CRST International
Reviews and Complaints

I'm new to this trucking carrier and didn't think that I was going to get screwed but I was extremely wrong. I graduated school and went to orientation for this job after all that I literally waited almost two months to get with a lead driver, now you only have a total of 45 days after you finish the truck school. I finally got on the road with a lead driver and my driver manger tells my lead that he's going to get us rotated back to my home state so I could get my license changed over. That never happend at all now our truck is a solo truck and this driver that is now sitting in the passenger seat with no pay at all. This company is nothing but a joke I would highly recommend think about coming to crst if your inexperienced driver becAuse they are going to rape you hard in then your screwed like myself til I get back to my home state to get my licence changed over til then I can't drive or make money. Anyway good luck if you choose crst

Date of incident 09/19/15, saturday, around 630pm to 7pm, loves truck stop, nth platte nebraska drivers truck #4722, driving for crst trkg, dot #53773. Crst was definitely in the wrong coming up on blind side of step deck in the middle of backing into parking spot and crst truck pulled on the passenger side of the step deck crst was on the phone and i drive for r wallace had to blow my horn the step deck stopped and crst would have gotten hit if the step deck didn't stop any questions contact me ricky wallace at [protected]. Crst went by so fast i am not sure if truck was 4722 or 3722.

So I went to kirkwood and graduated. Started working for CRST. Had the worst time of my life. First trainer was bipolar and wouldn't show me anything. Second trainer spoke very bad English and also treated me like an animal. Third trainer was ok mostly. After all the ### months later I finnally got with my codriver who in a few days caused an accident that I got fired for. Keep in mind he was logged in as the driver. So after that i got a bill from CRST for 5 grand which was more than I made the whole time I worked for them. I would have rather paid for a DUI then paying these crooks. Now I have useless Class A CDL as no company will hire me even though I paid off CRST. Completely the worst experience I have ever encountered. My blood pressure is high now

my husband worked there for a whole miserable two months and was lucky if hid paycheck was $200 a week it sucks he quit and now they want more then then he even made this is going to be a nasty battle cause they are not getting any money your stuff already sucked so dont blame my husband

Hell Just Had to See For Myself !
Why drivers complain about CRST...
Red Roof Inn, OKC. Arrival 11am, check in delayed to 5pm, but I could wait in a trashed room with two recliners that looked like an elephant stepped on them, couches looked like someone pee-ed on them, , no ac, and long notes on the walls on everything your not allowed to do on Red Roof Properties only addressed to CRST emplayees and dont you dare wait in the lobby. . Others started to arrive, employees and prospective employees. One was dropped off a few days ago by his co driver, was told nothing and kicked out of his room, another older gentleman was dropped off in the middle of his training because he didnt want a man training him, (his choice). Then, (we'll call him Ben), Ben arrives last nite on a bus (you remember those dont yea), taxies to hotel only to be told his room was gone, lucklie he was sent to Ramada, they felt bad for him and sold him a room. Now he's back trying to check in to this rat hole, Lot lizzards are okay but dont you dare have any alcohl on this property, no security seen on the premises at all. While checking in, the computors supposedly went down, the rooms weren't cleaned yet, vouchers werent released yet, if we wanted continental breakfast we had to go to Super 8 nx door tommorro am. DAM Im finally in the room at 3pm, Ben still not checked in, Ben has spent his last monies on a taxi, room and has no money for food. Everyday, everyone is kicked, or locked out of their rooms. EVERYDAY... At orientation I met George, John, Ben, Not their real names. On the patio we encounter drivers, I talked with some making money some not. No biggie. That could have been money management problems. WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW THE COST PER MILE TO RUN YOUR TRUCK, YOUR IN BIG TROUBLE.
Orentation starts slow, unorganized, and interupted constantly. And there is always that one that one person will slow the process. We'll call him Jose. Now Jose owns 5 trucks 3 with another company and two CRST, actually making very little. Knew this because he couldnt afford to get his abandond truck out of Phx.
After doing the regular paperwork, here come the contracts. One of the Papers in the contact says you will be paying 118% for maintenance, .12 for another maintenance, and a portion for escrow. This was the deal braker, as far as i was concerned.
Now George is convinced this is a great deal, how I know this, he is continueing with Orentation, about to get his truck. John is a different story. After getting locked out of the rooms so many time. A Relative of his got fustrated and busted the door down, an emergency came up and they had to leave town. Well being the protector John is he took the fall for it. CRST let him go, putting him in the street with no way home or money to get there. I understand now why there are so many homeless transients in OKC. Most of them are drivers that don't bring enough money to get someplace else or home. After the first day Ben and I left for other companys. There were 4 out of 10 people still there listening to the promises. Oh yea Ben didnt get his repayment for cab, until after we left. Watch for that. Talk with the drivers that are there, ask them how long they have been there. Watch what you sign, if it isnt what you expected, run, or have them correct it immediately.
No comments necessary, FYI Only.
Unsatisfied Driver.

