Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

I wasn't actually talking about a lease that benefits the driver, I'm just talking about the lease costing the driver the least. Central's break even point to not have a negative paycheck is lower than most, around $900 instead of $1200 or more some companies have.

 

If you're an experienced driver, you'll have to give 10 years of employment, even if only a few months is trucking related. Most companies though, will accept 3 years previous employment if you have no experience.

If you want to apply somewhere that's asking for 10, call them up, explain you have no previous driving experience, and see if they still need 10 years.

Man, at this point, I couldn't give you the dates I was employed or unemployed much before I went to get my CDL.

 

That's the best advice anyone can be given. Most drivers don't make it through the first year, let alone the first 4 or 5. How can you know, with 3 months experience, if you're going to want to do it in 4 or 5 years?

My co-driver and I weren't able to lease at 30 days, or 3 months. Since we'd been trained elsewhere, we had to wait 6 months. At 6 months, we didn't even discuss leasing, except to say if we were still there in a year, we could discuss it. At a year, we decided to stay with Central another year, and not to lease.

By the end of the second year we knew too many lease ops that couldn't make it, and we decided leasing wasn't for us. We were hounded for years to lease a truck, but we never caved. Eventually, they decided it was easier to get the rookies leasing, and left us be. But, I think because we wouldn't lease, they cut our milage.

In the end, we never leased, and we're in better positions because of it. Had we leased and left the industry, we'd be in a heap of financial trouble.

 

They tout freedom as a reason to lease, claiming you get a lot of control. They don't mention if you train or you're on a dedicated fleet, you don't have the freedom to turn down loads.

Keep the benefits, even if the pay is lousy, you have benefits as a company driver.

 

I read this before of companies that train and push the lease: they seem to have a tier and the TOP of the chain goes for TEAM LEASE/op who never go home.

It seems that people who are the most content work for companies that train for 1 or 2 years and then move to a company like Conway or some other that will only hire people who have survived the first 2 or so years with a clean record.

But Central seems like a good place to learn the business, it is in my top 5 so far with:
Swift, Roehl, Prime, Scneider, JBS... I do want to get my CDL paid for and I want to be able to take home time in Cali... anywhere 2 hours from San Diego... so I don't know how many of those would allow that.

 

Talked to Omar in recruiting today, nice guy.I'm filling out the application tonight.

If I take my car to CDL training in SLC, do they have a safe place to park it while I am out with a trainer for 4-5 weeks?

 

Central has a parking lot that's fairly well lit, and you can park there. They used to have security patrolling the lot, but I didn't see it the last couple of times I was there. Doesn't mean it's not there though.

Talk to your recruiter about parking there, sometimes they require a permit.

 

Curiosity Question. What does it mean when you are "written up" for something? My husband got his load in late for the first time ever, completely his fault, his stupid alarm didn't go off, and was written up. When he asked his DM what that means to him he was told that the receiver was complaining. Doesn't exactly answer the question. Has anyone here been written up and what does that mean to a driver. Thanks in advance for the answers.

 

Service Failure.. Too many of them in a short period can end his career. Fix the alarm and he should be fine.. One Service Failure is not the end of the world...

 

i wouldn't say end his career.

central isn't the only place on earth to get a job. there are lots that don't use dac.

you're better off with a small company anyways. compared to the bigger companies,

or even the local companies if you can find any that still pay a decent wage.
around here. to get a new job entails working for $3 less an hourhen t when i first started trucking 10 years ago.