Bananarunner
Manteca,#2UPDATE Employee
Tue, February 26, 2008
I started training with CR England in November, 2005 at their Mira Loma, CA training center. Paid their administration fee (which is the cheapest in the industry) which is NOT refundable by any trucking school in the USA, took physical and started training class on first day. On the 4th day of classroom training we were informed that we would be having an Integrity Interview with an ex-FBI agent later that day. I had taken many psychology courses in both the military and in college.....so I was very aware of how these types of interviews are conducted. All the interviewer said to the class before the interviews began was "just answer the questions honestly and you will have nothing to worry about". Out of our class of about 50 students, only 1 person was deemed unacceptable because he was caught in a lie about his drug usage in the past. Now mind you.....most of us had a past which included drug or excessive alcohol usage. I just answered all of his questions honestly and had no problems. As for CR England's interest in a person's drinking habits, it is much more than their religious doctrine that motivates their interest. It is motivated by accident rates, insurance costs and the Federal DOT's requirement that a truck driver's BAC always be 0.00% when on duty. CR England's policy is that a driver can not come on duty until 24 hours has passed after consumption of alcoholic beverages, very reasonable considering the risks associated with working or driving while intoxicated. I completed CR England's entire training, including the Over The Road and CAT portions and began working as a solo company driver in February, 2006. I was given a 3 year old truck and assigned to a nation-wide fleet for 3 months, Driver Manager (DM) was fair and did all he could to help me. In those 3 months, I did have 1 late load that was my fault.....misread appointment time on Load Assignment sent over QualComm....resulted in no disciplinary action against me but DM wanted me to make sure it didn't happen again.....fair enough! The starting pay was low.....0.25/mile but I was a beginner. After 3 months I asked for and was transferred to their Western Regional Fleet (11 western states only), kept same truck, pay was raised to 0.29/mile. In June, 2006 was assigned a brand new Freightliner Century with only 24 miles on her. My new DM was absolutely great! Of course, I made some dumb rookie mistakes in that time.....log errors, 1 overweight ticket, and 1 small fender bender in truck stop, but no late loads. (Most log errors occurred while trying to utilize the split-sleeper berth provision). I worked hard with the log department to correct my errors and always weighed every load over 20,000 lbs after that. The only disciplinary action that was administered during my time in this fleet was connected to the fender bender that occurred in August, 2006. I was required to go to the Salt Lake City, UT terminal to receive retraining which consisted of attending 1 live safety meeting, attending 1 advanced defensive driving class and demonstrating safe driving skills with a driver trainer. I was also placed on 1 year probation (a bit excessive I thought at the time.....3 or 6 moths seemed more appropriate). I also did have to report to Salt Lake City, UT one time for a random drug test.....wasn't a problem. In February, 2007 I requested a transfer to a dedicated fleet that runs from Oxnard, CA to Salt lake City, UT or to Portland, OR and back. After talking with the fleet's DM and Safety Manager, I was accepted (even though I still had 6 months remaining on my 12 month safety probation) and received a raise to 0.36/mile. The DM was good although she was pregnant and could be moody at times! After 2 months, my fleet was assigned to a new DM who did not have a lot of experience. He is doing a great job! We have a great working relationship.....he does all he can for me and I do the same for him! In 2007, I made $43,0000.....not bad for a so-called "bad company". This year I am averaging 2,900 miles/week and will make the promised $50,000 after only 2 years. I have always been payed any expense reimbursements, training pay, detention pay, layover pay, load/unload pay, vacation pay, short-haul bonus pay, etc. that I had earned or had coming! Also, CR England has proven to me that they really are serious about safety issues more than the almighty $. They go out of their way to help anyone who is willing to ask for help. I have company-paid life and medical/dental insurance, company co-paid vision and accidental death insurance, and employee paid legal services. I also a have company matched 401(k) retirement plan. 2 months ago, I put my resume out on a few truck driver employment sites and received 72 responses from trucking companies, ranging from large nation-wide carriers to small local operations.....wanting to hire me. I declined all the offers as none were able to match what I am making now with CR England. Some paid more but could not give me as many miles/week.....some could give me more miles/week but paid less per mile.....none were able to offer me a comparable benefits package for the same costs to me! During my employment at CR England, I have always been treated with respect. I have never witnessed any special treatment given to any employee or trainee by any staff member. I have never witnessed any bigotry or racism displayed by any staff member either. In closing, I wish to extend my best wishes to anyone who believes they either got the shaft from or were just treated unfairly by this company. I do recommend that any beginner stay away from any "lease program", no matter what company is offering it. Life is what you make it and everyone gets what they earn.....even if they are unwilling or unable to see it.
