Uh oh

It was indeed England.

And just to be clear about this - I dropped the ball as much as anyone. I should have followed up and kept tabs on all of this from the beginning instead of just shrugging it off and waiting almost 2 years. So I'm not trying to bash the company or anything. Just, as I said, venting a little.

After all is said and done, I can't and won't bash England for it. It's what they do and I did enough research before going into it that I knew I could be playing with fire. That being said, I did see some who were quite successful there and I still have 2 friends from the school who drive with them and do very well.

My advice to anyone considering England would be: look around and check your options. If you do decide to go there and are completely new to trucking, take it one step at a time rather than just jumping head-long into a lease. For me, I was a bit overwhelmed just trying to learn the trucking part at first and didn't give the business part of it the attention it needed. I also didn't have the right attitude or outlook. Idling for instance - I took the view that if I was paying for the truck and fuel, nobody was going to tell me when I could idle and I was gonna be comfortable when I was parked - and that meant temp control. It was rare that the truck was turned off - and that's just stupid on my part... and it's just one example (I'm sure if I tried really, really hard, I could compile a list of stupid things I did that cost me more money than was necessary and was my own fault.)