I was a previous employee of CRST from 12-14-2012 / 1-6-2013. My male co-driver attempted to rape me. The truck broke down and CRST made us share a motel room. He also was involved in a hit & run, he pulled the tandem bar on me while I was under a Hazmat load. He drove with a load that was 4680lbs over weight. CRST was on his side. CRST stated he has the right to do so.

Thank you
Robin

I drove for CRST for exactly 45 days and made exactly $1, 400. Needless to say, I would not recommend anyone to hire onto this company. Hidden fees, they paid by practical miles, but I had to pay taxes on hub miles...ridiculous! I have been in this business for 43 years and this company is, by far, the worst in the industry.

After reading threw some of the complaints against CRST on this message board; I must say that they're pretty accurate. CRST is completely a joke. I wouldn't suggest no one drive under contract with this company unless it's your last option. I'm a experienced driver but since I had been out of a truck for a while I had to do a 3 week refresher course in Dallas; my recruiter told me it would only be two weeks. I will say this; my recruiter was pretty straight forward about most things or so it seems. After my refresher course I went to do my 4 day orientation in OKC were they put like 3 people to a room filled with bed bugs at the Econo Lodge. I will say I had a awesome lead driver and I didn't have to do the whole 28. Once you complete orientation they move you over to the Red Roof Inn to either wait on a trainer, your co driver etc. After my 28 I set over at the Red Roof almost 2 weeks waiting to get assigned a truck. So finally they paired me up with a temporary co-driver and sent us way to Tennessee to puck up a truck which made no sense to me since their where empty trucks at the OKC terminal. So finally we are getting loads but no pay checks. It took almost 2 weeks in a truck to finally see a $81.00 pay check wow. Since my co driver and I like to stay on top of things, we found out we wasn't getting our dead head miles, reimbursements for gas we used for the rental car to Tennessee to get our truck etc. It take forever for people to answer the phones when you call to address a issue; I've had to threatened them that I would quit on so many occasions just to get the miles. If you are under contract I can almost guarantee you that people are making more money flipping burgers at McDonalds. The city work is horrible you get paid 15 just to loose a whole day worth of driving. You have to take advances just to eat; and there is a finance charge on that. You may be in the hole with the company and CRST still want you to take advances to pay tolls so BAM! there goes another finance charge; not to mention if you have bills and I'm sure most people does. After I completed my contract I left. The trailers are faulty I got a ticket in California at the cajun scales on I-15 south, it's not worth risking your CSA score driving for this company.

I am submitting this complaint after thinking about it for several weeks. First off I would like to say if you are getting into the trucking business when going through training, it is a long process with very little pay, and you have to pay your dues. Be ready to be home very little...this is what trucking is about, however CRST is another whole game.
To begin with CRST was very honest about their reputation, and how they have to stop at every scale, and are not allowed to have passes at scales. They were honest about how their reputation stinks in the business, and their safety is awful. OK...now onto the truth of the company. You will pay for fluids for your truck and expenses out of your pocket and they will reimburse you. When your truck breaks down they will get it into a dealer (when you call and make the appointment and locate one)...while the truck is broken down you get $40 a day (after two days) so if it is broken down for two days you get nothing. Been with this company since Easter, and my truck has broken down 4 times in 7 weeks. I have some experience but not a lot so I ride with a trainer for 14, 000 miles or 28 days. (NOTICE I AM STILL IN TRAINING 7 WEEKS LATER) Because there have been break downs and my trainer went home for 4 days while I was in training. I requested a new trainer and a new truck to be put on 5 times now, and was told tough luck charlie...there aren't enough trainers to put you on another truck. My trainer now has been off since Saturday with a death in the family...guess where I sit...in the truck waiting for him to come back to work...when I asked again about getting another person to drive with they told me there is no one. I have been shorted pay every pay check. I have sent a total of $680 dollars home in 7 weeks to my family because I sit with no pay. The stories that I read before coming to this company that I thought weren't true well THEY ARE! I still have two days of training because the days that you sit don't count of course...so I am waiting for that to happen...will be waiting until Friday to start driving again because my trainer's death in the family. So an entire week with no driving and sleeping in a truck, because they won't put me in a hotel and won't pay me so I can't afford to pay out of pocket for it.
This is a company that should be LAST resort only for drivers and students who truly want to learn the rules of the road...I didn't expect frills and honestly didn't expect much, but the only thing I can say positive at this point is the people in orientation were honest...because they were the only positive side to this whole thing.

