My Experience so far at CRST. Started June 6th of 2012 as a student/trainee

Ok you all, this will be long winded, and lots to read. This is just my personal experience, I can only give you what happened to ME. Here it goes. Fair warning, I dont care about grammar, comma's or any of that crap. If the way I write this, tweaks your nipples, SHOVE IT!

I called recruiting in April of 2012, and spoke to John H with CRST. If you call CRST recruiting, ask for John, he was very upfront, honest, and left nothing to question, and everything he said would happen, DID, he was honest enough that I actually sent a letter to his boss. Then John sent me an email about CRST and what they offer. I read it, and decided to try it. Called John back and we made arrangements for me to go to Cedar Rapids in May. They WILL provide transportation to a terminal, which you have to pay them back for when your hired. So I get on the bus here locally, and embark on the journey towards Cedar Rapids Iowa. I can safely say this: I will NEVER get on another greyhound bus EVER again. That was the most MISERABLE 2 days of my entire life! Anyway, continuing on with the story. I get to Cedar Rapids Iowa and discover their Jail that they call a training center, what a joke that place was, I was sick the first day I got there. Your paying $150 a week for a BED, nothing else. If you can afford it, stay at the motel down the street, at least there you will have tv, and not be sick instantly. Anyway, I go to the "school" for my refresher course. What a nightmare that was. 12 hours a day, 11 of which are spent sitting in a room, trying not to fall asleep. The other hour is spent with a "instructor". I had my CDL prior to embarking on this "adventure", why the hell was I (and all the other CDL holders) forced to sit in jail for 11 hours a day? Whatever, I got through it. So I complete the "refresher course" and go to Orientation. Orientation starts on Monday and ends Thursday afternoon. During orientation, you stay at the LOVELY *gag* HoJo (Howard Johnson) hotel, good god that place is horrid, it stinks, its filthy, its nasty. The 3rd day of Orientation, is D-Day, either your hired or sent home. During orientation, if the girls in the back of the room call your name, dont panic, they either need more information or something is messed up. They called my name and I forgot to sign a tax paper, I had to wear my dummy badge the rest of the day. So Thursday I get my ID badge, and everything, and get my trainers info. They say "congrats, welcome aboard" and send us out to our next adventure. Oh, after orientation, you stay at the Red Roof Inn, much nicer.


I get my trainers information and call him, to introduce myself, I wake him up, he was in Seattle when I called him, and it was 6am there...OOPS. He said "Well, I've got good news and bad news, which do you want first" I was like...great, this is a nice way to start. He told me, "good news is I'll be in Cedar Rapids in a few days, bad news is, we're not going anywhere till I get a new truck, this truck I have now is a peice of ####, and i'm not taking another student till I get a new truck, period". I said wonderful, just wonderful. Anyway, he gets to Cedar Rapids a few days later and demands a new truck. His dispatcher was an #######, and gave him a hard time, so he called Operations...needless to say, he got a new truck the next day. I have to say this, if you get Tyler as a dispatcher, I feel sorry for you. I told him if I ever saw him I was going to rip his head off and #### in his neck and staple his head back on. But thats another story. I personally know of 14 people who have quit CRST because of Tyler, NOBODY likes him. But CRST swears Tyler is the best dispatcher they have. I'll get into this later. I go out for my 28 days/12,000 miles worth of training, after the first day on my trainers truck, he said "you know how to drive, wake me up when you need me". I said I know I do, I was forced to do the refresher course and training. Anyway, training went smooth, I completed it, and my trainer dropped me off in OKC, for my road test. The truck they do the road tests in...should have been retired YEARS ago, good lord that truck is a peice of ####. Clutch? LOL keep dreaming. Gears? Yeah right. Operable seat? Nice try. I dumped the "clutch" before even leaving the yard. I stopped and cussed the truck out, the safety guy (tester), said "dont worry about that, this truck is a peice of ####, I'm just concerned whether you can drive and backup or not", well I said, how am I supposed to properly drive a truck that has no clutch? I mean, I can float, but you wont pass me if I do that, so you tell me what I am supposed to do. He said double clutch the best you can with the situation, I was like great, this will be fun. Anyway, I passed. So I get my co driver, she's from Atlanta Georgia, and I'm from South Florida, I'm thinking, how the hell will this work. They have me drop her off in Atlanta at the drop yard, and relay onto a load to Miami. I get home, and my co driver quits. Now I have to get a co driver before they give you a load. I told them, you have till Friday at 5pm to get me rolling again or I quit and you can send someone to pick up the truck. 30 minutes later I get a load. Pick up my new co driver in Cedar Rapids, and this guy cant drive worth a ####, what a nightmare that was. Demand a new codriver, so they send us to Oklahoma City so one of us can get off the truck. Well he gets off so now I am trying to find another co driver. I was in the process of putting a note on the bulliten board in the lobby of the terminal, saying I was looking for a co driver from South Florida, when my phone rang, it was my dispatcher, he said "Your not going to believe this, but I have a guy standing at my desk right now, from your hometown, do you want to speak with him" I said sure, lets see what happens, so we talked and decided to give it a shot. They sent him to meet me in Oklahoma City, and we drove team for 3 months. Things went EXCELLENT till when we returned from hometime, he couldnt pass a drug test and got fired. Then came along my current co driver, fresh out of school, no real experience to speak of. We get along, he can drive his hours, he can drive, he doesnt scare me, he doesnt make me nervous, its great!

I am currently on hometime right now, and supposed to go back OTR tomorrow. My contract ends Feb 6th and I am looking forward to moving on to bigger and better things.

In all honesty, I really have nothing THAT bad to say about CRST. I have gotten the miles, I have been home when I requested. Dispatchers have been AWESOME with the exception of Tyler. I had Austin as my first dispatcher, and now I have Danny as my current dispatcher, both are GREAT!

My advice to someone thinking about going to CRST: Dont listen to everyone on here, if I had done that, I wouldnt have done what I did. Sometimes you have to grab the bull by the horns and take a risk. This risk worked out very well.

I would stay with CRST, I actually enjoy it, I like it. I just cant handle the team driving, I'm ready to go solo.

Thanks for reading, I hope this helps you, if you have any questions, feel free to pm me on here.

Thanks, Justin.

 

Lmao, I knew someone would say that. How did I know that. Oh yeah I'm a recruiter, oh yeahhhhh...call me at 1-800-getagrip. Not my fault CRST has actually done me SOMEWHAT right versus all the other crybabies on here.

 

I just quit today