Stormie
Clarksburg,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sun, August 26, 2007
I must say I have to agree with you on this one, Brent. I, too, attended a CRST sponsored training school and, like you, was required to drive for CRST for a predetermined amount of time. Fortunately, I already had a co-driver that I went into the company with who had 18 years of experience so I didn't have to experience the nightmare that you endured. MY problem with CRST was that for every month that we drove for them, we spent at least a week in a hotel somewhere because of needed repairs on our truck. We were ALWAYS broke down! Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that when you are stuck in a hotel every month for a week at a time, it gets quite expensive having to eat out all the time! We requested several times to be given a newer truck... not a new truck... but a newer truck. Not an unresonable demand in my opinion. No can do according to dispatch. All in all, we ended up leaving before my contract was up. Mainly because the last time that we had problems with the truck was when the air conditioning went out and they made us run for 5 weeks back and forth across I-10 in the end of May! You can imagine the comfort level... or should I say... lack thereof. Now, here is where I may be of some use to you. I knew that I would be required to pay off my loan to the company which they stated was roughly around $3800.00. And yes, they do inflate the price but..... after letting it slide for several months, I was contacted by a collection agency. The collection agency tacked on about $300.00 to the bill to cover their fees. Here's how I got around paying the collection agency fees. When I was ready to pay the bill (which, consequently, was a neccessity because I couldn't get hired elsewhere until I resolved my contract with CRST) I called CRST directly and told them I was ready to send the check but I asked them to give me the total amount of what I owed "just so I could compare it with my records". They quoted me the original price.... minus the $300.00 that the collection agency tacked on to it. So I sent them the check for the $3800.00 and that was the end of it. I asked CRST when I had them on the phone if that would be all I would have to pay and their response was "yes". That was in December of 2006 and I haven't received anymore correspondence from the collection agency whatsoever. This probably won't help you with the inflation cost that CRST put on the bill but you will be able to get out of paying the collection agency fees. I hope that I have been of some help to you. I wish you well on your next adventure in whatever it is that you decide to do. Hopefully it won't be in the trucking industry because from my experience, all companies are the same. There are no laws protecting drivers' rights in this business and you have absolutely no recourse. They can do whatever they please to you and get away with it. My advice to you is if you are planning to get out of trucking... run, don't walk! Have a good one.