Pros
I have wanted to be a truck driver since I was a little kid. I looked into going to a CDL training school and found that I would pay around $6000.00 for a six month program and then I would have a license but no experience. Most major trucking companies have training programs - C.R. England provides training and puts you out on the road. So you obtain the license and training in a much shorter period. After you fulfill your commitment; you have the experience the rest of the industry is looking for. You can then leave and earn what you are worth - Not what England pays.
Cons
There is no work/life balance here. I am on a dedicated fleet and I am able to get home more than most. I will burn my 70 hour clock in about 6 days and then I go home for a 34 hour reset. It really is not substantial to consider this "home time" in the biblical sense. I have 6 days of laundry and bedding to wash, shop for food, and finally sleep. The pay is (from what I see) the lowest in the country. The miles are inconsistent from week to week which makes it difficult to create, maintain, and follow a decent budget. The biggest problem I have is that C.R. England will hire anyone who answers the phone. There are drivers here that should not be on the road. My fleet shares a dispatch with another professional trucking company. If I walk the lot where the England trucks are parked; I can count at least 20 of the 60 tractors parked with significant body damage on them from pure negligent and careless driving. The other fleet drives the exact same routes and I have an impossible time finding even a scratch on their fleet. Half of the drivers here at least should not be on the road with an 80,000 pound truck. This is the least professional group of drivers out there! It is remarkable though; as I read the comments about the company I work for, the support staff and management seem rather satisfied. The one piece of this company, which is the profit center are the drivers. Very few drivers are happy and this is where the money comes from. The good drivers leave, and the poor drivers just hope they don't get fired. I am out the door as I have secured employment with another company that has greater standards for drivers and my pay will close to double. I don't understand why England does not focus (at all) on retention. I can not imagine how much money is lost every year on turn over. I guess it is the old business analogy, that if you are making enough money, you can be as inefficient as you want to be and it just does not matter. My advice is to go elsewhere.