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My experience at the CR England CDL School was like something right out of the “Grapes of Wrath” movie. Times are hard; and all of the people I met at the school (from all over the country) were clearly desperate. CR England is a big corrupt company with an operation in a small probably corrupted Texas town, exploiting the poorest and most desperate people; people who are just looking for honest work.
A few years back I was injured in an auto accident and was limited on my ability to walk. I thought that perhaps I could still drive for a living so I went to school at my local community college and got my CDL. However, I soon found that driving jobs are very hard to get into. After reviewing CR England’s professional looking web site, I applied for a job with their company. The web site said that you had the option of being a truck leasing operator or a second seat driver. Because I knew I needed some over the road experience and I applied to be a second seat driver. Soon after submitting my application a recruiter named Tony left a message on my voice mail saying my application had been approved and cheerfully said “WELCOME TO CR ENGLAND MY FRIEND”. When I called him back, he said that I just needed to come to Texas and go through a one week refresher course that would cost $50.00. Then, after a drug test I would be put to work as a “second seat driver”. He said that they would provide a bus ticket to Texas and a hotel room for me while I took the course. I was so happy; I really believed I had a job.
Upon arriving in Cedar Hill Texas, I learned that the “hotel” was used primarily by CR England and JB Hunt for their “training” program. The hotel was more like a boarding stable; very dirty (no towels/sheets) with 4 guys to one room. It is located in a VERY bad area (I witnessed a hold up first night), and people asking for money as you walked down the street; so you did not want to walk anywhere. The only restaurant in the hotel was VERY expensive and the food was horrible.
The next morning when I got to the school I was told I had to pay $100.00 instead of $50.00 for an “administration fee” immediately. I tried to explain to someone that I had just taken a CDL and I did not need to take their full course, only the refresher; but they made me pay the $100.00 and shuffled me aside as they began an interrogation program. The interrogators (reported to be some of the local police) were rude and abrasive and VERY intimidating. There assured us that they could tell if we were lying about anything by our body language and threaten to put us out on the street if they even PERCEIVED you were lying to them. During the interrogations they asked inappropriate, personal questions. The people who left were told they could not have their money back. Note: I had already passed a background test before I went to Texas.
After the interrogations, we were given forms to fill out that we did not get time to read; we were told that they were just compliance and schooling contracts and that if we did not sign them we would be made to leave immediately (everything was rush, rush). I again told them that I had just been through a CDL class (I paid $3, 000.00 for) and did not need to take their course, but was told I still needed to sign ALL the forms anyway. We barley got time to sign the papers when suddenly we were pounced upon by CRE high pressure salesmen who were pushing everyone to sign contracts to lease their trucks. They were very vague about the terms and did not seem to want to answer questions. I wanted to look over the contracts but was also told I could not take the contracts with me to read them later.
That night we were sent home with a HUGE test that we were told we had to have done by the next day. Four of us started on them immediately and worked on them until 1:00 AM but had to quit uncompleted because we had to be up the next morn at 4:00 am to get on the bus for school. Hungry sleep deprived, intimidated and pressured…classic break down techniques use in brain washing.
That morning as I was waiting to get on the bus, I noticed a guy with his bags packed and asked him why he was leaving. He said that he had completed the CDL program and was told that CR England would be sending a truck for him to be a second seat driver (HE DID NOT SIGN A TRUCK LEASE), but that after a week the truck never came for him. He said he had waited another week and called CR England over and over but they would not return his calls. Finally, after the third week of waiting, they told him that he was not even in their system and he needed to leave the hotel. He said this place is a total scam, get out while you can.
I quickly called a friend and asked her to do an I-net search on CR England under SCAM and sure enough she got MANY, MANY hits. She told me what people were saying…that it is a SCAM and to get out of there ASAP. It cost me $300.00 to get out of their, but thankfully I had the money to do so. I have heard that many who would not sign a lease, were just thrown out of the boarding stable onto the street in a very bad area with no place to go and no way to get back home. It has been reported that those who would NOT sign a lease were suddenly found to have a dirty drug test, often AFTER they had completed the course…four weeks later. However, the drug tests are done the first day and the results are available immediately; so CR England at least got their CDL MILL tuition and interest out of them. CRE has no intention of hiring very many as second seat drivers. They really just want you to sign a lease.
