Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

Wow, that's very insightful. Sounds kind of scary though.

 

I don't want to lease because I want to actually own my own truck. So here is my question. My credit score is 650 the last I checked about 4 months ago. So how much would I need to save up to put down on a decent truck and still have some workable payments that will let me make money?

 

Any o/o out there gotten the 4 TH quarter safety bonus yet?
DM said we didn't have enough miles one month, but safety said we meet all criteria. Haven't seen it yet though....

 

I read somewhere that if you want to drive for Central, you have to go through their school or have 3 months OTR experience. Can anyone confirm this? I am considering entering a local approved school and it doesn't seem like a smart thing to pay for two CDL schools.

 

for central if you have 3-6 months otr then you take a road test and are good to go. If you just came out of a school with no experience then you will still have to go with there school and training. So no is not a smart thing to pay for two CDL schools. If you can afford a different training there are other companies out there that will pay you more. However look at how many miles you will get. A job that pays you .35 a mile with only 1000 miles a week compared to a job that pays you .28 with 3000 a week you do the math. This is an exaggeration but you get the point do your home work. If you can make more doing private school and can affored it then go for it

 

OK There is more to this story.. I have yet to see them pull anybody off a load to talk to them about a lease. They pull drivers off of loads because of HoS issues, or safety violations. Contrary to popular belief here NOBODY is forced or pressured into leasing. Yes they have the posters all over about leasing and they send the stupid qualcom messages about much more you would have made if you leased, but they don't pull you off loads to talk about a lease unless the DRIVER requests it.

If he's not getting the miles he needs to have a long talk with his DM or find a new one.. Even in this bad time of the year I am still averaging 2800+ miles a week. Granted I am on the Kraft Dedicated fleet, but even they slow down this time of year and bei ng dedicated doesn't guarantee you miles. All dedicated means is you haul one company's freight.

I really am not trying to be rude, but there is more to this story.

 

Chompi I have heard all the horror stories, weighed all the facts. Asked question of people who did not have a vested intrest in me leasing.. I have looked at other options, compared them to what Central offers.. I waited a year to even think about it, because I wanted to see what a full year would bring. Beleive it or not I have treated this last year as if I have been leasing.. IF I do this I will not be going into it blindly. I ran a rather sucessful IT business for years before our economy tanked. My wife ran her own business for the same number of years. Neither of us are going into this without a clue how to run a sucessful business.

I know about ALL of the 'hidden' expenses.

As for 'benefits' Central's company benefits suck and I do have full VA Benefits. 401K's are not the only way to save for retirement.

When I first got on this board everyone made it rather clear how much trucking sucked and I would not make it as a Driver. How many times did I hear wait 6 months or wait a year and tell us how you feel. Well I have exceeded the year and I still feel the same way I did a year ago. It wasn't too long ago you said you thought I would be one that did make it..

Now once again I am hearing all the naysayers and I will ask this 'What makes you think I would go in to leasing without the same forethought and research I did when I got my CDL?' There are those in the IT field that still seek out my guidence on projects because they know I don't do anything without thinking it to death.

While I may spend money on things I want when I want them, my wife will not. I have learned to let her handle the finances and when I see something I want I let her tell me when I can buy it.

If I do this and I stress IF, it will not be blindly..

However, I appreciate the advice.

 

You can make money without leasing on. I didn't spend most of my paychecks in the hole as a company driver. I didn't make as much as I could have. I like to go home regularly, and I was half a team, with a number of dms that didn't know how to run teams.

The good thing about not leasing is that you can go home without worrying about being in the hole, and if you're stuck with low miles for a week, it's not going to give you a hugely negative paycheck.

 

For the most part, planners don't check and see who's a lease op vs who's a company driver when they assign loads. If your truck number is one they've have trouble with in the past, they will pass you up for a different truck.

However, your milage also depends on your dm. If your dm has a rep as an idiot, then you're not going to see as many miles. My current boss hated one of my previous dms, and would complain whenever I came and talked to him. He liked me, so we got milage, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of my old dm's trucks got hosed because of it.

This isn't to say that lease ops don't get some preferential treatment, because when I was otr, I did lose some loads to lease ops. Sometimes is was folks who were headed home, but there were also cases where a lease op would brag to me (since we'd get their crap load) that they threw a fit and got a better load. Those were usually the ones I didn't bother to tell if the lights were burned out, or a tire was bad.