Looking for info about CRST

Hey guys,


Ive searched the forums and haven't seen too much current stuff, although what I have read sounds like what I am going through...

Im mainly looking for all kinds of opinions about CRST. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I obtained my class A back in March.... I had been collecting unemployment since January as well as making decent cash money on the side so I was in no hurry to find full time reportable income. Enter June 2009.. Roehl wont hire me because its been past 60 days since I was a student, werner wont for the same reason, local jobs are really slow currently and they want someone with plenty of experience anyways, bigger companies like JB hunt aren't interested in training, I applied at places like Conway.... I was tearing my hair out, threw resumes on trucking internet websites.


So I felt pretty grateful when CRST was going to give me an opportunity and the recruiter made it all sound like a gravy train. It took about 90 minutes in orientation to realize something isnt adding up.
.22 cents per mile?? For 6 months??? Wow, if I average 2200 miles a week thats $484 gross..... That sounds kind of cheap to me, but I suppose I could deal with that for a few months, the problem is... Freight is WAY WAY down and I dont think even the top company drivers are getting that many miles per week and they havent been for a long while. So I wonder why CRST is dragging in 100 people per week to put through orientation and get out on the road?

And now Ive been out on the road for almost 3 weeks... Ive got some training horror story here, but Ill save that for another time.

Ive dropped 2 loads in 3 weeks at .22 cents per mile. I havent even collected any pay yet and quite frankly I dont want to because I fear Ill puke. I left $600 a week clear, a blossoming relationship, a 9 month old daughter, and an $850.00 a month house payment to go OTR. I came here to earn money to better take care of my family. Im kind of wondering what Im missing here.

I realize and you should too that I still am currently in my first 28 day training period. My current trainer is one of the companies best drivers, he gets the best loads. His dispatcher keeps his downtime to a minimal even when others are sitting for a couple days, etc...

I guess I want someone to confirm for me that Im getting screwed for 6 months, someone to tell me it will get better here, and/or someone to tell me to find another company to run with.

I feel in an awkward position... I feel like Im going to be gone for 6-7 weeks and only bring home about $600-$700 bucks. My wife is going to think Im crazy and spent alot out on the road, my house payment wont get made, my car payment wont get made, maybe Ill make the cellphone/internet bill and cover the utilities... Then in 5 days Ill get to go right back to it on the road. I feel like if I quit, my wife will hate me just as much and Ill feel like I failed. But I just don't see what Im missing, who the hell would go through this for that kind of money? Who the hell can afford to live on that kind of money?

I dont know really, Im just really confused about all this and really frustrated right now.

 

Tough it out for at least year and get the hell away from CRST....give the 2 week notice and all that no matter how bad it is.

Don't feel bad...you're not the first to be suckered by CRST and wont be the last.

 

I will tell you why. Because they are charging boo koo amounts of money for a refresher course. They are getting freight moved cheap and when the driver finally gets fed up they will bill them a big bunch of change for the refresher course the driver bailed on.... marking the high dollar course up even higher.

 

Im not fully sure what you are speaking about, but please let me know.

Im not going through a refresher course(or at least to my knowledge Im not...) Im not under any contract, I paid for my Trucking School myself in my home state.

I am undergoing training, was suppose to be 28 days worth, but my first trainer was a complete LAZY new hire/Lease operator. He sat around picking and choosing loads so as he would get one that would send him near home.... Why they hired this person and allowed him to be a trainer out of the gate is beyond me... After I realized I was trapped in OKC terminal while he was turning down loads left and right, I called dispatch and got myself a new trainer.. That cost me 2 weeks without pay and another 3 days on a bus finding the new trainer.. Then finally my 28 days started ticking away......

Anyhow I got sidetracked, I am going through 28 days worth of training now and Im just overall pissed off about this company only offering .22 cpm. Roehl was offering almost 40k a year to start, well over .30cpm, but they told me to get lost because I graduated from school more than 60 days ago.... My point is that Im not necessarily gaining anything here that I already didnt know, I could understand some kind of probationary period, but this seems extreme so far. Im starting to second guess wanting to start in this industry at all period.