Thankfully I did not sign a lease for I have come to find that the CRE contracts bind you to a VERY LONG AND COSTLY FINANCIAL OBLIGATION. Their truck lease program is a trap. For space sake I won’t elaborate but Google CR England lease Scam and read the forums and MANY complaints. You will hear from the drivers who have been SEVERLY ripped off in numerous and unbelievable ways through their leasing program. Many have even been forced into bankruptcy by CR England. Bottom Line: DON”T DO IT!
CR England’s CDL MILL is just one of many SCAMS that they have fine tuned to con people. One poster put it very well “They know exactly what they are doing, and just how to attempt to blackmail you into servitude. They mind screw with people all day long. It's pathetic that this is the only way that they can keep people for any length of time…”
Now, after reading so many other complaints, I know that they just conned me down there for the CDL tuition and to see if they could get me to sign a truck lease.
CRE exploits the most desperate people…people who are just looking for honest work.
Now watch as the CR England damage control responders leap into action as they reply to my complaint…they often pose as former satisfied students and passionately dispute the claims; or they accuse the complainer of being bitter due to having had a dirty drug test, or that they were too wimpy, lazy, etc… They are a well oiled machine!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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Good afternoon seysmetou
I am going to school in Cedar Hill this evening checking in at the hotel but I'm driving my own vehicle and I will see how my own experience went. Yours sounds crazy lol I'm prepared to travel as long as they need me too. I have made my point very clear to Mr Sepeti Moala my recruiter that my 2 military sons know my will to become a truck driver is great because I'm ready to go now. This is my first time ever learning this business I'm learning from scratch lol and Mr Moala said they are willing to train me to drive standard too since I don't know how to drive it. I only drive automatic. And the $100 was waiver so all I need is $70 for my permit and money to feed myself while I'm in school for 17 days Monday-Saturday.. The way you describe the contract is like when I went to Remington College to study Medical Coding and Insurance Billing lol but I graduated. People will experience life different from other experience and I will share my experience with you later :)
Thanks for sharing
My name is Suzanne and I work in the Driver Advocates Department at C.R. England. I would like to shed some light on a few topics that have been mentioned here. I encourage anyone to contact me directly if you have any questions. You can send me an email to driveradvocates@crengland.com. You can also find more information about C.R. England at our website www.crengland.com.
C.R. England is a stable, family-owned company offering transportation services since 1920. We are the nation’s largest refrigerated transportation company. The current management team includes third and fourth generation England family members of Chester Rodney England, the company’s founder. C.R. England is a reputable company and it is very offensive that this individual has referred to our company as a scam.
We are proud of the fact that we offer an opportunity for a solid career path in the trucking industry to individuals who have no experience, no training, and no ability to pay for tuition to earn a CDL. We understand the hard work it takes to complete schooling and over the road training to eventually become a successful professional driver. While it is true that not every individual succeeds in this pursuit, we take every step possible to provide a career opportunity for our drivers who dedicate themselves and work hard.
We work with Horizon Truck Sales & Leasing to offer a lease program for our students. However, it is NOT true that every student is encouraged to lease a truck. We do not “push” leasing, but we do offer it as an option to those who qualify. In earlier years we did encourage our drivers to lease trucks but this is not our current practice.
C.R. England is proud to offer free tuition to our schools with an offer of employment and a contract the new student agrees to drive for us for at least 9 months. We pay for transportation and room & board for the 17 day school process. Students can choose to pay for their own hotel room if they prefer different accommodations. All of this is paid for by C.R. England and whenever a student doesn’t fulfill their side of the agreement, we lose money.
