I'd attended a real truck driving school 4 yrs. Ago, drove for most of a year then left the industry for ~3 yrs. You know after a year of more away you've got to start over (get recertified). So CRE said yes and I started in Mira Loma, CA. I already had a CDL with endorsements & experience so I expected this would be a breeze. The classroom training was SERIOUSLY A JOKE. The primary training material used seemed of good quality, but the scheduling and instruction sucks. You'll stand outside of a classroom for 2 hrs.in the morning in the dark, cold, rain or shine, waiting for the classroom doors to open. When they do you're rushed through the instruction with attitude. OK, so I get through that 2-1/2 weeks, graduate and go on to Phase1 with a trainer. That's supposed to last 4 wks., I was out almost 5 wks. And if I had not objected seriously would have been 6 or more weeks.
After this phase you enter Phase2 where you're paid by the mile. So now I'm anxious to improve my income over the $61 a day you earn in Phase1. I pass my 2 day upgrade to Phase 2 in Mira Loma and the training coordinator calls me with a CAT2 assignment. He sais I'm picking up in CA and dropping in FL and he wants to know what I'm going to do for 4 days while he's doing "home time", sit in the truck? I told him I didn't want to sit in his truck for 4 days, just drop me in MO and pick me up on your way back. He said I don't think they'll treat you like royalty that way, you might have to. I said, I'm free, white and this is still America, there are always options. His reply was "Oh, so you got a problem with black men 'eh?". (here we go) I said, no I don't have a problem with blacks, your the only one complaining. Let me get back with the Training Coordinator and see if we can find you a better match. I may call you back if I find out something (I never called him back). I did call the TC and he removed me from the truck assignment and said he'd call me the next day to see what he had. I did get a call from Human Resources (HR) the next day though. A lady with a bit of a tone "wanted to know all about my conversation with the guy yesterday". I told her the above and she told me the guy told her I used some racial slurs against him and I was fired. Pack your bags and get out of the hotel. I think she'd already decided to fire me when she called.in my own defense, I made NO racial remarks to anyone.
This whole experience has cost me just about 2 mo's of effort for NO net gain. I opted out of my fairly decent unemployment to make a move forward only to acquire a $1500 bill for training that I can't be sure I can claim the credit for. I'm a single 54 yr. Old father of 2 teenage son's. This sort of irresponibility and casual disregard by employers should not ever have to be tolerated. I'm in Salt Lake City this week to see about that. If I find some reasonability here I'll add that rebuttal. One more thing. I've read quite a number of these reports, and based on what I've seen and heard while here I would say these are accurate. You may not know that only about 30% of the starting class makes it. That's the 2-1/2 wk. Training. Most are washed out early for drug test, tickets, undeclared facts of history and some people just walk away. I don't know what % of those survive to finally lease or team. If I had to do it again, I'd most certainly do it somewhere else.
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