My experience with CR England (and a small bonus company)...

Quick background about 4 years ago life fell completely apart (Divorce, unemployed, broke)...
Got hooked by CR England to got to their Trucking School in Northwest Indiana (from Chicagoland), basically promised everything everybody has read about (this is July 1st 2013).
School was somewhat prison-like, filled with a LOT of Characters, some pretty borderline, others with a college education (including myself), but all of the students were usually pretty nice. Instructors were all over the map, some good, some terrible , like most schools from Evelyn Wood to Harvard. But there was a prison-like feel to the school.
School was designed to JUST get you to "pass" the Indiana CDL test, NOT to teach you to drive. I figured this out about two weeks into it . and it probably should not have taken me that long to figure it out. Your Phase 1/2 is supposed to teach you to drive , and it barely does, IF you get decent instructors. I passed my CDL test 3rd time, barely.
Was out about two months in Phase 1/2, I did have decent instructors. Got along with them and both were nice. Heard plenty of horror stories from other students, and some would have been unbearable for me, so I was fortunate.
After Phase 2, I informed England that I would ONLY take a local Chicagoland job, I DID NOT want to team drive or go over the road. I made this very clear to them. 20 Minutes after that conversation with HR, I got a call from them offering me a local day cab job out of Lake Zurich Illinois (Northwest Chicago Suburb) doing drop and hook for an online grocer....I got VERY lucky to get this job.
I took the offer, the details were this:
$175 a day, NO matter how many hours you worked
You drove from Lake Zurich to either
Downtown Chicago (near the loop)
Downtown Indianapolis
Milwaukee (near the ballpark)
Roundtrip, drop and hook
If you went to Indianapolis it was one trip a day (you could do it in 9+ hours with your break)
Chicago anywhere from 1-3 times a day
Milwaukee 1-2 times a day (sometimes you would do 1 Milwaukee, 1 Chicago)
All of these started at around Midnite to 2 am, so OVERNIGHT shift
The TWO Nice keys with this Job, ONE was at the beginning (first 6 months, this was a Brand New account) work as MANY days in a row as you wanted, so I would work EVERY day. there was a stretch where I worked 45 days in a row, It was $1190 a week Gross, $895 after taxes for me.
The Second being you had MANY times (2-3 times a week) only one load for the day, In other words I would have only one load to either Milwaukee or Downtown Chicago . I got to where I could do a Chicago Load in 2 Hours, or a Milwaukee load in less than 3 hours(this is all in the middle of the night). So yeah, I would get paid $175 for two hours of work.
This was a Nice/Fantastic job for somebody JUST out of school (even though a few of the ######## st the online grocer we were dealing with were complete ########, Chicago and Milwaukee docks were TIGHT also), I would still be doing this today, BUT... England lost the #### account.
All of the drivers were offered the Walmart account (quick background on my fellow driver, skills/experience were all over the place, but all were good guys). Walmart was OUT of Sterling Illinois, and you DID NOT get paid like Walmart drivers, so I was like forget it, you are going to have to get me something local.
So I went to Chicago Intermodal for England...definitely a learning experience, did that for 4 months, railyards are just what you hear, ####ing crazy. Job was driving me nuts at time but my dm's were nice and fellow drivers were for most part good guys.
Old DM gets ahold of me and asks if I want to work Englands McDonalds account out of West Chicago.It sound relatively easy (Drop and Hook from West Chicago to Either Cold Storage Facilities in Minooka or Romeoville). It was "ok" but once Winter it Business Slooooowed down went from about $950 a week gross to $400-$500 (or less) a week at times (would have 3-4 days off in a row ). Only 3 drivers on this account and I was low man on totem. DM felt bad for me and would let me Daycab Walmart account at 0.97 cents a mile (which we got away with, did not tell the other drivers there what I was making they would have freaked), and I also worked a Cardboard company in Michigan for England for 3 weeks (stayed at a hotel for 3 weeks while I was up there , made about $900 a week).
It was at this time I started looking elsewhere, went to work for a LARGE Soda Based delivery company (NOT Coke). I do side load trucks (local deliveries 7-11, small groceries, gas stations restaurants) and express truck (Jewel , Walmart, Meijer etc). The side load delivery tries to killl you, the express is more just drop the pallets off and listen to receivers #####. I make anywhere from $1000 to $1500 a week with this job. The side load deliveries are a hassle for me though. It is a Union job, so benefits are decent (Insurance vacation, overtime every week, pension). Still after 17 months at this not sure about this job either, but will probably stick it out.
I will say that England was a GOOD learning experience, just not sure I would do it again, most of the England drivers I met were competent and nice guys. Some were not, just like most jobs.
I will say that there is a nice big disconnect between Salt Lake, and the drivers out of that regional loop. Also like most LARGE companies, many times the left hand has no clue what the right hand is doing.
Thanks for reading a fairly accruate account of my last 3+ years on the road......