Bananarunner
Manteca,#3UPDATE Employee
Tue, February 26, 2008
I started training with CR England in November, 2005 at their Mira Loma, CA training center. Paid their administration fee (which is the cheapest in the industry) which is NOT refundable by any trucking school in the USA, took physical and started training class on first day. On the 4th day of classroom training we were informed that we would be having an Integrity Interview with an ex-FBI agent later that day. I had taken many psychology courses in both the military and in college.....so I was very aware of how these types of interviews are conducted. All the interviewer said to the class before the interviews began was "just answer the questions honestly and you will have nothing to worry about". Out of our class of about 50 students, only 1 person was deemed unacceptable because he was caught in a lie about his drug usage in the past. Now mind you.....most of us had a past which included drug or excessive alcohol usage. I just answered all of his questions honestly and had no problems. As for CR England's interest in a person's drinking habits, it is much more than their religious doctrine that motivates their interest. It is motivated by accident rates, insurance costs and the Federal DOT's requirement that a truck driver's BAC always be 0.00% when on duty. CR England's policy is that a driver can not come on duty until 24 hours has passed after consumption of alcoholic beverages, very reasonable considering the risks associated with working or driving while intoxicated. I completed CR England's entire training, including the Over The Road and CAT portions and began working as a solo company driver in February, 2006. I was given a 3 year old truck and assigned to a nation-wide fleet for 3 months, Driver Manager (DM) was fair and did all he could to help me. In those 3 months, I did have 1 late load that was my fault.....misread appointment time on Load Assignment sent over QualComm....resulted in no disciplinary action against me but DM wanted me to make sure it didn't happen again.....fair enough! The starting pay was low.....0.25/mile but I was a beginner. After 3 months I asked for and was transferred to their Western Regional Fleet (11 western states only), kept same truck, pay was raised to 0.29/mile. In June, 2006 was assigned a brand new Freightliner Century with only 24 miles on her. My new DM was absolutely great! Of course, I made some dumb rookie mistakes in that time.....log errors, 1 overweight ticket, and 1 small fender bender in truck stop, but no late loads. (Most log errors occurred while trying to utilize the split-sleeper berth provision). I worked hard with the log department to correct my errors and always weighed every load over 20,000 lbs after that. The only disciplinary action that was administered during my time in this fleet was connected to the fender bender that occurred in August, 2006. I was required to go to the Salt Lake City, UT terminal to receive retraining which consisted of attending 1 live safety meeting, attending 1 advanced defensive driving class and demonstrating safe driving skills with a driver trainer. I was also placed on 1 year probation (a bit excessive I thought at the time.....3 or 6 moths seemed more appropriate). I also did have to report to Salt Lake City, UT one time for a random drug test.....wasn't a problem. In February, 2007 I requested a transfer to a dedicated fleet that runs from Oxnard, CA to Salt lake City, UT or to Portland, OR and back. After talking with the fleet's DM and Safety Manager, I was accepted (even though I still had 6 months remaining on my 12 month safety probation) and received a raise to 0.36/mile. The DM was good although she was pregnant and could be moody at times! After 2 months, my fleet was assigned to a new DM who did not have a lot of experience. He is doing a great job! We have a great working relationship.....he does all he can for me and I do the same for him! In 2007, I made $43,0000.....not bad for a so-called "bad company". This year I am averaging 2,900 miles/week and will make the promised $50,000 after only 2 years. I have always been payed any expense reimbursements, training pay, detention pay, layover pay, load/unload pay, vacation pay, short-haul bonus pay, etc. that I had earned or had coming! Also, CR England has proven to me that they really are serious about safety issues more than the almighty $. They go out of their way to help anyone who is willing to ask for help. I have company-paid life and medical/dental insurance, company co-paid vision and accidental death insurance, and employee paid legal services. I also a have company matched 401(k) retirement plan. 2 months ago, I put my resume out on a few truck driver employment sites and received 72 responses from trucking companies, ranging from large nation-wide carriers to small local operations.....wanting to hire me. I declined all the offers as none were able to match what I am making now with CR England. Some paid more but could not give me as many miles/week.....some could give me more miles/week but paid less per mile.....none were able to offer me a comparable benefits package for the same costs to me! During my employment at CR England, I have always been treated with respect. I have never witnessed any special treatment given to any employee or trainee by any staff member. I have never witnessed any bigotry or racism displayed by any staff member either. In closing, I wish to extend my best wishes to anyone who believes they either got the shaft from or were just treated unfairly by this company. I do recommend that any beginner stay away from any "lease program", no matter what company is offering it. Life is what you make it and everyone gets what they earn.....even if they are unwilling or unable to see it.
