Central Refrigerated Truck Stop II

I heard the Chicago local guys were all being moved to run local in Presque Isle.

 

i assume your joking. um but chicago local aint going no where everything mainly in the midwest is in IL. hell i do kraft loads cuz they cant even handle it. so we cant go no where. just dont want swift to make us re-apply for our local jobs. esp before my 1 year is hit. cuz i wont leave till my 1 year hit

 

It happens to me occasionally too (long or short posts) ... It's kind of a 'random drug screen' of the Forum World... A scattered sampling

 

Yeah. I was thinking about that too. If I lose my local position I'm not sure what I'd do. Maybe go back to Midwest until my Year is up. Which isn't until June. Or if I'd try and go local back home. Or go back to driving forklift. Who knows. For now I'll just not worry about it. Keep it in the back of my mind so it doesn't bother me too much.

 

Central will pay more than $15 a day in scales. Comdata only covers $15, but if you end up scaling more than your $15 (or you pay cash for a reweigh), all you do it turn in the receipt and a copy of the scale ticket, and they will reimburse you. As long as what you turn in is legit, and you turn both those things, you'll be reimbursed.

The amount on our cards for fluids and for scaling isn't set in stone. I don't know if they can do it now, but fuel and permits used to be able to change that amount if you went in and asked them, and they liked you. Before I was a local, my cards allowed me $30 a day in scales and like $50 in fluids, and my co-driver's was the same. Fuel and permits knew us though, and knew our truck and our scaling habits. Once we became locals, they changed the limits again, to what I don't remember.

 

Swift officially bought out Central, in August. Right now we're on a wait and see for what's going to change. A few things have, but right now the only people who really know what's going on are the people making the decisions on what to change.

Actual facts:
Fuelling will have changed slightly by the time you join Central. In December our TCH cards will be shut off, so we will use Comdata only. This came out in a message across the Qualcomm this week.
The shop in West Valley City is no longer 24 hours, it closes from midnight through 6am. Again, came across the Qualcomm.
If you decide to use the 401k, you will be using the one Swift has, because they're transitioning all of Central's 401ks into the company/investment portfolio/whatever Swift uses. This came to me in a flyer in the mail.
If you need repairs and you're in a town with a Swift terminal, you may be sent there. I needed A and B service, and an air leak fixed, and I was routed to the Swift Terminal in town.

Things I (or my girlfriend or co-worker) have heard, but haven't seen for ourselves:
All old Qualcomms are going to be replaced because they're not compatible with Swift's system. My gf and I were both told this by our bosses. My co-worker heard that all Qualcomms are going to change, even the newer model, because they're not compatible with Swift's system.
Central's phone system isn't compatible with Swift's, so Swift is going through and installing their phone system alongside Central's, so the office staff are using 2 phones.
The office staff don't know who Swift is going to keep, and who they're going to let go, or when. Which departments are being kept or consolidated is up in the air.

What I've heard that can't be confirmed. In other words, these are rumors, I wouldn't put ANY faith in them until we hear something from someone reliable.
We're going to stay Central Refrigerated, a division of Swift.
We're going to lose the Central name and become Swift.
We're going to take over all of Swift's reefer contracts, and just be the reefer arm of Swift.
Swift's going to close down all the departments but dispatch in WVC and make us all deal with safety/accidents/claims/payroll/etc out of their main office in Phoenix.
Swift's going to keep some of the people in the safety/claims/accidents/payroll/etc departments, but no one knows if it's based on time with the company or how good they are. Also, if they keep these people, no one knows if they'll have to move to Phonex.

There's a lot more rumor than fact right now, so we're all waiting to see what happens.

My biggest concern is that my job, or my girlfriend's job, will be eliminated. Swift already has local and intermodal drivers in our city, and we don't know if they're going to keep us and our drop yards, keep us but consolidate drop yards, or let us go and have their locals take over our local duties. Our city only has 2 Central locals, and 2 central intermodal locals, so it's possible Swift can spread the work of 4 drivers among however many they have. We don't know, and until someone tells us what's going to happen, it's just business as usual. Which means I need to get off the computer and go shuttle a trailer.

 

They are taking all old Qualcomm out and putting the new ones (ones like in the cascadias) in. It's a 6 hour job because they tear out everything and start from scratch. I just experienced this personally. Oh. And you will have to take everything out of your truck for them to do it. They haven't said anything about replacing the new qualcomms. At crsro they still only have one phone. The operations manager and terminal manager here were just at a swift terminal doing training on how to use swifts system. Other that that. It's a waiting game.

 

I seem to remember hearing from a credible source that we are keeping our name. That one was pretty important to me (go figure) so I made note of it. To support that theory, I offer that I have seen 580 trls that still have central logos. If we were losing the name I doubt they would waste the money. (I've decal'd work vehicles before. It ain't cheap) On the other rumors I have no better info than you, but I wondered if anyone else though the death of tch was due to integration with swift. Comdata allows more control over where the drivers do things like fuel, scale, and buy oil than tch. It seems to fit the theme.

 

I'll share with you what management told us when we were bought the first time around:

The over the road, irregular route drivers (most of us) will not notice any more changes than we would normally see in a year. We had to do little things, like re-submit checking account information for direct deposit, swap out fuel cards, stuff like that. But day to day stuff, I wouldn't have noticed. I kept the skunk on the back of my sleeper the whole time.

If we assume that the dedicated routes are profitable, then they will stay the same, with the same drivers. Remember that dedicated routes changes once in a while anyway. Pick up Target, lose Freddy Myer. Pick up Albertsons, lose Kroger. These change anyway, whether we get bought or not.

We're the lucky ones. The people who need to be sweating are the office staff, because if there is duplication of jobs, then somebody has to go.

To put a finer point on it, I didn't see any more changes than I usually see in a year. And remember that when we went through it the first time, we were BANKRUPT. People were worried if their paychecks would be coming or not.

This time around, Uncle Jerry already owns us. He's just bringing the companies together and more drop yards, truck washes, and terminals is not a bad thing.