My wife and I are finally going to training for C. R. England

IROCUBabe · Jan 11, 2010

I heard pretty much CR is all Lease now, and all they are looking for is teams.

Central Refrigerated seems like a pita to get on, they told me the same over the termination at Werner, without even asking why just saw I was termed and said nope by...

Okay then I guess all Central Refridge peoples must be saints or something, and never got fired, layed off, any tickets, and of course, are willing to work for that paygrade.

cactusjack · Jan 11, 2010

IROCUBabe said: ↑

....

Ah newbies, they come in with the stupid 'we will never fail' attitude, and leave with no house, no cash, and sometimes no spouse.

You say what you want there, but I am a husband wife team, and you are no competition to me. Or any of these drivers. You work for the lowest rung on the chain in terms of loads, pay, and driver treatment. 90 days and you want to act like you know it all, thats whats making these guys rile up.

This forum is littered with dreamers with big mouths, or in this case, big typing skills whom tried to play the long established system and failed. You are not special. You are not different. You may end up out of CRE with less damage to your DAC then most, maybe. But you will still end up with 90 days exp when most companies are looking for 6 months min. Team or not.

Let me put it to you this way, sweetie.

a) If they try to force you into a lease and you refuse, and if by some miracle something happens and they actually let you go company driver, which is not likely but hey lets go and say it happens, the millasecond they have one iota of reason they will fire you. And it doesn't take much to find a reason to fire you, oh no, not at all. Or they will sit you, in a far off from home spot, over and over till you quit. Eitherway, they win.

b) In most cases, no lease, no drive with CRE. So go head, sue. Take them to court. Hope you have a good amount of $ because those cases get dragged out and you bet your ### CRE has plenty of lawyers and far more cash. Hence why I laugh everytime I see someone threaten legal action.

c) This is trucking, this is not lets all hold hands and sugar coat the truth. We are not going to say differently then we feel, most of us here feel you are making a big mistake. Which is now too late to fix. We are simply telling it like it is, and if that bothers you, don't get a CB. Ever.

That said, I hope you do make it out alive and with some property left to your name. Preferably still married. But you started trucking. And there are odds. And odds are you will wash out, for any number of reasons. You increased those odds by choosing a crappy company to start with.

Do you know why there are 100s of students in a class for an industry that lost TENS of THOUSANDS of jobs last year? Because over half, more like 99% will quit within 1 year, most will quit within 60 days. Because they were thickheaded, refused to listen, took everything personally, and didn't do enough research before choosing the LIFESTYLE of trucking.

You have perhaps increased your odds for success by choosing to team. But you have increased your odds for failure by teaming. It's a double edge sword. And it takes a special husband and wife to be able to team for a length of time, not every husband wife team makes it, and many end up separating over the experience. Nothing is quite as taxing teaming, added up with the normal stresses of trucking you've got a firestorm of stress, trapped in a tiny truck with another human being.

Always on time? You going to deliver on time when you have no hours left? When DOT pulls you in and does a through level 1 which takes an hour on a load you had 15 minutes leeway with? When icestorms hit you are going to be driving? You are going to put chains on in terrible weather? Traffic is backed up for miles, because some idiot locked it up with some other idiot and they hit a bridge and there was a fatality? When you are on that same load with 15 minutes leeway and the shipper isn't where the directions say?

You quote cute numbers, 3500 miles a week solo. Yeah. My ###. Maybe one week a month, especially right now. So you are expecting 6-7 k as a team? Again, I laugh at you. I certainly hope you did not plan your checks around that number.

Right now companies have tightened ship in hiring newbies. Its much harder to start, even with a perfect MVR and DAC. Most of the good companies won't even consider you before 6 months of experience. The ones that will treat you like crap, have strict idle policies that they expect you to bake in the heat and freeze in the winter. Whether you are a team or not makes no difference. They want the cream de la cream because they can. Because there are 1000s of drivers looking for the few remaining jobs there are.

You aren't going to win against CRE, you aren't teh first one thats tried you aren't the last one that will try. You aren't going to 'breech of contract' a #### thing. You will either bend over, and take it, or you will find another job, possibly another line of work.

So while I respect your trying, the fact is I hold little hope you will beat the odds with an attitude of 'I know it all'. Thats the attitude that winds up with you in the back of a DOT scale with a ticket you will never work off, in a ditch upside down, or in a lease with a failure of a company. At 22 cents a mile.

Split.
Click to expand...

DANG IT GIRL......LMAO>>>>> you hit it right on the head !!!!!!

Karasu1982 · Jan 18, 2010

Well I have said this many times before, we don't know everything, but I love how you just assume that I do, and assume that I never spend time listening to the old hands. As for all the things you listed, I guess once I get a decent trainer or a company to drive for I'll find out what I'll do in those situations. I suppose I'll learn from those more experienced than me, and I'll learn as I go. I don't know everything about driving a truck or dealing with some of these loads. What I know amounts to less than a bb in a 55 gallon drum. But I love how you assume all these things about me just because I'm new to this job.

