Does Anybody Have Experience Driving For CRST.

I am trying to decide which company paid CDL School to sign up with and CRST seems to offer pretty good deal. I understand that it will be team driving for a minimum of 10 months. Which i believe i could handle that, especially if the miles are there. From my research it seems that their team drivers average 3000 - 4000 or more a week and plus paid twice weekly. My situation is such that i have no money and cant afford to even get my permit on my own. I am 57 years old and have been out of work almost 1year now after working 34years at the same company. I have always wanted to try driving a big rig and this seems like the time to finally give it a try. Any thoughts on this company wod be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Does CRST cover the cost of the permit?

CRST is a decent company. I got my start in the industry there. Understand though that if you can't handle teams or don't make it out of school, they will hold you to that contract.

I am curious about the 3000 to 4000 per week. Did you mean miles or dollars? if you think that is an individual driver dollar amount, you are wrong. and 3000 miles per week for a team is really low.

Not sure where these number came from.

I do not know of any company that will pay for your permit, and not having worked in a year can be a problem for you. Many companies will want a solid and RECENT work history.

I understand that it will be team driving for a minimum of 10 months. Which i believe i could handle that, especially if the miles are there.

Welcome to our forum Scott!

I have no experience with CRST. I'm just jumping in here to make a few comments about team driving as a rookie. I'm not a fan of this approach. It's funny how often I see people make a comment similar to yours. Most people think they can handle it, but then there's a little caveat thrown in there. In your case... "especially if the miles are there."

Very few new drivers understand how you get consistently good miles. They think it's based on their choice of company. I've never understood how one company could have lots of miles for their drivers, and another company barely have enough for their drivers to make a living wage. How does that other company stay in business? I've heard drivers complaining that their company just doesn't have the miles, so they're quitting and moving on to another company. Yet the company they are leaving has 12,000 drivers! That makes no sense!

Sometimes new drivers mistakenly think you've got to be a team driver to get the miles you need. It's just one more misconception. The world we live in is full of economic opportunities. People are buying and selling at a record pace. Logistics is firmly in the center of all our economic progress. The number of team drivers in comparison to solo drivers is extremely small. That tells us there's much more opportunity for solo drivers. The vast majority of freight is moved by solo drivers.

A good solid solo driver can make just as much as a team driver. As a rookie, I didn't want to be saddled with a partner (team driver) who didn't share my motivation and drive for success. I didn't want to split my pay with some slacker. And I also realized my responsibility in how miles are distributed. Everywhere I've worked I've had all the mileage offered me that I could handle. At the same time drivers were quitting each week saying, "This company just doesn't have the miles."

It's hard to help newcomers realize how important their job performance is to their success at this. Most of us are accustomed to working "on the clock." We've become conditioned to this false idea that "time equals money." There's nothing even similar to that concept in trucking. In trucking you are always evaluated by your performance. Producers are continually rewarded while non productive employees slowly grind their careers down to bitter end.

Highly productive drivers who have consistent records of being safe and efficient will always have lots of miles. As a solo driver you have control of those things. As a team driver you abdicate half of those responsibilities to another. I've really strayed from what you're asking, but I wanted to give you something to think about as you get started at this. I hope you'll find it helpful.

I believe everyone should be aware of everything so here is a video i made about Rookie Teams. The choice is yours of course, but understand what you are getting into.

BTW, CRST is not the only company that does rookie teams.

Should Rookie OTR Truck Drivers Team? [2019]

KEARSEY i just watched your video from the link and would like to thank you one for taking the time to make the video and second for sharing it with me. It has givin me some more things to think about. I love the honesty and truthfulness not only from your video but also from this site. I have been lurking around here since i first decided to take driving OTR as a serious career choice. Also would like to thank OLD SCHOOL for jumpin in with his thoughts...thats what i am talking about with regards to this fourm it is really the only place a newbie like myself needs to have bookmarked, all the people really seem to want new comers to know what they are getting into and to understand all the options available to us.... and not to forget Big T. I am glad to hear positive input about CRST. Also Kearsey i hope you have more videos to watch as i would like more insight into what seems to me one of the best careers a person could be part of. I will be lurking somemore and hopefully have some great stories of my own to share coming up in the next couple of months. Once again thank you all for the honset input and please keep up the great work..if all web fourms would structure themselves the way this one does the WEB would be a much better place. Scott P.S. i just read Brett's book from start to finish in one sitting and plan to read it again..what a great book and for Brett to put it out there for everyone to read for free..WOW..thats what i mean about this fourm...love love love it..thanks you

Now if i could only learn to spell FORUM correctly i would feel much better...lol need to check my spell check a little closer next time...

You are welcome Scott. I have a couple dozen videos up now... as well as 27 blog articles here.... read away.

Kearsey aka Rainy's Articles

I started at CRST also. And I have mixed feelings on giving a new driver a yay or nah on them. As others have mentioned team driving in itself is pretty rough. But on the flip side to that I did alot of drop in hooks in large places with wide open areas. That's not to say I never went to some places with funky little hard to get into docks.

Also I spent most of the time going from coast to coast so 3k mile loads. I can't remember if they pay for the permit or not however I'm pretty sure if you were to speak to someone in recruiting they would tell you up front and just remember they will do cash advances even in school I believe.

Also if you happen to come into orientation and it's a really large class, you might have the option to go to the overflow school which a few years ago was in Waterloo at Hawkeye community college. I enjoyed my training. I also spoke to a few people that had completed training at both CRST and Hawkeye Community College. And made the decision to try and see what I needed to do to make it to Hawkeye.

Also winter is coming and one thing I do like for CRST/new drivers is that they will send lots of update messages for weather/road conditions. They will also impose lower speed limits in less than ideal conditions or make you shutdown in bad conditions.

After training I was brought back and introduced to my dispatcher. He informed me that money could be light for the first few weeks but I had been doing a lot of reading and had expected that until I got the first mileage goal.

CRST pays everything upfront...Permit/license and dorm style housing as well....Just finished up and am now out on the road with my trainer for 10,000 miles / 2-3 weeks. So far I have enjoyed it all. School was fast paced,,, 14 days total.....4 of those were at the terminal/dorms for company orientation....