Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

I am looking into starting a career in truck driving. In about a year my wife wants to join me as well. I have been looking at swift and central for my start. I am having a hard time deciding between the two. Could someone please list some pro's and con's of both. I have read through alot of threads and this one is pretty huge. I have been trying to follow it but its taking a long time. Could you please give me a brief summary as to why you are no longer at Central? Would you recommend Central for someone trying to get their foot in the door or do you think Swift would be a better choice?

Thanks in advance.

 

I think I will stop at greensboro TA. Although $10 isn't too bad if they have ample parking and a good restaurant. I'm not paying $10 if they have room for only 5 trucks...lol. I don't think it should take TOO long unloading, my load is only 5 different kinds of potatoes. Unless they eant to use me as temporary storage because tthey have no room... I think that's what they do with some drivers.

 

Well I am of the opinion you have to start somewhere, central is a decent company, not great, but not the worst. They try to push the lease on you from day one (RUN AWAY!!!!) I don't know much about swift, but I can tell you swift drivers don't get much respect on the road.

I am no longer a central driver, I got tired of being given loads that were impossible, and if (rarely) I got approved to drop, would drop then sit for days. Or sent into areas with freight, then not be able to get a load out, I sat for 3 days over New years before getting a load. Now I don't blame my DM, as the planners book the loads. I just got tired of sitting instead of driving, there were some other reasons I won't get into here.

Realize that if you do go with central, they own you for a year, get your CDL, and move on

 

I think the 2 company's are about equal these days.
Back when I was with Central I came due to needing a refresher course.
The pay was better at that point, miles were very good and I had a good dispatcher. Then I went to the Kraft fleet and that was great. John runs that fleet and he is a good guy, also he is a former driver.
I left Central because my wife wanted me home more. On the Kraft fleet I was thru the house for a night once a week, and home one weekend a month. I could have asked for more days when my weekend came, but I liked the steady money.

At that time Swift had just recently been bought back by Jerry, and became a non-public company again. It took him some time, several years in fact, but the company is much better than it was a few years ago.
Not a great company, but not too bad.
The drivers get a rash of trash thrown at them on the road due to Swift being the largest trucking company in the country these days.
They are over twice the size of Werner, Schneider and others.
When you have 18,000-20,000 trucks on the road and hundreds of new trainees every month hitting the road there are bound to be issues.
Most of the issues people have with Swift drivers are in the backing department. Backing a truck takes a good bit of time to get good at, and a few months training is not enough time to get decent.
Throw the 18k-20k trucks into the mix, and you will see allot more Swift backing accidents than any other company. It is just a numbers game.
Same with some of the unsafe things they do on the road. You see the same things from drivers at allot of company's.

It is really a crap shoot between the 2.
If I was going to be going for a refresher now, I would probably give Swift more of a look now than I did before.
I like dry freight. I like drop and hook freight.
With a refrigerated company you will spend allot of time at packing plants and grocery warehouses. These two locations are two of the places that are known for making you sit and wait on load and especially unload. Many places do not want you to drop because then they have to take responsibility for the trailer and making sure it keeps running.
This is not an issue with dry. It can sit on that trailer for a month.
So with a dry freight company like Swift you will probably get allot more drop and hook freight than with a refrigerated company. And drop and hooks keep the wheels running.

Also, Swift is many many times larger than any refrigerated company. This means that they have and can have more contracts. More contracts means more freight. More freight means less sitting waiting for a load.

 

Pro: schooling is affordable.
Con: the affordability requires a one year commitment. you bail early and instead of getting the discounted price, you get stuck with the full bill of about $3k.

Pro: schooling is short
Con: schooling only covers the very basics to get you your CDL. The real experience won't come until you are with your driver trainer and for several months and years on your own afterwards.

Pro: they pay you when you go out with your driver trainer
Con: the pay is something like $425 a week. Be extremely careful and budget for the entire time you are with your trainer.

Con: You have to pay for your lock kits - even as a company driver.
Con: Pay is middle of the road to low-end. Central is a training company and to make the serious money, you really need to become a lease/op trainer
Pro: Company drivers have benefits
Con: The benefits aren't all that to get worked up about. If I remember right, health insurance for a single person was something like $50 a week. Not all that bad but I came from a company where it was about $35 every two weeks.
****
Pro: Central uses per diem Pay
Con: Central uses per diem Pay

Per diem is a touchy subject so it all depends on which side of the fence you sit. As a lease/op, I use per diem to make my income look as little as possible on paper which is good for me. I want to look completely poor on any paper I file with the government to lighten my tax load.

For a company driver, it can be good and bad. Per diem pay takes a portion of your pay and treats it as non-taxable per diem. I think the current rate is $59 per day. So they take the per diem amount out of your pay before they do all of the deductions for taxes and then add it back in later. This has two effects: it makes your take-home pay larger than it would be since a portion of the money has no taxes taken out. The other effect is that it lessens your contributions into social security and makes your income at the end of the year look smaller on paper. This might be problematic when someone is looking at your income taxes to verify income because it will show a lower amount of actual income. If you're working with banks or lenders in other areas, it might be wise to do business with those who are familiar with the trucking industry so they understand that your adjusted gross income is only your income on paper not what you entirely bring home in a paycheck.

***
Pro: If you like newer equipment, Central has a lot of it.
Con: If you are a company driver, you really don't have much of a choice.