Anyway back to Ron who I may be actually able to help. First off they just got rid of the team company drivers they say they are full up. It really ends up the truth being that they don't want any more company drivers. So the shortest lease they offer is 6 months it's called a demo, and you get a used truck.

To be honest I say find another company, but if you've read my recent posts you would find none of these experienced great truckers want to tell a good company. They just want to rip on someone for trying to get into the industry and doing it anyway they can. But that's besides the point is spend some time reading these forums until you find one with more good then bad, then run with it, push hard and don't let anyone keep you from doing it if you love it. No matter what they say or how they say you'll screw up because you're new. Have a good one.

jeepskate99 · Jan 19, 2010

IROCUBabe said: ↑

Okay then I guess all Central Refridge peoples must be saints or something, and never got fired, layed off, any tickets, and of course, are willing to work for that paygrade.
Click to expand...

In this job market, probably. There are enough people sitting and hoping they can keep that CDL current somehow. That paygrade sure is better than no paygrade.

jeepskate99 · Jan 19, 2010

The don't like positive attitudes here. Too many defeated OTR drivers.

RickG · Jan 19, 2010

jeepskate99 said: ↑

The don't like positive attitudes here. Too many defeated OTR drivers.
Click to expand...

You might get a surprise if you ran a poll on defeated experienced drivers vs defeated wannabes . CDL mill graduates aren't drivers . They are still wannabes , many of which soon become don'twannabes .

notarps4me · Jan 19, 2010

Karasu1982 said: ↑

To be honest I say find another company, but if you've read my recent posts you would find none of these experienced great truckers want to tell a good company. .
Click to expand...

Plenty of drivers have named good co's. It is not our fault that wanna bees get so desperate and think they have no options or they are in such a big hurry they follow the flock to the slaughter. You want a good co? Heck; compared to CRE just pick any co. That will be a good co.

Karasu1982 · Jan 19, 2010

tarps: that's actually a good point. Personally CRE isn't gonna run us off my wife keeps saying "it's in my blood I want to drive NOW." I feel the same way, one bad cherry makes the whole bowl smell like #### and CRE is one of the bad cherries in the bowl. We just want to take the CDL this mill gave us and go somewhere that will show us how to use it with out killing ourselves or someone else on the road. It'll fall into place for us because we won't give up.

Thanks for the laugh though

DKalista · Jan 19, 2010

We've been with England for 3 years and can honestly say they have treated us well. I have had awsome DM's and no communication problems. You are correct in stating that any company is what YOU make of it. I went into it after hearing all of the same "opinions" and really thinking I made the wrong choice. Glad I stuck with it. I am on a 6000 mile dedicated as a trainer and get home evry week for a day and a half and "was" making incredible money. Latley things have changed with in England and not for the better, but it is happening with companies everywhere. I am moving on to John Christner next month since that was what I planned on doing anyway after I did my year with England. I chose to stay on with them(England) because I was treated so well. Don't give up. It's tough times right now everywhere. England has seen bad times before and has always pulled out of it. You will be rewarded for your persistance and devotion I am sure of it. God Bless and good luck

jeepskate99 · Jan 19, 2010

RickG said: ↑

You might get a surprise if you ran a poll on defeated experienced drivers vs defeated wannabes . CDL mill graduates aren't drivers . They are still wannabes , many of which soon become don'twannabes .
Click to expand...

We all know that's true. We have all seen that most OTR drivers, the ones that are out there still, make compromises and as mentioned on this site need to change things but won't stand together to do it. That, IMHO, makes them defeated. They are taken advantage of and can't do anything about it.

Log in or Sign up

Forums

Find Trucking Jobs

My wife and I are finally going to training for C. R. England

IROCUBabe Road Train Member

Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

Wait, employers can't reach you!

cactusjack Medium Load Member

Karasu1982 Bobtail Member

jeepskate99 Road Train Member

jeepskate99 Road Train Member

RickG Road Train Member

notarps4me Road Train Member

Karasu1982 Bobtail Member

DKalista Bobtail Member

jeepskate99 Road Train Member

Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

Wait, employers can't reach you!

Log in or Sign up

Useful Searches

Find Trucking Jobs

My wife and I are finally going to training for C. R. England

IROCUBabe Road Train Member

Wait, employers can't reach you!

cactusjack Medium Load Member

Karasu1982 Bobtail Member

jeepskate99 Road Train Member

jeepskate99 Road Train Member

RickG Road Train Member

notarps4me Road Train Member

Karasu1982 Bobtail Member

DKalista Bobtail Member

jeepskate99 Road Train Member

Wait, employers can't reach you!