I just went through C.R. England's school at Drive Train in Jackson, Tenn. They told me and about 7 others there that they would have a taxi waiting for us at the bus station...they didn't. They put us up in a motel that was a joke. The shuttle taking us to the classes was a man with no legal driver's license. The maids didn't take care of our rooms, we did.
The school rushed us through the permit tests in 3 days and very few passed. Some even had to take it 4 times. They promised great instructors and I personally, along with a fellow student had 3 different instructors in one week. All 3 wanted us to learn the pti differently than the last. They hired a female instructor who had just come off the road and I was instructing her as to what we had been doing and that she was not teaching the new students in the correct manner. She admitted she had no idea what she was doing.
My fellow classmate and I were continuously shuffled from instructor to instructor and we couldn't practice enough on backing skills to get them down. Before we finished our skills training they had handed us over to another instructor who had us driving on the road for the last week we were there. I had to raised hell with them just to get more practice on my docking skills.
The female instructor went with us on the road skills and didn't bring her cdl with her. Then she is shifting through turns, floating gears, and ran a stop sign at the off ramp in 7th gear. It was a joke. Against all odds my classmate and I passed our tests the first time around and they rushed us to sign contracts before they gave us our certificates to get our cdl's at the TDOT. After this they wanted us on the bus the next morning at 11am heading to Austell, Georgia. We told Lisa Long, the C.R. England rep that we needed more time. We had to wait 24 hours after passing to go get our cdl's at the TDOT, and that there was no way we could be on a bus by 11am the next morning. Sara at Drive Train is a C.R. England rep and told us to just reschedule it. We both tried. We both were talked to like dogs and threatened. They said we agreed to everything, which we didn't. We were told to call back Monday and reschedule. We did. They never returned our calls. So we started looking around. I found Swift willing to buy out our contracts and pay us $.34 cents a mile-instead of England's $.12 a mile.
I am at Swift now and England is refusing to let them buy our contracts and along with Drive Train are saying that there is no record of either of us being there at the school at all. We had Sara on the speaker phone and she was so mad that we were at Swift and telling us that they wouldn't release our records. After a couple of minutes she heard a sound in the background and wanted to know if someone was telling us what to say and ask. At this point she hung up and refused to answer any calls from any phone we tried to call her from.
C.R. ENGLAND IS A HUGE SCAM AND EVERYONE THERE ARE LIARS OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY. I HAVE A LAWYER DRAWING UP A LAWSUIT AGAINST THEM NOW! I HAVE THE EMAILS THEY SENT ME BEFORE AND AFTER GRADUATING FROM DRIVE TRAIN. I EVEN HAVE PICTURES OF MY TIME THERE!
IN THE MEANTIME, I AM DRIVING FOR SWIFT AND GETTING PAID. I BELIEVE THIS MAN'S STORY AND THE OTHER COMMENTS RIDICULING HIM ARE NOTHING MORE THAN C.R. ENGLAND REPS TRYING TO DISCREDIT HIM. CALL ME A LIAR AND I WILL ADD YOU TO MY LAWSUIT. GO AHEAD.
This guy is 100% right, I haven't smoked weed in over a year and after a week in school, I had just made it back from the DMV they called me to the office staying they sent my test to the lab and I had THC in my system. That's not possible! I'm black, one of the 3 in my class and every black person that passed the DMV tests and had made it to the truck training part of the course CRE trainers had failed them for one reason or another. Ceder Hills TX CRE school is not for black people, they will get you out of there by any means. (If You Are Black I Wouldn't Recommend This Company!) After telling them that's not right, they told me to get om stuff out of their room and they were shock because I drive from Fort Worth were I have a house. If you are from another state with no funds other then your $70 or $100 for your CDL's you are F*cked because CRE Trainer Will Stop You! I only seen old white men get the job, no one young of color male or female.
I went to the Colton, CA school. Ooops big mistake...ill get my revenge though...ive helped three of their company trucks pass onto truck heaven...and ill make many more do thesame