply have no empathy and blame everything on the driver when there is a problem. This mentality often originates from a company mindset and sometimes perpetuates among those who have yet to experience a problem of which they have no control. Those same drivers who claim everything is -your- fault are the first to slam the company but usually only after they experience their first problem with the company.

 

all you can do is practice backing when possible, the mentor I had started with Crst and he said he didnt learn crap with them then went to Swift after 3 months and had to go out with a mentor again and he said he learned more in that month then the 3 months combined at crst, he has been with Swift now for 8 years, he is an o/o and quite successful. He is also an outstanding trainer, every company has good and bad mentors but the companies need to do more to weed out those bad ones. I see a lot of new drivers out there who struggle and say they didnt learn enough during training. When in training my mentor made me do backings every single day, with Swift we were required 40 backings of all types so a few blind side, some night or day, some straight, angel etc. He made me do at least double the requirement since he wanted me to get comfortable with it.

Am I comfortable backing after several months on the road? Sometimes, I have gotten much better at it but I still worry and stay very cautious at times. I always GOAL when there is a doubt, I choose the easiest possible backings when I can and I have avoided backing accidents. We all start at the beginning, those drivers who make rude comments because a newer guy is taking more time seem to forget where they began. I have even seen drivers who have driven for a long time struggle at backing...also seen those who are stubborn and think they are too good to get out and look. Watched an older o/o backing tonight who came within an inch of a trailer but he never bothered to get out and kept using a lot of pull ups, I finally just stopped watching and walked back to my truck .

Best time to practice is when you have a down day, go to the back of a truck stop early in the day when its empty then practice with several spots open, once backed in pull out and drive around to set yourself up again. You mentioned you dont know how to set yourself up, this might help but drive past the spot you want and stop in front of the next spot when your shoulder is in the middle of it, turn right and drive 4 seconds then turn left and drive until you see your trailer in front of the spot you want, get out and check where your at and see if your in line where you want to be, adjust if not and dont be afraid to get out multiple times, crank to the right and start backing towards the spot and once your close to being in line crank to the left and you will still get your trailer going to the left some, if you see if jacknifed too much then crank the wheel to the right and pull forward some, then crank back to the left and continue going backwards. If you get into the spot but find your way too close to one side then do a "snake" menouver, for example your too close on the left then crank to the right and drive forward some then crank to the left which will steer your back end to the right then straighten up and back in again.

Its hard for me to really put it in words but hopefully it helps you some, would be easier if someone could be next to you talking you through it.