I was under the impression that folks made a good living in this industry. Hell, being away from your loved ones, your home for 4-6 weeks at a time ought to come with some kind of extra compensation, shouldn't it? Or am I just being selfish? ive worked warehouses for 10 years prior to this, case picking and loading/unloading/replenshing for Tyson Foods, supervalu, and a Petsmart DC. Life was always a struggle, but we got by alright, and I got to sleep next to my (ex)wife every night.... I understand the whole industry is slow right now, I was a casualty in early January. Its good to know that as long as I have a CDL class A and some experience under my belt that I will be able to find a job in this industry, but what good is working a job that isnt paying the bills?

 

I have or had their contract around here. When I was an admin on another trucking Site I helped new guys get started. I wanted to know what the contracts were for the ones that supposedly helped drivers get back in. What they paid lead drivers was a joke. The second seat even worse. What I typed is what I meant. They made money getting guys in that needed a refresher. They made money off moving the freight for peanuts. They kept these guys out for months at a time and when they bailed jacked up the price of the already high discounted school. I know of no one that has been happy at CRST.

I have talked to many of their drivers. When I was doing a restart sometime last year I was talking to a team that was being punished. They wanted to go home. Had been out for over a month. This was in OH. They had a load to go back up N/E. They was from the south and wanted to go home. Since they asked to get a load to go south they were told just set where you are for the weekend then we will send you back up north.

One of them walked up to me and was asking flatbed questions as he was going to melton as soon as CRST would get him home.

 

basic idea: SCAM the driver. it's what swift is doing.. You join them and they run you so hard your forced to quit then you owe them $6000 or so pretty easy to figure out!

 

Welcome to crst. As another newbie who just got done with my training, let me tell you a couple of stories. It will get worse! First, dont plan on going home anytime soon. You will find out there are rules they go by, pertaing to your training that are not wrote down anywhere or they wont tell you what they are. Point in fact, when your out training you have to have at least twelve thousand miles, your half of the miles the truck runs. Which they only count the rand mcnally miles on your trip sheet. dead head or practical miles do not count. Or you have to have so many days on the road or a combination of the two, god only knows what that is.
One of my roommates i stayed in touch with ran his but off, with his trainer. They ran well over that secret number, and when it was time to finsh training his trainer came right out and told him. " I am making way to much money to let you go. Either you stay on for another two weeks or i am going to fail your training, and you will have to do it agian with somebody else. So you might as well stay" needless to say when my freind got close to his home stay he bolted. Now he has two do at least another two weeks with another trainer. I just talked to him last night and his new trainer cannot figure why he needed more training like he was told.
Another friend had a good trainer till the end of his time. When he was dumped at a truck stop in kentucky and he lives in michigan. I probably shouldnt give that story out, it might come back to hurt somebody, lets just say it was not good.
I was out six and half weeks, because why trainer was lazy and UP SET the dispatcher. so i got punished. listening to him whine, about money, but he would turn down loads. ( Later i will tell you about my training stories!!!)
Warning---- When your training is done, they are going to drop you at the worst possible spot u can think of, and give you a bus ticket to get home!
Oh, by the way, you have to reimburse the company for the bus ticket! aint that a kick in the head.
So, good luck! So, just Cowboy Up! its not much better anywhere else. Just get your expereince of at least nine months to a year, then get the hell away from them. That is what i am planning on doing. "Its only for the expereince".

 

Wrong....it is better at many other companies.

The thing is, you guys can't quit now...or your DAC and work history wont look so good.

 

Oh well, you live and learn right...........

Got my first payday this morning, been gone since July 5th. ive got a whopping $95.67 to show for it. Unbelieavable. I know my family won't even believe me when I try explaining this to them. I was making considerably more on unemployment and thats without even mentioning the steady $300 a week cash on the side I was pulling in.

Im throwing resumes out there right now too while Im out here. JB hunt has been offering me a position already, but they want me to go through the orientation B.S. all over again and the recruiter wont talk mileage pay until I agree to leave here.

Im available if anyone has a company referall program here's some extra cash in your pocket, just pm me and we can talk. Or if anyone has some good info on decent companies feel free to pm me! Thanks