Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

Thank you Chrome Dome!! It was a quesiton Hubby and I were wondering

 

Does the CRS trucks have a navigation system in them?
If not, what is everyone else running?
I have been looking at some online. But I want to make sure I get one that will deal with "truck routes".

 

Klingon, I don't know what people are using for gps but my advise is to get a Rand Mc nally motor carrier atlas all the truck routes, low clearances, scale locations and its around $20. if nothing else its a good backup.

 

Central pays for lumpers, but not all loads use them. We still don't unload a lot of freight, mostly it's nursery, christmas trees, and helping with Fred Meyer loads out of chehalis. I once had to tailgate a load of matresses, b ut that was a brokered load, not a normal load.

 

Ni navigation system. Rumor has it we're getting new Qualcomms with the truck routing built in, but that's been the rumor for years. I saw one of them a couple years ago, looked neat.

Central provides routing and directions over the qualcomm. It's not completely accurate, but it's what they want you to follow for the most part. So technically you don't need a GPS or anything like that.

Buy yourself a trucker's atlas. I recommend the large scale ones. Sometimes it's a pain to have to see the state on 3-4 pages, but more often than not, it's a blessing. Usually when the new ones come out they're about $35 but you can often get last year's version for less than $20. Make sure the pages are laminated or tear resistant, and use a wet erase marker to plan your routes. Sometimes drawing on the map helps if central's directions are screwy.

I have a Garmin truck GPS. I don't recommend them. Maybe it's just mine, but it freezes and reboots, and when it reboots, it tells me my moving average is 171 mph. This is my second one, and seecond one to do this. So I'm either really unlucky, or they all do it.

 

ChromeDome explained it really well. One thing that I don't agree with is how much milage we're shorted. Expect to drive 10% farther than what they're paying you. So a 700 mile load will be closer to 800 when all is said and done. Unless you pick up and drop off on the same highway, it ends up longer. Fred Meyer loads are usually pretty accurate coming out of Oregon to Idaho. But I've had Hershey loads out of Pennsylvania going to Utah that were 150 miles more to drive than they paid.

 

It sounds like they use the ICC mileage charts then. Years ago when I was a O/O they were always short.... it seem like they went from Post Office to Post Office.

 

Thanks to everyone here, I got the basic message:

Take any load you can even if it a **** load.
Communicate and problem with on time delivery as early as possible (good trip planning can find some of these before accepting the load)
Don't expect to get home every week. The longer you stay out, the more you make.

 

and above all stay safe. and remember if the wheels ain't turnin you ain't earnin.