Pro: If you like people who deal with you fairly bluntly and to the point, Central is a good choice
Con: If you take everything personally, you'll hate Central.

***
This is my personal observation, so I'll take whatever heat comes down the pipe with it but...

Pro: Central has a lot of good load planners and dispatchers on the dedicated side.
Con: I believe most dispatchers and load planners start on the OTR side. If you are a company driver, you'll most likely start on the OTR side and have to wait 6 months and have a clean sheet to go to the dedicated side. If you get a bad dispatcher or load planner or someone completely new, you might be stuck reporting back on just how bad Central is in a forum post here. This isn't always the case - I went out team driving with my trainer after training on dedicated and then went solo owner-op so I was able to stay on the dedicated side.
***
Pro: If you just want to cruise along and make some money without having to put much thought into the job, go with the company driver.
Con: If you put too much thought into the job, it'll drive you up a wall. Company drivers are force dispatched with very few exceptions. You're also forced to meet Central's requirements for idle time, fueling stops, etc.

This isn't a slight against company drivers but Central gives company drivers all of the direction with very little autonomy from my impression. So if you're told to put 150 gallons of fuel in at the TA in East KC, you put in 150 gallons of fuel at the TA in East KC whether you love or hate stopping/fueling at TAs.
***
Pro: Central is probably far easier to navigate than Swift. The few terminals Central has and the regular staff at the terminals means you can actually get to know the people who work on your equipment.
Con: If you don't like any of the people working on your equipment, you don't have many options and you're just as likely to get three different answers at three different terminals.
***
Con: Central cut most of the bonus programs before I started. Word is that they are supposed to be bringing them back but I'll count chickens when they've hatched. I put this as a con as currently a few other major players are starting to put back their pay structures. Crete just pumped up their starting pay back to pre-economic meltdown levels. Many other companies are offering bonuses and incentive packages.
Pro: Central seems pretty fiscally conservative. While the bonuses are a nice perk and might eventually sweeten the pot, I'm also kind of glad they are going the conservative route given the questionable nature of our "recovery". The last thing I need is to be looking for a new job because a company jumped too early on the recovery bandwagon only to watch freight fall back to the floor again.
***
Con: Central pays on HHG mileage and I'm almost sure Swift does as well. While this is the "industry standard" structure, many larger companies have moved to a "practical mile" standard which means you actually get paid for more of the miles you are actually driving instead of the miles between zip code borders.

 

Thank you two for taking the time to write all that out. It is a help.

 

Hi i recently joined this site and stumbled on this thread i had a few questions hopefully i can get some help in them I am supposed to start school Sep. 7th and from reading this thread got most of my questions already answered. The questions i have relate to down time. At the school what do you do when you are done with school are there places to go or do you just sit in your room. Once done with school when you are with your trainer are you stuck just staying in the truck 24/7 or are there places to go and get out and about to get some personal time. Once done with training how are the runs? I was told you average 2 weeks away from home is this true? When holidays come around are you working or at home? Would you recommend taking a laptop or ipod stuff like that to entertain you while you are sitting around?

 

After class is over for the day, you can sit in your room, the TV room, or outside. At the West Valley City Detention Center where I trained, there is NOTHING close to do. You can take the shuttle over to walmart, but that's about it.

As for what to do while you are out with your trainer, I was a trainer, I told my students they need to rest, sleep whenever you can. You will be no good to me or yourself if you get fatigued. Plus there is the the whole thing about get adjusted to sleeping while the truck is moving. I don't recomend bringiing a laptop with you, wi-fi sucks on the road you won't find free access points but you can use wireless at truck stops but they charge for it. Of course you could get a AIRCARD from your cell phone company. Most Larger truckstops like TA, Petro and Flying J have a TV room, and game room. Petro's are the best. But really while training you need to rest, and drive. That's about it.

While you are with your trainer, there will be no personal time, you will be on your training truck 24/7, I always tried to get my students by their home city for at least a 34 hour restart at least once during their training. If you get a crappy trainer that takes hometime with you on the truck. Central just requires they provide you a bed, and access to food. So usually they will plop you at a truckstop and you can sleep in the truck while they are at home. I always tried to take hometime after a student was off my truck, I just didn't think it was fair to interupt training for my personal time. Every trainer is different

After training they try to get you home immediatly so you can get your license transfered back to your home state. Then after that you get 1 day off for every week you are on the road, up to 4 days off maximum. So you work 4 weeks out, get 4 days at home. You have to let your DM know at least 9 days in advance when you want to go home.

 

So if I want to run my tail off (loads permitted) and go home every 3 weeks (give or take a couple a days) - is that a realistic goal with Central? Saw a Central driver bobtailing up 75 in a Volvo. Man that was a sweet ride!

 

Ehhh.. Well if loads permit.. I've been gone a month and I couldn't run my tail of if my life depended on it, but I contribute my go go go attitude and figure I rubbed someone wrong a time or two.

I can't believe your calling a volvo a sweet ride.. But it is better than the century that my company just loves... Bah.. Get a w9 at central.. Then you'll be big dog status. Lol.. But honestly.. 3-4 weeks is maditory.. How can you make money staying out 14 and going home 2 or so days?? I, myself, prefered 5 weeks as a company guy.. Better money and my dm was cool.. So I could earn 5 or so days..