Central Transport (not Central Refrigerated)

Hey Paddington, I just tried to do a quote like you did on me. You know, break the message apart and respond piece by piece but it isn't working!!!

As for equipment, mail haulers are like that, as far as crap equipment. Veltri Trucking, out of Washington, PA, have the junkiest (is that a word?) trucks I have EVER been in. Each one would go through a half to one gallon of coolant, half to a gallon of oil, lights wouldn't work, A LOT of fifth wheel play, trailers that were missing license plates, trailers with no lights, etc. We even had a guy who lost a trailer getting off I-79 with a "brand new" fifth wheel!

As for Erie, that is a monster in itself. My GOD I hate driving there in the winter. It is probably snowing there right now! I hope they keep me the hell away from Erie. Central tells me their road drivers go from Puittsburgh to Cleveland every day. That is a cake run, even in bad weather!!! Please tell me some of the stories! Your stories may scare me away to make sure to bother someone else (start hounding FedEx or even Central if I had to take the lesser of two evils!). I am just hoping ONE of them calls. There's an air freight company in the area here, but they don't want to pay squat. Seriously.

When YRC is in trouble, that scares me. Yet Central tells me they are busy. PLAX is hiring. I guess that is a good sign, right?
I would love to make that kind of money and be home every day. The guy at Con Way tells me you'll work your butt off, but if my w2 looks anything like his, I will consider myself in Heaven. It will make mail look like loose change.
Even if I had to do PJAX or Central, it would be a foot in the door. I have applications in with FedEx National (only FedEx brand hiring drivers right now) and even put on a shirt and tie to go introduce myself personally to the terminal manager. I know they pull their applications from the internet, so I wanted to make mine stand out!
I tend to overthink a lot. I worry about making myself stand out, but don't want to bother the companies at the same time. I made a point to check in on each of my applications, though. I just hate playing the waiting game.

 

Well, even though I have heard horrible things about Central, it is a job that pays better than unemployment....I guess I've adopted this thread somewhat. The more I write and read the posts on this site as a whole, the less I want to crawl up the wall because waiting SUCKS! I am so sick of waiting on jobs to call....Hiring processes take too long! I am trying hard to get on somwehere, but even when I do make some headway, I get the "Call back Monday."

Such is the case with Central. The TM I need to speak to is on vacation. So I had to wait all of last week. He will be back tomorrow, but will be busy most of the day. I have always believed that the early bird gets the worm, so I am going to try to get him Monday, rather than wait til Tuesday.

Seems the trend lately is when I call these places, I am always told that they do need help, such is the case with Central Transport and Con Way. However, with Con Way, I was shot down by their TM. I am hoping the same doesn't happen with Central.

PJAX/Vitran is hiring, but they took applications all last week, and will be making calls this week. I am somewhat optimistic, but letdowns seem to be a very common occurrance nowadays, especially when its a job I really want.

I am thinking that Central and PJAX are my best options right now. I am hoping to get on somewhere soon. Sitting here is driving me nuts!!!

 

Central has a warehouse and docking in Pittsburgh just W. of downtown. 1 yr. recent experience only.They have seems like a running add for the last year so something like turnover is prevalent ,few rigs looked older. I heard the one dispatcher on an eye rolling call concerning breakdown,know what I mean.

 

truckdriver 402, I hope you go with PJAX, their equipment is better then Central and PJAX pays o.t. after 45 hours

 