Bananarunner
Manteca,#4UPDATE Employee
Tue, February 26, 2008
I started training with CR England in November, 2005 at their Mira Loma, CA training center. Paid their administration fee (which is the cheapest in the industry) which is NOT refundable by any trucking school in the USA, took physical and started training class on first day. On the 4th day of classroom training we were informed that we would be having an Integrity Interview with an ex-FBI agent later that day. I had taken many psychology courses in both the military and in college.....so I was very aware of how these types of interviews are conducted. All the interviewer said to the class before the interviews began was "just answer the questions honestly and you will have nothing to worry about". Out of our class of about 50 students, only 1 person was deemed unacceptable because he was caught in a lie about his drug usage in the past. Now mind you.....most of us had a past which included drug or excessive alcohol usage. I just answered all of his questions honestly and had no problems. As for CR England's interest in a person's drinking habits, it is much more than their religious doctrine that motivates their interest. It is motivated by accident rates, insurance costs and the Federal DOT's requirement that a truck driver's BAC always be 0.00% when on duty. CR England's policy is that a driver can not come on duty until 24 hours has passed after consumption of alcoholic beverages, very reasonable considering the risks associated with working or driving while intoxicated. I completed CR England's entire training, including the Over The Road and CAT portions and began working as a solo company driver in February, 2006. I was given a 3 year old truck and assigned to a nation-wide fleet for 3 months, Driver Manager (DM) was fair and did all he could to help me. In those 3 months, I did have 1 late load that was my fault.....misread appointment time on Load Assignment sent over QualComm....resulted in no disciplinary action against me but DM wanted me to make sure it didn't happen again.....fair enough! The starting pay was low.....0.25/mile but I was a beginner. After 3 months I asked for and was transferred to their Western Regional Fleet (11 western states only), kept same truck, pay was raised to 0.29/mile. In June, 2006 was assigned a brand new Freightliner Century with only 24 miles on her. My new DM was absolutely great! Of course, I made some dumb rookie mistakes in that time.....log errors, 1 overweight ticket, and 1 small fender bender in truck stop, but no late loads. (Most log errors occurred while trying to utilize the split-sleeper berth provision). I worked hard with the log department to correct my errors and always weighed every load over 20,000 lbs after that. The only disciplinary action that was administered during my time in this fleet was connected to the fender bender that occurred in August, 2006. I was required to go to the Salt Lake City, UT terminal to receive retraining which consisted of attending 1 live safety meeting, attending 1 advanced defensive driving class and demonstrating safe driving skills with a driver trainer. I was also placed on 1 year probation (a bit excessive I thought at the time.....3 or 6 moths seemed more appropriate). I also did have to report to Salt Lake City, UT one time for a random drug test.....wasn't a problem. In February, 2007 I requested a transfer to a dedicated fleet that runs from Oxnard, CA to Salt lake City, UT or to Portland, OR and back. After talking with the fleet's DM and Safety Manager, I was accepted (even though I still had 6 months remaining on my 12 month safety probation) and received a raise to 0.36/mile. The DM was good although she was pregnant and could be moody at times! After 2 months, my fleet was assigned to a new DM who did not have a lot of experience. He is doing a great job! We have a great working relationship.....he does all he can for me and I do the same for him! In 2007, I made $43,0000.....not bad for a so-called "bad company". This year I am averaging 2,900 miles/week and will make the promised $50,000 after only 2 years. I have always been payed any expense reimbursements, training pay, detention pay, layover pay, load/unload pay, vacation pay, short-haul bonus pay, etc. that I had earned or had coming! Also, CR England has proven to me that they really are serious about safety issues more than the almighty $. They go out of their way to help anyone who is willing to ask for help. I have company-paid life and medical/dental insurance, company co-paid vision and accidental death insurance, and employee paid legal services. I also a have company matched 401(k) retirement plan. 2 months ago, I put my resume out on a few truck driver employment sites and received 