I was lied to by CRST from the initial contact when i agreed to contract with them to drive for 6 months in return for truck driving school tuition. Upon graduating from a three week coarse, i went to Oklahoma City for orientation and upon completing orientation, i was informed that if i didnt fulfill my contract i would owe CRST over $3500.00. I was told by the truck-driving school i attended that my tuition was only $1500.00 and CRST inflated the cost on its contract to encourage the employee to complete it. At the time it wasnt a concern because i fully intended to honor my commitment to CRST. I was told i would have an opportunity to meet with several trainers for my 28 day over the road training, but instead i was assigned to one and here is where the nightmare began, i was not allowed to stop for any reason for 10 hour stretches, i was verbally abused and struck with a qual-com which was thrown at me during one of my trainers fits of rage, i was not allowed to use the lower bunk to try and sleep in and after developing a kidney infection and falling from the top bunk, i requested a different trainer and recieved one that treated me fairly and i completed my training without incident, at that time i was given names of potential team partners and i chose the wrong one, again proving dangerous. My partner had failed to inform me that he was under a doctors care for an anxiety disorder and was ingesting many mg of xanax which is a powerful and frequently abused narcotic, he slept way to much and the only way he could stay awake was to drink copious amounts of coffee and chain smoke, after several near misses, frequent stops at every truck stop, and my being woken up being thrown into the bunk restraint, i contacted the fleet manerger and requested a new partner, i informed my fleet manager of the drug use and dangerous conditions and was treated like i was the problem, but none the less i was given a list of names and chose a new partner which ran off the roadway on more than 1 occasion talking on his cell phone which he did non stop while driving regardless of my protest, i was relieved when informed his girlfriend had completed her training and he would be dropping me off and picking her up. At that point i had already been on the road for over 3 weeks and that was CRST policy to allow hometime after three weeks. It was not practical to try and find a new partner even though i had been granted hometime for the following week which would have been 4 weeks out but i had only agreed to that because my partner thought his girlfriend would be out with her trainer for an additional week, long story short, my partner refused any other loads, dropped me off in OKC and picked up his girlfriend and they took the truck home leaving me in OKC, so i rented a car and went home, i was contacted by a very rude fleet manager and was told to find a new partner and get back on the road, when i told him i planned on taking my 6 days off, he hung up, cancelled my paycheck payment and i was terminated, without ever being given cause. Now i get calls daily threatening to garnish my wages and ruin my credit if i dont start making $369.00 monthly payments with 18% interest on unpaid balance. I was putting my life in others hands and was doing my best to manage an unmanagable situation and i think the way i was treated was criminal.
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