The central scam

Here it is in a nutshell my fellow pro drivers, the central experience from a fresh graduate. So i sat home, searching for a driving carrier, after days of searching and contacting recruiters asking questions, i decided to take central up on the offer, well considering they all had the same lies, i figured central was a better choice since most of the blogs i have read on them were a bit skeptical. After contacting my driver recruiter, i was told my next class date and that they would send me a bus ticket to salt lake, i opted to fly my self in as i was a bit skeptical still. I arrived at the airport and was picked up by a central van whos driver looked like grizzly adams, very un professional to say the least. i arrived at the terminal and was checked into the elustrious VIP sweet, steel bunk beds, cinderblock walls, with little room, and when i say little room, the convicts in alcatraz had more room. I was there till monday morning when the fun began, ooo yaaa the processing portion of the program. We were all brought into the class room and the first thing that came out of the instructors mouth was we need you 100 dollars for the physcial, and this is non refundable. There physcial was a joke, as was the drug testing, eye exam and there 25 year old so called medical examiner who comes in to administer the testing.

the hole thing took place in the classroom, including the urine exam, were there are no medical staff present, they put your sample uncovered on a dusty metal cabninet the hole procedure is a toatal medical violation if i ever saw one, so i hope something doesnt contaminate your samle or your done. after that this security guy comes in named brian, this guy was an ex state trooper, chect all puffed up trying to tell you i can get any piece of information on you so you better be honest on your background. well let me tell you, part of that is true, but being in a family of police, and FBI i can tell you they wont find much with out a fingerprint search so i hope the guy your training with didnt murder anybody. this guys only job is to run backgrounds and search for stolen company equipment, and also he likes to drive around at the hotels your staying at while in training to see if your drinking alchol, with is forbidden, even on your off time with is a joke so as you can see so far they are grooming you for tottal control so read on. If you make it thru that then your on to school, but only after you get assigned to a 4 man room at a local hotel setup with bunkbeds and bedbugs, yep central has a contract with a crappy hotel were the rent the entire west wing and stick in bunkbeds, no fridge, no microwave just a small prison cell, and once again this is part of your grooming for what is to come. First week of school, well they have great instructors in the class room considering they give you all the answers to everything, but they wont say they do, beacuse that would be illegeal, they do that beacuse you have to show 100 percent on all tests and exams, so they get there money from the state but we will get to that latter.

your all ready after the first week to get your permit, so everybody gets a talk about how professional you need to be at the dmv, and watch how unprofessional your fellow counterparts act ie....CR England as everybody gets permits on the same day so its a bit croweded at the dmv. well know you got your permit and its on to the backlot for training in the trucks, backing, road driving ect, i will tell you this the best instructor out there is a large somoan man named joe, if he cant teach you how to drive you just cant drive dude, hes amazing when it comes to training so ask for him if you can. you will do your road test that thursday and have your license by friday, oops did i say license i meant your paper utah temp license, yep your a utah resident living at the terminal just look at the address on your license. So know your waiting on a trainer, so you will fill out a profile sheet that is worthless, you will not get a trainer who lives near you, you will not go home during training, you will how ever be stuck in a truck with a trainer you do not like, and prolly smokes and lives like a homeless man and there my friend is were you will be for no less than 28 days or 17k miles, or no more than 35 days and even that will change while you are out driving. I hope you like to drive beacuse you will be doing 9-10.5 hrs of seat time 7 days a week, maybe u will get a break maybe you wont but what you will be doing is eating sleeping and driving and not in that order, showers well maybe every other day if your lucky or your trainer has the same hygene practice as you. It does not matter what the standerds are for trainers they do not follow them, its there truck and you follow there rules period, all part of that control training. if your lucky and you can put up with the nastyness of all that for 28 days, the fun has just begun. When you get back to upgrade, you spend about 2 hours taking tests were you cant get them wrong, the computer wont let you?

just keep picking the answer till it goes to the next one, odd i say just odd. after that your out with the training dept doing another road test around the block and you back in and your now officially a company driver. what kind of truck will u get well what ever is running, thats the truth, those trucks are nasty stinking, damaged, beat up pieces of crap so thats your new home. but wait i get hometime now that i have fininshed my training right....errrrrrr wrong once you loginto your q-com your now fresh meat for the DM to abuse, so if you have no spine you will fit in just perfect. they will send you loads going everywere but were you live so you will have to fight with him to get what you want, and not just home time, you will fight for your down time pay, layover pay, detention pay, breakdown pay, and in general you will spend about 5hrs a week on your cell phone talking to these departments about how or why you didnt get payed for this or that as central is notorious for hiding things and letting you figure them out. you will run miles thats no doubt but they will send you freight that requires you to trip plan when you are maxed out on hours, they will expect you to run them but if you get a dot violation theres nothing they will do to help you out but as long as the customer gets there freight there done with you. company drivers are treated like pond scum, they expect you to run 7 days a week with no problems, but if something happens on a friday night or weekend good luck finding anyone that has any authority to do anything beacuse everybody is home with there famlys, but wait...its a 24-7 operation driver, thats what you do but your support is 9-5 mon-fri odd i say just odd.

If you want a good company to work for find a mom and pop operation, these big companys are all the same. heres a kicker for you. there are programs in place at central to cater to drivers in such a way that what ever you do there is a better way to do it, accidents, speeding, late deliverys, what ever it may be they have plans in place to make it so there is always something you could of done to avoid whatever, and i mean whatever, when you call dispatch and are on hold you hear all the famous lines about whet you need to be doing, but is there a plan in place when a driver does not get payed right and needs to speak to payroll on a friday after 5 heck no not central staff, or need a repair at a terminal while under load and theres no manager on duty. this is typical central atmospher, they cater to themselves but they will have you believe that drivers are the most important part of the company..really is that why payroll clearks have over 70 drivers each, DM have well over 60 trucks to load plan for. There recruiters dont care about you once your at the door, there traing depart dont care about you once you get with a trainer, and after your first load have fun trying to figure out why your pay is always messed. load locks you have to buy but they take it out of your check, king pin locks you buy but the take it out of your check, all these items are required to do your job but u must pay for them...odd i say just odd. more to come soon

 

My attitude has been nothing more but respect while employed here, I am the type that just sits back and takes it all in. The rest of the story i guess is still in the works as i am still employed waiting on a few interviews to come in next week on home time. I guess in reality it was not what i expected but what was the industry standard for a large company. Moving freight is easy, its getting it done by qualified professional drivers on time, safely and working with a company that cares about there drivers and not about holding hands and babysitting or taking advantage at every corner of the company driver manuel. I held high expectations at central but each day with every question that expectation was shot down. We as professional drivers realize what the job entails, being away from family, long hours on the road, dealing with issues that only happen in a tractor trailer, we expect not as a driver but as a human being to be treated fairly and honestly and expect a fair days pay for a fair days work. My realization is that these company's take advantage of that and use that to rope us in for there own needs, maybe there are some great company's to work for but have you read some of these threads on any of the company's in here, it is sad very sad to say the least. In a profession that years ago was a way to make a decent living to a profession that actually cost you money to work in. Granted there are drivers out there that would swear by there company, defend them to the end but those are getting fewer and fewer as time goes on and these company continue to operate as they do.