72 responses from trucking companies, ranging from large nation-wide carriers to small local operations.....wanting to hire me. I declined all the offers as none were able to match what I am making now with CR England. Some paid more but could not give me as many miles/week.....some could give me more miles/week but paid less per mile.....none were able to offer me a comparable benefits package for the same costs to me! During my employment at CR England, I have always been treated with respect. I have never witnessed any special treatment given to any employee or trainee by any staff member. I have never witnessed any bigotry or racism displayed by any staff member either. In closing, I wish to extend my best wishes to anyone who believes they either got the shaft from or were just treated unfairly by this company. I do recommend that any beginner stay away from any "lease program", no matter what company is offering it. Life is what you make it and everyone gets what they earn.....even if they are unwilling or unable to see it.
Bananarunner
Manteca,#5UPDATE Employee
Tue, February 26, 2008
I started training with CR England in November, 2005 at their Mira Loma, CA training center. Paid their administration fee (which is the cheapest in the industry) which is NOT refundable by any trucking school in the USA, took physical and started training class on first day. On the 4th day of classroom training we were informed that we would be having an Integrity Interview with an ex-FBI agent later that day. I had taken many psychology courses in both the military and in college.....so I was very aware of how these types of interviews are conducted. All the interviewer said to the class before the interviews began was "just answer the questions honestly and you will have nothing to worry about". Out of our class of about 50 students, only 1 person was deemed unacceptable because he was caught in a lie about his drug usage in the past. Now mind you.....most of us had a past which included drug or excessive alcohol usage. I just answered all of his questions honestly and had no problems. As for CR England's interest in a person's drinking habits, it is much more than their religious doctrine that motivates their interest. It is motivated by accident rates, insurance costs and the Federal DOT's requirement that a truck driver's BAC always be 0.00% when on duty. CR England's policy is that a driver can not come on duty until 24 hours has passed after consumption of alcoholic beverages, very reasonable considering the risks associated with working or driving while intoxicated. I completed CR England's entire training, including the Over The Road and CAT portions and began working as a solo company driver in February, 2006. I was given a 3 year old truck and assigned to a nation-wide fleet for 3 months, Driver Manager (DM) was fair and did all he could to help me. In those 3 months, I did have 1 late load that was my fault.....misread appointment time on Load Assignment sent over QualComm....resulted in no disciplinary action against me but DM wanted me to make sure it didn't happen again.....fair enough! The starting pay was low.....0.25/mile but I was a beginner. After 3 months I asked for and was transferred to their Western Regional Fleet (11 western states only), kept same truck, pay was raised to 0.29/mile. In June, 2006 was assigned a brand new Freightliner Century with only 24 miles on her. My new DM was absolutely great! Of course, I made some dumb rookie mistakes in that time.....log errors, 1 overweight ticket, and 1 small fender bender in truck stop, but no late loads. (Most log errors occurred while trying to utilize the split-sleeper berth provision). I worked hard with the log department to correct my errors and always weighed every load over 20,000 lbs after that. The only disciplinary action that was administered during my time in this fleet was connected to the fender bender that occurred in August, 2006. I was required to go to the Salt Lake City, UT terminal to receive retraining which consisted of attending 1 live safety meeting, attending 1 advanced defensive driving class and demonstrating safe driving skills with a driver trainer. I was also placed on 1 year probation (a bit excessive I thought at the time.....3 or 6 moths seemed more appropriate). I also did have to report to Salt Lake City, UT one time for a random drug test.....wasn't a problem. In February, 2007 I requested a transfer to a dedicated fleet that runs from Oxnard, CA to Salt lake City, UT or to Portland, OR and back. After talking with the fleet's DM and Safety Manager, I was accepted (even though I still had 6 months remaining on my 12 month safety probation) and received a raise to 0.36/mile. The DM was good although she was pregnant and