I attended orientation for CRST and was excited about getting started. I wasn't informed prior to orientation that I would need documentation showing that I use my CPAP machine. After CRST rejected all paperwork that I provided them I was told that I needed to go home for 2 weeks, have my cpap machine downloaded at the end of the 2 weeks, submit the paperwork and I would be good to go. I advised them that I had the machine with me at orientation and have already used it for one week so they advised me that I only needed one additional week and all would be good.
I went home on 11/7/11 and submitted the paperwork on 11/16/11 via email. It is now 11/25/11 and here I still sit at home! I can only say that I'm thankful that this company showed it's true colors before I ended up miles from home like my co-driver who is sitting in Mississippi and has made a total of 2 runs since she was hired on 11/3/11. What she has been through in the past 3 weeks is a different nightmare in itself. I'm pretty sure that when CRST finally calls me I will be driving for someone else. Oh and "yes" I did call then several time during this circus.

CRST made all kinds of broken promises when they recruited my husband, but the worst is when he spent days in a parking lot, with no hope of getting a load any time soon, so he asked to just go home. They told the lead driver he was not to move the truck under no circumstances and told my husband he was to find his own way home. My husband spent 70 dollars on a taxi to a bus station that was closed, so he is spending the whole night sitting on the curb waiting for his 2 day bus trip to start. He also will not be eating, because he already ran out of money waiting for a run, which never came.

Just got off of a government website. Just seen where CRST got a grant from the federal goverment back in Jan. 2011 for 2 million dollars for bus tickets for students and people going to orientation. CRST takes ticket cost out of your pay! Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Gonna blow the whistle on this crap!

I have been trying to contact this frigging Kellie Boyle since Aug. 27 2011. Have called and left numerous messages to no avail! I am supposed to receive 1000.00 sign on bonus (500 at the end of orientation and 500 after 60 days)! Even left a message for her boss (Jim Chapman) to call. I am starting to get a bad taste in my mouth with this effing company! All the loads that I have been given so far are a money losing hauls. WTF! The POS truck I had assigned was not ready (an extra four days in Carlisle PA)! I had to eat and spent my own money on food. The truck still sucks. I have a friend at PA State Police that is coming over to look at it and put it out of service so it will have to be fixed before it is moved again. F**k CRST! You have made my life a living hell!

To those people who thinking that crst is a good trucking company to work for I advise you not to even call them cuz they will get you way up to okc and that is where they start f*kin you this company should not be allowed to do the # that they do to people they get you up there under false pretences tell you 1 thing on the phone but when you get there itz all a dammmm lie I dont understand how the the goverment keep fundin a company that is full of #... Do not trust these snakes... Especially the recruiter phil johnson he will lie to you in a heart beat..

After completing a private trucking school i obtained my CDL . I went to a 4 day orientation, which they told me i was going to go with a lead driver for a 28 day training program, I was also prommised in writting a $100.00 signing bonus which i never recived. In orientation i was told that my lead driver would help me on my log books, pre-trip inspection, trip planning, fueling ect. As soon at my 4 day orientation ended they rushed me out the door and bused me out to portland OR. where a lead driver was waiting for me, i then found out later that the reason that they bused me up there is because his CO- driver quit. I was with this trainnier for 4 days and the trainnier refused to help me with any of the issues disscussed in my orientation and in fact he was very rude to me with the 4 days i was with him. I called his fleet manager because he drove off with me on the top bunk when i was sleeping which is against regulations and the lead driver got mad and threw my personal property around. I was told i was going to go back to cedar rapids IA. when i arrived they were no help to me and i then had to bus myself back to california at my own expense. when i got to california, CRST made me take another road test because the lead driver said that i almost hit a truck which was a LIE. I passed the second road test and was issused another lead driver, i was with this 2nd lead driver for about 10 days, and this guy had an attitude and always got in my face and hurrassed me. In seattle WA, i then called his fleet manager and told him about this situation, when i got back into the truck after i got off the phone with the fleet manager, The crazy lead driver told me to get on the top bunk, i refused to do so, and then he got off his seat and picked me up and shook me yelling at me and threatning me and hitting me in the face, so i had to jump out of the truck and called law enforcement, and the fleet manager had the nerve to ask me if I wanted another lead driver the police took me to a Motel, which CRST was supposed to pay for the motel room.CRST advance me some money on my comdata card which did not work until the next day.when I retuned to calif fontana CRST photocopied all my recipts and they said they would send them for reimbursement but the cedar rapids location never recived them. CRST did not reimburse me for nothing $75 taxie & $83 motel they did pay for my bus ticket. CRST never returned any of my calls.Is funny that both of the lead drivers said that I was way better then the last driver I had and the one that quit. Well look what happen to me Its like some kind of scam. STAY AWAY FROM CRST! [protected]

