Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

deerhunter to be completly honest with you if i had 5 kids i would not be in the trucking business. honestly with a family that size if you dont have enough money in the bank to coverat least 6mo worth of bills mortgage phone ,light, gas bills car payments and every other day things that come up stay away from this business right now. i am not trying to discourage you this thread is about giving the truth to newbees. i dont know what you have done in the past but you will probally be better off sticking with it. we are coming apon the slow season freight is down. trucking cos are going out of business left and right. arrow one of the largest flat bed outfits closed last week theres 2000 drivers looking for jobs there and i hear thru the grapevine celedon is on the verge of going out. more drivers looking for work. well back on the subject please give this a lot of thought now the business is not bad if your a younger guy with out a lot of responsibality and bills you can do ok. or a married couple who team and their kids are grown and gone. you will be out 6weeks at a time at first get used to 100-200 checks not a lot of money to raise a family with some weeks negitive checks when its slow or coming off hometime and you dont run a lot of miles. as for a dedicated fleet that hires out of tenn i personally dont know of one. the only hire dedicated drivers from certain states due to getting you home for hometime with out deadheading you to far. for my fleet(kraft) tennissee is a cut thru state we dont do any pus there and very little drop maybe an accasonal wally world d/c or food warehouse. if you have any specific questions just ask and wewill be glad to answer them if you would like to talk at lengh about central and what to expect i can pm you my number

 

Thank you everyone who wrote to me yesterday with advice. 1bad I have been reading a lot of your posts and you post a lot of great information, but I have a question for you. The first few checks that you get after you go out on the road by yourself is only about 1 to 2 hundred dollars? Is that because you do not get a lot of miles or because they do not like giving newbies runs, or how does that work? Also I would like to bring my girlfriend on the road with me after I go solo, is that a possibility or does Central not allow that?

 

ok baxter here goes when you first upgrade you will get low miles at first with lots of time to del the loads they do this as a test to see how well you run and if you can get the load there early or are you gonna take your sweet time and be hanging out in the truck stops. as you prove yourself to central your miles do go up. but it all depends on who your dispatcher is. some are real good and others are just useless who give all the good miles to drivers who have been with them for a while there are lots of favorites if you know what i mean.they will run you across country early on to see how well you trip plan and if you use your time wisely just remember its a test. they are testing you. now when i say 100-200 dollars this is after all the extras come out of your check . this is something your recruter is not going to tell you up front .you will pay back $1500 of the $3000 that it costs to go to their school. this is done by payroll deduction of $56 per week your lock and kingpin lock set $20 per week you have to get it from central. also load locks another$ 20 per the performance bond that covers them repoing the truck if you quit is about 30 a week now we move on to taxes and benies that takes a cut out of the money also so 100-200 bring home is about right. gotta remimber .28 per mile x 2000 miles a week is $460 a week then do the deductions you see where i am coming from some weeks may be more some will be less on miles. also you can take your girl friend with you but you have to take out a $126 rider policy per year also a payroll ded get cought with her on the truck with no policy automatic termination also you have to have one season of winter driving behind you for her to ride in the winter. also they will pressure you into leasing a truck DO NOT DO IT..... DO NOT DO IT..... OH YEA DID I MENTION DO NOT DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! since i seeyou live in dahlonega your best bet is to do 6 mo otr then put in for the kraft dedicated fleet they hire out of ga cause we haul a lot out of norcross. the pay on this fleet is more and miles are really good this is a eastern regional fleet no west coast runs and an occasional ne run but they are seldom if you want i can pm you my number

 

The interview went great today! Now just waiting on them to run my criminal background check to verify that I'm not chester the molester and I should be golden. However this is only part time so I am still ciruclating my resume in hopes of a full time position.

1bad and I are strongly considering moving to SC cost of living is much much much cheaper than here in Atlanta. We will see how that goes.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes for the interview. 1bad is home for the night as I'm sure you can all tell by the novel he just posted..........gotta love him!!!!!!!! So off to watch a little TV and snuggle I'm sure he will check back in before we go off to bed or him atleast. I'm tired so an early night for me.

Be safe and hold her between the lines boys!

 

This is a test this is only a test!

 

Thank you very much. I would really appreciate it if you could send me your number so maybe we could talk more in depth before I completely make my decision. Is Kraft part of Central? How do they expect you to eat and pay for little things like your car payment on 100 dollars a week?

 

Glad the interview went well Widow. Dropped my load in Olahte this morning and picked up another one heading back east. All this time that I've been ######## about way to much time to deliever and now I have one without enough time. Was supposed to have been picked up yesterday but hey, was busy picking up one in Michigan. Oh well, see a swap in my future.
Really looking foward to this time off thats coming up. Going to my sisters in PA to help her with the big 50!!! #### but she's going to be old now. Oh wait, I'm already old by that definition. lol

 

Thanks 1bad for the info i have 4 kids not 5. that was my mistake in the way
I wrote it. I have been looking at driving for some time now. and have a pre hire with tmc. but I heard some bad stuff about them. I'm a plumber by trade and I put medical gas in new hospitals. but I have been Laid off sense September. I can't seem to be able to find any work.and if I don't do something soon I'll lose every thing I'v got .So should I look a diffrent companys.

 

Thanks Pan have fun with your sister!

 

We 1bad and I were in the same situation this time last year so he went trucking. in March my Jeep got repo'd, we lost our house in June. One thing 1bad forgot to mention is the what it cost to live on the road. Say you are at home and decide to run to micky d's you will pay on avg $5 for a vaule meal. In a truck stop you will pay closer to $10. It cost on avg $100 - $200 to live on the road unless you can afford to outfit your truck with a power inverter, microwave, toaster over, coffee pot, frig what ever you need to cook. Then drive 11 hrs a day and see if you feel like cooking then cleaning up the mess. Like I have said in previous post the first 6 months to a year is the hardest. Don't expect to support a family at home and yourself on the road if you are the only one working. Some weeks you will only make enough to support yourself on the road. Especially if you take more than 2 days home time. Don't get us wrong we are not trying to tell anyone not to join Central just giveing you the realities that the recruiters don't. Remember they are paid to put bodies in the class room they will promise you the moon if that gets you there. We are just telling you our experiences so you know part of what the real life of trucking is really all about. Since 1bad has been on the Kraft dedicated Fleet (yes it is a fleet within Central) things have gotta a lot better. Things were just so bad for so long it will take a longer time to dig out of the hole. Again we are just telling everyone what our experience with Central has been. Read into what you like we like many other on this thread don't believe in sugar coating anything!