I have just left C.R. England and their lease scam company that sends good people into the poor house and is very un-family friendly despite their supposed moral background. I joined C.R. England in March of this year to sign up for the lease program that they peddle as their most important and "lucrative" service. Their "six month demo lease" really attracted me as I wanted to run my own truck, make great miles and take home excellent settlement checks to support my family.
First, the lease program is rushed through like a mill operation. The actual signing of these contracts takes place in a room with several people signing leases that day, with most information rushed over or not covered. What you do hear is "you'll want to read over this later when you have the time, " but... If you want to get out on the road and get a load assignment so you can start generating income, you had better sign it now and then.
These lease trucks are always available as many lease drivers turn in their trucks and quit the lease program when they find out that they are going in the hole, make ONLY C.R. England money and hurting their families. Now, I mentioned "scam" in the headline of this complaint. Why do I say scam... Here goes.
C.R. England has at any time approximately 1500 poor souls involved in the lease program. Granted, some make really good money, but most don't. Even if you sign up and take the trainers class, get a student and hit the road with double the miles... You still don't do that well the way England has it set up. Even if FREIGHT IS SLOW (what they like to say a lot), or you are on a load that is supposed to deliver early (but the receiver won't take it early or they are closed (weekends), England will take their money out of your checks every week. Here's the scam... in two fold.
1. C.R. England pays a FRACTION of the cost to lease the truck from Freightliner. With the large volume of trucks they lease, they receive very special discounts from Freightliner Corporate. However, what they charge YOU to lease their truck... Is astronomiclly more. I spoke to Josh England about this, and was referred to the company's in-house attorney, Nelson Hayes. Both of their comments to me were that it was none of my business what England pays to Freightliner for the lease. It's my understanding, and I asked them to give me the right figures if I was wrong, but I estimate that they pay Freightliner approx. 600-800 per month for one truck (it may be less than that even.) However, on AVERAGE, a lease operator will pay $614 per WEEK for that same lease! That's approx. $2,600 per month! Now, you tell me England is not scamming people out of hard worked for money! Again, I made the request of England and their attorney for this actual information, but was never given it and was told it was "proprietary information" and "private information" that I would never receive. Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to do the math here... Let's even go LOWER on the difference of these leases and give them the REAL benefit of the doubt on how much they make off the lease program. Let's say they ONLY make $1,000 per month difference per truck, per lease. That's about 150,000 per month or 1.8 MILLION dollars per year... Made off of the hard work and destroyed financial lives of their lease drivers! Makes you think, eh? When I confronted Josh about this, he said the company was a capatilist company and had every legal right to make a profit. Sure, they have the right, but the way they do it this way is UNETHICAL. I told that to Josh and he got huffy and said he was going to end our conversation as he was not "unethical", nor was the company. We were all just a bunch of "disgruntled" drivers. Gee, I wonder why, Josh?
2. Scam no. 2. C.R. England has touted this huge "FUEL CAP" program for lease drivers that only have lease drivers pay ONLY $ 1.25 per gallon for fuel. Sounds good, sounds like you're pretty protected from the horrible fuel hikes going on all over the country... Right? Wrong! Here's a wake up call... YOU pay for the differnece anyway! Why? Because with all of the money that England makes off of the drivers on the lease program, they can "pay" the extra millions they claim that they pay to offset the program. But... Since England purchases SO MUCH fuel, they already get massive fuel discounts from the BIG 7 truck stops (Flying J, Pilot, T/A, Petro, Road Ranger, Sapp Bro's and Bossleman.). Note, if you fuel anywhere else, YOU will pay FULL price (on your settlement) for fuel. PLus, with all of the other "built in" "FEES" that England takes out of your settlement checks each week, they can more than afford it AND ALSO keep huge profits on top of it.
With all of the drivers coming in through the schools each and every week, C.R. England has tons of drivers to dupe and put behind the wheel with promises and lies... And letting them know that they too can have their "dream truck" through the lease program scam.
I'm pleased to hear that OOIDA is working on a law suit against England... It's about time they were sued and sued good. I also think the state Attorney General's office should investigate this scam that has led to the demise of thousands of driver's finances, families and has continued to make the England family and their partners in crime, rich. DOT also needs to crack down more on England and it's practices. One thing they can do IS STOP ALLOWING ENGLAND TO USE LOOSE LEAF DRIVER LOGS! I can't begin to tell you how much England and their drivers abuse that system. OOps... You can't show that there... Here, start a new log and make the correction (so you can deilver and SHOW legal). Ok, enough said. Hopefully it's time for England to pay tghe piper for all the harm they've done over the years in the name of capitalism and profit. Sock it to them!
Dave
Beaverton, Oregon
U.S.A.
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