I hope you didn't apply at Central. I've been driving since 1987 and they are the worse company I've ever driven for. I started driving for Central in June of 2009. When freight is good they will force you to work 14 hours a day, or night, depending on your schedule. That wouldn't even be so bad if you actually got paid for the whole 14 hours. Here is a rundown of some of the problems I have with them.
The dolphin is a handheld scanning unit used for everything you do. You scan the truck you're driving, you depart yourself from a location and arrive yourself at a location, you log onto a forklift with it, you scan freight with it and it tells you where to put the freight (on the dock or on a trailer and which trailer). If you're allowed to take lunch you log off for a lunch break with the dolphin. I was considered a road driver which just means I don't do p&d, I drive to another terminal and work the dock there for 5 or 6 hours then drive back to my home terminal. When I depart myself from a terminal with the dolphin it times how long I take to get to my destination. I only have about 15 minutes to spare on a 3 1/2 hour drive. No time for anything but a quick bathroom break. If I'm late it shows on a computer generated report that each driver gets everyday showing all of our violations. Everything is shown as pass or fail. Being late is a 'fail'. While on the dock drivers don't get a break of any kind. The only drivers who get a lunch break are the local p&d drivers (city drivers). While on the dock we are required to move 18 pieces of freight an hour, most of the time that's impossible. Doesn't sound like much, but then you have many other drivers working the dock getting in each other's way, freight that has to be weighed and lines at the scales. At times the trailer my freight is supposed to go on isn't even at the dock door yet. Often you have to recharge your forklift. They want us to build decks in the trailers so we can fit more freight, but if you build even one deck you can't then move 18 pieces of freight in the hour. There are just so many things that can get in the way. But if you don't move 18 pieces of freight you get a 'fail' on your report. When you log onto a forklift using the dolphin you start getting paid hourly when you deliver your first piece of freight to it's destination. I once opened a trailer door to unload it and someone had loaded it poorly and 5 pallets were tipped over. I finally got the first pallet picked up and repalletized and got my dolphin to scan the pallet and the message on the dolphin read " you have been logged off due to inactivity", so I wasn't even paid for at least 30 minutes of hard work. Also, in the winter, the docks are as cold as it is outside. The dolphins don't like the cold and eventually freeze up. You then have to reboot it, which logs you off, and warm it up for it to start working again. I've had to sit in my truck with the heater blowing directly on it to get it to work again. No pay for the driver when this happens. When my terminal went from an Activity Center (compare this to a Walmart Distribution Center) to an Inline Terminal (compare that to a Walmart Store) our pay dropped by $1.50 an hour but we were never told. We had to find out 2 weeks later when it was reflected on our paychecks. I decided to hang in until I had my year in and had earned my vacation. Before I had my year in they took one week's vacation from every driver. I was injured due to poor equipment and am currently out recovering, and since I've been out they have also taken away holiday pay. Now they have something called "paid time off program". I don't even fully understand it, which I believe is the whole point. When I started working there I was told I would receive 2 raises in 3 months. It's now been over a year and I haven't seen a raise yet. And yes, the equipment is ridiculous. I was told to drive one truck 75 miles to another terminal, leave that truck and pick up another to bring back for some repairs. The truck they wanted me to bring back had tires so bald you couldn't even see the tread pattern on some of them. For 5 nights in a row they told me to bring that truck back, and 5 nights in a row I refused. I really thought my job was in jeopardy and I got yelled at by our shop foreman. He told me that as long as he authorized me to drive that truck then it was legal for me to drive it. They actually got some stupid driver to drive that truck back. Our terminal has a shop, the other terminal didn't, but they would rather jeopardize a driver's safety, the public's safety, and potentially the drivers reputation than pay someone to come out and put tires on a truck. One night a driver asked our dispatcher if he could run short that night so he could get back early because he had an early doctor's appointment the next morning. The dispatcher told the driver, "Central doesn't run on your schedule." Sometimes we go to a terminal to meet another driver to switch loads. If either driver had to wait on the other we would get paid delay after an hour, but we had to write it up to get paid for it. Central decided that was too easy so now we have to write it up and call it in. The problem is that they don't have enough dispatchers on duty so the wait can be ridiculous. I have waited 45 minutes on hold. There are never enough forklifts to go around so if you arrive at a terminal where the all the forklifts are already in use, you have to give them an hour for free before you start getting delay time and the delay time is about $3.50 an hour less than working the dock. Also, if you're due in at 7 pm you only have until 7:30 pm to hook up and pretrip. If you aren't ready by 7:30 you still have to depart yourself on your dolphin. Many times I've departed myself before I was able to do my pretrip and then ended up in the shop with a flat tire or light problem. Then I get a fail for taking too long to get to my destination. On top of all that, they told us that we have to crawl under every truck and trailer we hook to and check the brake adjustment, but they haven't given us anymore time to do it.
To me, the saddest thing is that it's not a bad job, it's just a terrible company. Central has taken a decent job and turned it into a lousy job. They set you up to fail. I enjoy the driving and I enjoy the dock work, but I want to get paid for what I do without having to fight for it and prove I earned it. There is so much more I can write, but I think this is long enough already. Obviously, I would not recommend Central Transport to any driver.

 

What's hometime like for central?

 

Hometime is "daily" lol. Before you go there read the post above yours, it is pretty accurate. The only thing I didn't see him mention was that you arrive at 6:45 because you have a depart time of 7:00, the trailers are never ready winds up 8-8:30 before you can get under way. Then you have a truck governed # 60 a 300 mile dispatch to the terminal you are going to so you get ther 2 1:30- 2:00 am, your return load is not ready or the relay you are picking up to bring back isn't there yet, you wait another 1-2hrs, get out at 3-4:00 get back 9-10:00 oh yeah what was that 14 hour rule again? I worked out of nashville tn terminal for about 2-3 months. In that time I would say I was lucky to complete the day inside of 14 hrs maybe 5 times. Most of the time it was 7:00 pm to about 10:30 am then be back again at 7pm. You do not get paid for the waiting time. They paid .38 per mile, then when you were logged on the dolphin it was 18.35 hr, but like the driver above said the dolphin completely dictated your time