Opinion ID: 799452
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: CRST's Business Model and Training Program

Text: CRST is an interstate logistics and transit company that employs more than 2,500 long-haul drivers. CRST's business model relies on an efficiency measure known as Team Driving. CRST operates the trucking industry's largest fleet of team-driven tractor trailers. Specifically, CRST assigns two drivers to a truck who alternate between driving and sleeping on-board in the truck's sleeper cab for as much as 21 days in order to maximize mileage and minimize stops. Newly hired drivers must successfully complete CRST's Training Program before CRST permits them to drive full time for full pay as certified CRST drivers. The Training Program commences with a three-and-a-half day classroom component (New-Driver Orientation) to orient the new drivers with CRST's methods and policies. During new-driver orientation, CRST distributes to each trainee its Professional Driver's Handbook (Driver Handbook), which contains an entire section devoted to its anti-harassment policy, as well as the procedures for reporting such harassment. Additionally, CRST orientation leaders orally reiterate CRST's written anti-harassment policy, explain to trainees how they can report harassment complaints, and present a video stressing that CRST will not tolerate sexual harassment. The Driver Handbook expressly forbids sexual harassment, as well as any form of retaliation against complainants of sexual harassment. It also instructs employees who endure or witness harassment or discrimination to immediately report the conduct to either an immediate supervisor or the Director of Human Resources. The Driver Handbook states that [a]ll reports of harassment and/or discrimination will be handled in a confidential manner. CRST's charges its Human Resources Department (H.R.) with enforcing this anti-harassment policy. At New-Driver Orientation's conclusion, CRST has each trainee sign a written Acknowledgment and Pledge Concerning Harassment and Discrimination, attesting to the facts that the trainee received and read [CRST's] Policy Against Unlawful Harassment and Discrimination. Following orientation, each trainee embarks on a 28-day, over-the-road training trip with an experienced, Lead Driver, who familiarizes the trainee with CRST's Team Driving model and evaluates the trainee's performance on this maiden haul. At the conclusion of the trainee's 28-day training trip, the trainee's Lead Driver gives the trainee a pass/fail driving evaluation that superiors consider when determining whether to certify the trainee as a full-fledged CRST driver. But, under CRST's organizational structure, Lead Drivers lack the authority to hire, fire, promote, demote, or reassign trainees; CRST's Safety and Operations Departments make all final decisions concerning the trainees' employment. Still, in a responsive letter to the EEOC correspondence, H.R. Director James Barnes later described the Lead Driver-trainee relationship as really no different than the role of supervisors in other industries and organizations.