My husband also went to work for crst he did the orientation after that he had to wait about a week in a hotel they had him in cause they couldnt find a trainer so he told them to give him a bus ticket home they did a week later they got him a trainer. He had a good trainer. After he got on his own they teamed him up with a good partner. Their first assignment crst wanted them to go to miss to pick up an abandoned truck they wanted them to drive their own car they said no. So they paid for them to rent a car once they got to the towing yard where the truck had been towed the owner said the truck had not been paid for so they couldnt take it. Plus the truck was filthy with numerous bottles filled with urine bags of trash stuffed under the seat. Crst claimed they paid the towing fee but the owner said they didnt. My husband and his partner left the dispatcher at crst wanted them to take the rental to ok but they didnt have them another truck to drive so they would have to stay in a hotel until they found them a truck my husband and his partner turned the rental car in here in birmingham and came home. Crst never assigned them a truck nor gave them any loads. Then they had the nerve to send my husband a form to fill out for the government stating that they were working for crst so crst could get paid by the government for hiring them.

my complaint is all you fair wheather drivers.all i hear is i want to go home, i need to get something to eat, i need a shower, blah blah blah.im only 33 ive been driving for 10years.you all make me sick with your ###.the only reason you dnt make money is because you dnt work for it ive only been here for 5 months and i dont sit more than a day.im always on the go because im a driver i know what it takes to be a driver.you all thought ooohh im going to be a trucker and make tons of money sitting on my ###.well it dont work that way you still have to ###ing earn it.all of you who are leaving msgs on here ive read its all the same you are a bunch of low lifes that have no business running my highways.and the ones who brought racism into it you all are mad that you didnt get special privileges because obama is in office.if you dnt like it get back on your welfare and shut the ### up.oh and the truck break downs you probably didnt know how to drive and tore it up thats why it took that long.im so ###ing tired of all of you fake ### drivers coming into my field of work and complaining just shut the ### up and drive your ###ing truck and do your ###ing job and you might get somewhere.im sure sombody told you make tons of money and u thought oooohhhhh an easy ride im already on welfare so this should just as easy.you were wrong.it is still a job and i know you all are not used to working but just to go get your food stamps every month.so in closing kiss my ### all of you fair wheather want to be drivers get a life and go back to flipping burgers you dont belong behind the wheel of a semi.thank you have a good night or day bye..ps this was a msg from a real crst driver85332

I went to work for CRST in December of 10 and from the time I got to orientation in Oklahoma City til March 5th when I quit was a bunch of threats lies and fraud from the company side. First of all this company gets 10000 dollars from the government to hire you but want to run you at .22 a mile for 6 months with an 8 month contract. They changed the website pay chart from what it was the day I agreed to get my CDL for them. From the start of keeping a log they had us falsify our log books to start our eight day of back logs. Didnt get paid to set through 4 days of orientation that included the safety personel in Oklahoma City starting off the orientation by saying this dont look like a really smart bunch. They refused to give me a copy of the paperwork I filled out including a copy of my contract. From December 17th until December 22nd I sat at their motel 250 miles from home not getting paid waiting on a trainer to pick me up. I finally got on a truck December 27th and during the training period they knew I didnt have Hazmat on my licence yet but put us on a hazmat load. On January 25th I finished training and sat in Oklahoma City again until the 29th again not getting paid until I got on a truck with my co driver. On January 30th the truck radiator started leaking took it to the TA truck stop in Dallas TX and then the truck went to freightliner dealer across the road me and my co driver spent 4 days in a motel having to go to the dealership everyday to seat while they worked on the truck. Finally on the 3rd of Feb they sent my co driver to pick up a truck at the drop yard and a female trainee that was there. That night we slept 3 people in a truck because the company wouldnt get us a motel. The next day while trying to get things straightened up on the truck found 7 gallon jugs that had urine in them. On the 24th of Feb went to Springfield MO to get back on the truck cause it was in the Detroit Diesel shop there with a breakdown. Was told to be there at 10am and the company wouldnt answer the phone to give the shop a PO# so we could take the truck. On the 27th of Feb while going through Sulphur Springs TX the truck quit again.