Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

*sighs* I just can NOT get out of this NE crap. Preplan has me going to CT., right into the teeth of this new storm.

 

Hoooo boy! Got a call from roadrunner last night telling me he will be meeting up with me around lunch time today so we can get to know each other a bit before we head out for North Platt Nebraska. I can't tell y'all how excited I am. I broke down and bought a bright red Central shirt so I don't embarrass him. I couldn't sleep last night, I was so excited I will be the first in our class to leave WVC to start my new career. WooHoo!! Okay, gotta calm down or I'll wake everyone up. Did I mention I'm excited??

 

Man I sure wish you were excited and energized about getting out there... Enjoy and soak up the knowledge!! Then let us know how you're doing!!

 

Greetings everyone. Although I haven't posted anything in months I have been watching this thread and decided today would be a good time to reintroduce myself.

I drove for Central for 2 years. I turned in my truck last week because I found a job driving a cement mixer locally. I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed every night.

To those who are just starting or are considering Central and ask "Are they a good company to work for?" I would answer "It depends". As long as you do not set your expectations too high, do the job they hired you to do to the best of your ability, communicate calmly and rationally with your DM when you need to, and accept the fact the Central, as well as every other company I've heard about, have some of the dumbest policies I've ever encountered. (To be fair, I have come to understand why some of these policies needed to be implemented). Understand that your paychecks will vary widely from week to week for various reasons and occasionally you will have no paycheck at all. Be prepared to not see family and friends for weeks at a time.

As for leasing, the numbers just never worked for me. The risk/reward ratio always seemed to heavy on the risk side. That, and my wife would have divorced me so fast it would make your head spin, kept me as a company driver.

I will also vouch for 6pak as a trainer. He was assigned as my trainer after I was having trouble mastering some skills and my original trainer and the training dept. agreed that a change may be best. I only spent two weeks with him and to this day we remain friends and talk on a regular basis.

It's amazing to me how this thread has sustained itself as long as it has. It's almost become a guilty pleasure watching it seeing who comes and goes and how long they stick around.

I've made a few friends from this forum, and I value their friendship. I wish I could have met more of you. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

To those who are just starting out. I wish you the best of luck and safe travels. There are some good folks here and have good information to share.

To those considering Central, make sure that trucking is something you can handle. Not so much the driving aspect but the emotional/psychological side. If you have a family, can you all deal with it. I know that it was hard on my wife with me being away so much. I still don't see how those with younger children can deal with it. I am in no way criticizing their decision but I know I couldn't have done it.

Best wishes to all.

 

River_Runner - thank you for chiming in, and hello, nice to meet you Just because you're not 'OTR' any more doesn't mean you can't chime in - it sounds like you're saying good bye?!? Please don't leave for good!! You have knowledge and info you can share - even if you don't currently work for Central. Congrats on getting a job that will let you get home every night! Here I am looking forward to NOT being home - LOL!

 

Chompi wrote somewhere that reefers are loud so that people at one's apartements might not allow parking it there?

 

I just wanted to say that I haven't driven for Central for almost 2 years, so the information I have may be a bit dated, but it is from my experiences. I was a complete noob to trucking and had NO idea what I was getting into. The first week on my trainers truck I almost quit 3 times. But I had a awesome trainer, I thought he was the biggest ####### in the world, but realized later when I was on my own truck he was giving me information I needed to not only be safe, but to be profitable.

His name is Richard Ohanrahan and he is one of only a few company drivers that Central allows to be a trainer still

I still talk to him off and on.

I had a bad expierence with some ice the other night, and I heard his voice in my head telling me how to pull out of a jacknife

hardly a day goes by that I still don't use something he taught me. Likewise hardly a day goes by that I don't learn something new. When you get to the point of being comfortable, not learning, and complacent is when it is time to hand them the keys back because you are going to have an accident

It took a long time for me to realize that I do like my job, maybe not so much the lifestyle, but I can't think of a better job.

eventhough I got off the road for awhile, because I was at the point that I was feeling too comfortable with it, I had an accident, granted it was a minor accident backed into a fence, I wasn't doing the things I should have been doing like GOAL, I realized that it was just a matter of time till I had a serious accident and maybe someone doesn't get to go home to their family. So I turned in my truck, it took quite awhile for me to get my head on straight and get back on the road

When I did I was quite a bit rusty, and had to go out with a trainer here at Werner for a couple weeks, he was also a great guy, and I was ready to go to work from the first day I stepped into his truck. Some people think having to go out with a trainer was an inconvience, but to me it was a benifit, that way I had someone watching me to make sure I was really focused on what I needed to do.

There was one night that he didn't do what he needed to do, didn't GOAL and he backed into a trailer at a truckstop, didn't cause any damage to either truck, but he realized that he was starting to get comfortable and needed to focus on doing the right things

People that don't sit behind this steering wheel have no idea, whether it be wives, husbands, the general public

So I try to provide the best information I can, but keep in mind everyone learns things and teaches things different. Things change quickly, and but I will say this Central is still a very good company to get a start with and I still have several good friends who drive for them, but some things can't be taught and when you have more expierience you will be able to figure them out on your own, just focus on the things you need to do

At Werner they have a slogan, Start your day with Safety and End it the same way

 

Passed my pre-trip and backing skills,got to take em a day early! YAY ME! Only have the driving test for tomorrow!

 

i doubt very seriously you will be able to get a truck and 53 feet of trailer in an apartment complex and be able to turn it around with out wiping something out