Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

now I'm sittin at my next 01 waitin to get loaded after being 8 hrs late. Was assigned load 1 hr before appt and I was still 2hrs away from the previous 99. Trl DOT bumper was falling off. (dont know why conway decided to load it that way. Inside fiberglass covering the insulation was ripped. And had "no registration". So went to the ta in bloomington to qc otr, safety, dispatch and fuel/permits. Got a faxed copy of the trl reg, open the reg box, take out the holder and no reg. 2 seconds later it falls out of the box. (false ticket). Took the trk to get fixed then bobtailed to the drop yard in bolingbrook to get an mt trl. 30 miles from the yard stopped traffic! Took me 2 hrs to go 10 miles. Picked up empty and the brakes aren't that great abs not working and they lock up when need to stop quick. Took trl anyway...was the only mt. Drove to chicago. I 355 was backed uo because the exit I needed had no working traffic lights.. 30 minutes to go 1 mile. Finally get to 01 with 10 min left to drv and they are taking their time. Hope they don't thing they are punishing me for being late and eat up my hrs! Don't have any anyway... Lol

 

lol.. man mike.. im sorry man.. ill be honest with yall.. boot told me to watch it.. but i didnt heed his warning.. so buddy.. you were right.. never after you've had a service failure.. and your driving.. put yourself on line 2 instead.. i did it ALOT last month.. and wolff caught me.. because it took only took me 2 hours to cross wy.. lol.. I mean, i was only doing it to be on time, help my dm out.. and myself.. but he told me.. "its your responsibility to dot to keep correct logs, you could really give central a bad name with your false logs..".. but yet..our new guys smashing up peoples trucks, buildings and killing people from accidents, give us a great safety record.. even though i make sure to keep my truck dot acceptable.. and always try to only do this when needed.. im punished.. but im being adult about it.. i made a mistake and took advantage of a situation to work harder... but its alright.. im not sorry i did it.. i made good money and made myself and dm look awesome to planners.. and im starting to see better loads because of my dependablity and willingness to do anything for planners.. im sorry if anyone disagrees with me.. but are my motives wrong...

 

Don't know that your motives are wrong but this business is definitley CYA. You may have made yourself look good but........things could go wrong fast. I have almost 2 yrs now and have had 2 wrecks that were ruled non preventable, thank god. However, if I hadn't had been legal......who knows what would have happened. As for making you and the DM look good to the planners, well yours must operate different than ours. I have never yet met a planner in my company and don't even know if I have a dedicated one or not. I do know tho, from personal experience, that doing favors for my company is all one way. They'll ask you for a favor then promptly forget you.
I do wish you lots of luck tho and feel that your going to be left to sweat a bit then get off with a warning. Thats my hope anyway.

 

Parked it in St Joseph MO for the night. Those were some really bad storms up north. Apparently the spot I was at in Iowa was the churning point for all the bad stuff up in MN and WI.

DM... I would say your intentions were good, but ya gotta follow them rules. The problem with e-logs and the current HOS rules is no flexibility. I can't say I've never violated, but each time I did I had no other choice and I quailcommed safety right after to explain why. Hopefully you'll get off with just a warning.

Gotta be in Savannah on Monday AM, I belive I got my hours sorted out to make it with a hard run tomorrow, a half day Sunday and then some early mornin truckin into the 99.

 

Yeah, I hope wolff will take pity on the fool who cheats on his e-logs... hehehe.. either way, the new job offer is asking for about 800 miles a day for 5 days a week.. so im just gunna sit back and see what happens monday.. but i appreciate the help guys.. im assuming with our planners.. theres only a hand full.. and i pissed em off as a new lease op.. so im trying to win thier trust back.. either way..im just ready to know..

 

I can tell you as a fact DM, to check into that company all you can.
If they are running those loads that way all the time they will have some drivers caught for falsification, if they have not already.
All it will take is a couple to get busted, especially with a small company. Then with CSA2010. A few caught with only a small number of trucks and they will get an audit, and they will fail.
No matter how well you log it you cannot hide 800 mile days 5 days a week. 700 maybe, but that is about the limit and that is running 11, take 10, run 11, take 10. And running that way for 5 days.
When they are caught it will put them under in no time, and you could go down with the ship.
I ran 98% legal at Central and took home 1000 a week as a company driver.
I ran 99% legal at my last company and I took home about the same money.
I run 98% legal here, make a little less a week but I am home more so I will accept that.

At the large company's I hardly ever get pulled into scales. At the small company I was inspected 3 times in 1 year. Because one or two of the drivers could not log well. And they are getting nailed even more now I hear.

The industry is "worried" about a driver shortage. I do not believe this is the case, just as most drivers know it is not the case. They are just worried they will have to pay more.
Rates are going up slowly due to old contracts and many owner OP's having no clue that rates are going up, so they are still taking the cheap crap.
Eventually they will rise some though, and the industry will hit it's capacity for the number of trucks on the road and rates will rise.
As long as some company's are still running illegal freight the rates will never get to where they should be though. If they all had to run legal then we would hit capacity faster, and rates would go up even more.
Then you would be getting more money for running less miles, which is the plan.

Also, .50 cpm is ok, but since you will have to pay all your taxes, SSI, etc etc, I would not work for less than that. And remember, if you are hurt you are SOL. No unemployment no workers comp, no nothing. You are on your own. He is probably going to be running you as an employee also, so you will be breaking the law. But that will hurt him more than you.

 

no more UNO pizzas for me at those service plazas! Apparently they are microwaved!

On a good note. I got a free truck wash today in Pittsburgh PA since it was raining so hard. Many people stopped on the side until the rain went by and a bunch of us went through it at 30mph. Now im shut down for the night at the service plaza in somerset with another central truck in front of me.... dont know who it is though.

 

those fred meyers were easy everything worked out 1 time for once now sitting in sidney ne at the wal mart heading to de kalb il hope they let me drop monday morning dont want to wait until tuesday night for this load

 

I swear a little black cloud follows my truck around, just to be difficult.

We had a stop engine warning today, so we pulled over on the side of the highway, far enough off that we weren't on the rumble strip.

We pull up the code, and qualcomm OTR asking what it is. By the time we do that it's gone away.

2 minutes later someone comes by and takes off our driver mirror. He doesn't stop.

We move up to see if he's pulled over up a ways. I'm on the phone with OTR who's playing Accidents Dept for me. We nearly get hit twice more.

At the advice of OTR, and our personal opinion, we take the truck up an exit, flip around, and head to the TA.

Total time from pulling over for the warning to moving again? 5 minutes.

Now we're sitting, waiting for Cummins and International to open up on Monday. DPF then mirror... the truck mirror is covered in duct tape and zip ties, with a Freighliner mirror in place. At least it got us to a yard.

 

I drove for central for two years, and it was a great place to get started. Considering one of the lowest paying companies on the market, you will get the experience you need. After 6mo I went L/O and watched my miles slowely diminish to the point I was making my truck payment and having about $100 or less to live on. This was during the economic downturn however. My loads consisted of, for example, 2 days wait to pick it up and 4 days to go $1100 miles. The other problem I see with central is they have 100+ people going through there schools per week. The students all have the promise of a truck and a job when they finish school. They do not have enough freight to keep up with this amount of students. So they are looking for a huge turn over or that means a lot of sit time for established drivers, unless you are a trainer or dedicated team driver.
Best of luck