Central Refrigerated

I wonder if any states have trucks for testing. That would be interesting to see what shape that they were in if that ever were to happen.

 

I just got my cdl through central yesterday. The housing is first week dorm(dorm sucks). second week Ramada(nice and there are some working girls there if you know what i mean). The school is a 2 week crash course, you should be a fast learner if you want to come to the school, if not go to schnider. Central school has the best contract for their school(no contract). Make sure your background is strait before you go. The pay is one of the highest for student drivers(only roel and schnider have slightly higher pay). School will rattle your nerves it is intense, hope you are a smoker

 

Guys I will save you the time I am wanting to get into the Professional Driving field and Schnider is not taking any inexperienced drivers what so ever. Just thought I would give you a heads up.

 

They do have a contract, its a one year deal like most other companies use. Stay for the year & they pay you back for the school, jump ship early & you will owe the balence of your tuiton.

Were you exspecting the Hilton?

Big orenge cut the school awhile back, there is a big pool of experienced drivers to pick from now so they don't need to train.

 

Can anyone who is or has driven for Central Refrigerated ,or any trucker really ,give me some advice and answers to these questions.

Here are a few Endorsements NOT required by Central Refrigerated......
1.Hazmat
2.Doubles
3.Triples
4.Tank
5.Passenger
　
I understand HAZMAT is for Hazardous Materials , TANK is a Tanker .
I think PASSENGER means someone can ride with you ?
Doubles is two Pups ? Triples is three Pups ?
If I needed to obtain these in the future all I need to do is take a written exam ?
　
When you are with a Trainer , I heard that the Trainer will sleep while you are driving , then he will drive while you are sleeping.Is this true ?Kinda defeats the purpose of a Trainer I would think.

Are the hours all over the place with Central Refrigerated ?
I could handle being away from home for long periods of time , but I do not want to be driving a Truck with only 4 hours sleep.

Will you be constantly rushed ?

If you choose NOT to Lease from them do they try extra to #### you over ?
Central basically looks at it like , stay and put up with it for a year or leave , and you still have to pay us ?

Anyone trained at the Illinois location ? How was it ?

I read that they haul food products , are the loads always palletized ?
Do you have to do a lot of unloading yourself ?
Do you get paid to unload the truck ?

What do you average for take home pay starting off when your on your own ? Atleast $500.00 take home every week ?

Does Central Refrigerated offer Per Diem ? From what I read you should take it atleast for your first year so you can have more money every pay check , then the next year you do not have to take it.

I would train in Illinois so Iam guessing that is where they have a terminal/park your truck ?
Does the facilty you are based out of have a certain area they deliver to ? What is Illinois’ area ?
　
What are the CONS of working for Central Refrigerated ?

You are only getting paid from the miles you are driving ?
If your truck breaks down ,NO PAY ?
If you have to wait a day or two for a load , NO PAY ?
　
Is it true that there is some rule that you get paid less or something if you are going under 65 MPH ?

Do they pay miles if the trailer is empty ?

How are the Tractors ? They mostly Manual or Auto ? Do they break down a lot ?

What is DOTand Sheriffs relationship with truckers ? They out to get you ? Or just depends on the person ?

I understand you are learning all the time no matter how long you been driving .Anything I can expect my first year with Central Refrigerated or just in general ?

Is it a good place to get your feet wet starting out ?
Thanks

 

The passenger endorsment allows you to drive a bus. The doubles/triples endorsment allows you to pull two or more trailers. Can't answer the rest.

 

1/ Central doesn't have a school in IL you would go to SLC.

2/When you go out with your trainer if they pass you in the school, Your trainer will be sitting in the Jump seat when you are driving for the first few days. The trainer will let there FM know when the student is ready to start running loads that a team would run.

3/ You can't drive between 2:00am and 6:00am for the first two weeks.

4/ Central has a drop yard in Chicago where you could park your truck on home time.

5/ Yes Central does a lot of Food loads to distribution warehouses and most of the Deliveries are in the am

6/ Per Diem you don't get a choice.

7/ All company trucks are set at 62mph.

8/ Central have Electronic Logs

9/ The Lease program will not be offered until you have been at Central 3 months.

10/ After 6 months if you have no service failures you are eligible to apply for a Dedicated run.

11/ You would pay a Lumper to unload your truck with a comcheck.

12/ Like any other company yes you get paid for the miles you drive.

13/ 9/10 we get bypassed at the scales (E-logs)

14/ If you attend there school you will sign a contract for a year of Service and they take school fees out of your pay weekly.

15/ NO Automatics

16/ As a company driver all miles are paid including empty miles.

 

Just one thing to add. Depending on the load you could get lay over pay or dention pay. detention pay starts 2 hours after your delivery time for a hourly rate. Lay over really depends on your f/m between loads. Also you get extra stop pay if your load has more than one delivery location. Yes they haul mainly food most is on pallets but not all. Potatoes for example can be loaded on the truck loose. They also haul other things my husband has had a lots of fresh flowers and even hair spray one time.

They don't required hazmat or trips/doubles they only pull singles. As far as the passenger P endorsement is for passenger vehicles over 15 people and S is for school bus driving only. Those are the endoresments I have being an ex school bus driver.

My husband is home for a couple days if you would like you can pm him and he will be happy to talk to you his screen name is 1badz28. He has been driving for Central for almost 5 months now. He had a great trainer that did not sleep while he drove till very close to the end of the training when he trainer felt confident he could handle the job. I am sure however some may but I agree with you that the defeats the purpose of training. If they do that is when it is time to request a new trainer and get off that person's truck. Because in reality they are putting both of you in harms way!

 

Thanks for the info Truck Driver , Jess and New Trucker.

Sadly there is no more school in Illinois and I just found out they cannot accept people from Illinois for their other school locations , it has to be done in Illinois.

Any companies in Illinois that offer "Free" training like Central Refrigerated.I doubt I'll get the WIA in time , if I'll even get it.

 

I have been checking out CFS as i ran reefers at home. I found there that the refrigerated work seemed to keep going when other areas slowed down, don't know if that holds true here?

I am based near Sacramento and wondering if they pull much out of their Stockton terminal? Or if that is a good terminal to work out of?

Also wondering if their school is good in Riverside CA?

Any answers greatly appreciated.

Warren