Thinking Celadon as next company company driver or lease pros and cons of both

I am going to reply to my previous post above with some of the good things about Celadon. Their system of ETA/PTA (Potential Time of Availability) is the best of the best, I not aware of another company that has this. This gives a driver input on the amount of time that is required to pick up and deliver loads. I actually have a say on the amount of time required to run a trip. 2, They have some great Planners, 95% of the time they get it right. The other 5% is where the ETA/PTA comes in. The PTA can be blown out if you feel that a restart is required or if you're sick and/or any other numerous reasons. 3, Operations/Driver Mangers, well if I could clone mine, and give her to every driver out there, the stress would become a non-issue. She is the Top Flight. Personally I like the Macro system on the QC, easy once you learn it and it does not take a whole lot to learn. 4, which is a real plus, if you like running nights, they will plan you accordingly and if you like running days, again they will plan you accordingly. Most of the loads are no touch - drop and hooks. They have contracts with many of the Fortune 500. 5, for the most part I do think they are fair with how they assign loads, it is done by computer, so there is no favoritism that I can see or it is kept to an minimum. I have driven for other large companies and this was a major issue for me. If for some reason you get a few short runs in a row, they can jump in and manually assign a load(s) with some miles. Good luck, I gave both sides of the coin as far as I see it. These are my opinions and there are other things that were not covered. BTW, still driving here...

 

I am a driver for USX and have been with them a little over a year now, this was one of the companies i was thinking of going too, thanks for the insight on them.

 

Beware, Celadon has it recruiting staff posting on this website/BB. This sounds alot like one of them using a ficticious name.

 

Oi why cant people just be straight forward anymore

 

Pretty close with load assignments. O/O's and LP's get to choose their loads and company gets what is left. Since O/O and LP have to pay for everything, they get choice of loads to be more productive and be able to pay for those benefits that company drivers automatically get. Makes sense when I thought about it. Of course now that I thought about it I started wondering why some LPs have considered going back to company and why they weren't being more productive. But hey, it's out of my hands. I know some O/Os and LPs who are doing really well and some who are doing very badly.

 

Hey dtouche, thanks for the post. What, in your opinion, are the negatives of Celadon? Thanks.
G MAN

 

I know I haven't been working for years in the industry, but I don't think ETA/PTA is exactly a new concept

 

Yes ETA/PTA is something that has been around for awhile. As for the planners and driver managers ( night shift driver managers mainly), I swear every 15 minuets or so they cluster in the bathroom smoking joints and taking shots. The reason I say this is because they don't get things right 95% of the time. A lot of it gave me a headache due to how they thought i had a rocket up my butt or that I was Marty McFly with the Delorean. I have to say "Yes" 100% this has to be a recruiter.

 

G Man, see post a page or 2 back, I wrote some of the things that concerned me. Every company has good and bad. They keep me rolling most of the time and that is when I am at my best. If I get to much idle time and it goes from good to bad quick. What is that old sayin, idle hands work for the devil...

 

l tell you about Celacon opps I mean Celadon. I know I have heard many times on here about lease programs but I gave Caledon's a try and I am still considering having an attorney taking a look at it being I know Swift and England are in courts now due to contracts ( or so from what I heard of on England's part ). I have worked for a Large trucking company and did 2 yrs with them as a company and lease driver and even as big as they were they had their #### together more so than Celadon does today with not as many staff members ( CS, Planners, DM ). I felt many times like the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing around there, I mean really to give me a hazmat load with a secondary pick up food products. I mean Really food and chemicals together who in their right mind thought that was ok ..... Celadon! But back to topic and why I am here, it didn't take me very long to see through some of their BS with the lease program. I mean 25cpm truck payment and 7cpm maintenance along with all the other deduction they take out for but what they do not tell you is they charge you $3 every time you fuel and claim the following month of fueling you will get a rebate back if you used Flying J or Pilots which is 0.04 per gallon. I never seen this but it is one of the things they tell you they do like reimburse tolls, scales ( to scale a load you have to be at 41k or over to even get that ). You also get a 2 week window to find anything wrong with the truck you are stuck with, I mean pick (more like I said in the first place which I will cover in a minute). They will drag something's out and get is so you have to pay for something if you let them get by with it but in order to get it done right you have to stay on the guys ##### with the lease group to make sure things are taken care of right and the first time. Now when you get ready to lease a truck from Quality Leasing they will hand you a list of truck and say they are out on the yard. Now you will walk around for what could be hours looking for a truck to find they only have the junk reject trucks that the company retired to the lease program sitting out there and that will only be maybe 4 or 5 truck out of the whole list. What they don't tell you is they have a place off site also where they keep trucks out which my guess is are the ones in better shape. OH! Yeah and watch when you go to look at these trucks Celacon is already digging in your pockets as all the trucks I saw sitting there had a ¼ or less fuel in the tanks, so yeah they what you to fuel up before being able to get started on your first run which may not even be that many miles to start with. There is no way you can tell me all those trucks are turned in with a ¼ or less of fuel, they drain it out down to that mark and say cha-ching when you hit the fuel pump. Now on to their so called fuel surcharge, they will tell you they average the fuel prices with the states they run the most in which = you being Screwed over. I mean look at this and tell me they are not robbing drivers. While I was there I saw the FSC start off at 40cpm and drop every week even though in the area I was running is the main part they average I seen fuel prices going up but yet the FSC came down even when their own pump price in Indy at the terminal went up the FSC came down. Now they say they average so that means some companies pay more than others so what happens to the ones paying more ..... goes in to Celacon's pocket. Oh and another rip off they have going is if you get ready to finish a lease up the only way you will ever see every penny you have in your maintenance account is to use it towards the balloon payment at the end of the lease otherwise kiss half of it Goodbye and yes that money finds its way back into Celadon's pocket also. I saw here somewhere about how O/O and Lease get first pick on loads, yeah you do but the miles are not always the best and if you hit certain areas you will really be hurting. Now I know some will think I am a disgruntled employee, well I'm not as I am happy I was able to get out of there before going in the hole as one of the guys I've got to know while I was there is and he is sinking fast. I know I had more to say but this here should make someone really think about checking Celadon out really good before trying to enter their lease program. I know they are not the best thing but if you are set on doing it there are some better companies out there for it other than this one here.