could be moody at times! After 2 months, my fleet was assigned to a new DM who did not have a lot of experience. He is doing a great job! We have a great working relationship.....he does all he can for me and I do the same for him! In 2007, I made $43,0000.....not bad for a so-called "bad company". This year I am averaging 2,900 miles/week and will make the promised $50,000 after only 2 years. I have always been payed any expense reimbursements, training pay, detention pay, layover pay, load/unload pay, vacation pay, short-haul bonus pay, etc. that I had earned or had coming! Also, CR England has proven to me that they really are serious about safety issues more than the almighty $. They go out of their way to help anyone who is willing to ask for help. I have company-paid life and medical/dental insurance, company co-paid vision and accidental death insurance, and employee paid legal services. I also a have company matched 401(k) retirement plan. 2 months ago, I put my resume out on a few truck driver employment sites and received 72 responses from trucking companies, ranging from large nation-wide carriers to small local operations.....wanting to hire me. I declined all the offers as none were able to match what I am making now with CR England. Some paid more but could not give me as many miles/week.....some could give me more miles/week but paid less per mile.....none were able to offer me a comparable benefits package for the same costs to me! During my employment at CR England, I have always been treated with respect. I have never witnessed any special treatment given to any employee or trainee by any staff member. I have never witnessed any bigotry or racism displayed by any staff member either. In closing, I wish to extend my best wishes to anyone who believes they either got the shaft from or were just treated unfairly by this company. I do recommend that any beginner stay away from any "lease program", no matter what company is offering it. Life is what you make it and everyone gets what they earn.....even if they are unwilling or unable to see it.
Deborah
Grand Junction,#6UPDATE EX-employee responds
Thu, October 25, 2007
I worked for CRE from 1995 to mid 1997. I too went through this particular form of "interview," with a guy who at the time claimed to be ex-FBI. As part of my partial medical training at the time, I had already taken or attended several psychology course and seminars. I saw this guy coming a mile off, and was not intimidated the way he wanted me to be, though I played it up for him. CRE also uses personality tests, administered and graded by lay persons, for promotions to trainer, at least they did when I was their. The intent is the same, to intimidate. It worked in the case of you and your spouse, and quite well from what you state in your post. What the intent of the interview is, is to reveal things you would not ordinarily admit to, such as habitual drinking or drug usage, activities constituting breach of trust (adultery, petty theft, lying, etc.), and other such things that violate their moral code, which is based upon religious doctrine. In your case, they had a problem with the alcohol consumption, which is against Mormon teachings to begin with. Both of you admitted to either habitual or binge drinking without realizing it, by their standards (and those of quite a few others). You were likely considered borderline, and they had no intention of allowing you to stay after refusing to hire your husband. They just offered you the choice to see if you would betray him, and thereby prove yourself untrustworthy. They do love to play their games, which is why I eventually quit after 19 months. As for the "administration fee," that's a new one on me. Their web site describes it as non-refundable. It cost them more than that to get you to SLC, so they obviously aren't collecting it for profit. However, since the monies collected were technically an application fee for their school, and you never attended because of the "interview," you might want to check with your state's or Utah's employment development department or department of education to see if such fees under the circumstances must be refunded. Just a hint, I have never heard of any other training company doing what CRE did. There are plenty of companies willing to put you through school on their dime in exchange for a promise to work for them for a minimum amount of time, usually a year. You can also put yourself through driving school on your own through student loans, grants, or monies from your state employment agency. Never EVER attend any school for any classes whatsoever that want to charge you an administrative fee that is non-refundable if you or the school decides later against attending, regardless of what the industry is.