Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

I will share our experience thus far with Central .....my husband and I are on our 14 th day of training on our trainers truck, as of today we are at 11200 miles! We have busted our butts to run these kind of miles in a short time. We have only missed two drop times ( weather related ). We have an awesome trainer and even though he's only been with Central for 13 months and we are only his 3 rd trainies he haa a good head for maximizing his earning potential. He takes every load as if its has to be now! We hump it all the way there and communicates constantly with his dispatcher to either get it dropped or delivered earlier and we've always gotten preset before we're done with the current load. I guess what I'm trying to say is he built himself a consistent reputation of getting his loads delivered. He also takes advantage of being able to fuel when and where he wants, he will call fuel and permits every morning for stops on his route to find the cheapest fuel! Amazingly you would be surprised at the price difference between the fuel stops Central tells you to take and how much cheaper he can get just buy calling f/p its been as much as 40 cents. Most l/o's don't realize the more money you save in fuel costs the better you pocket. Our trainer is an ex new car salesman, he says thinks the lease contract is a good deal if you take advantage of everything (basically have a business plan) it is a no fail way of making money. Of course this is only my opinion by way of his experience.
On the topic of how many actually finish with Central ...our class started with 41 and graduated 23, out of those 3quit within 5 days on their trainers truck and 4 more quit the second wk on their trainers truck! I don't believe any of those were a reflection on Central as much as a couple we believe were preplanned a couple more probably didn't expect to have to drive the mountains or I 80 with blowing snow and ice (I hated it myself ) and I think the others just weren't cut out for it. Like it's been said before, it's not for every one!
On a side note, I like Central but I do believe as far as a team outlook I think they don't pay as much as other companies. I can't decide if I want to stay past a yr or if we can make better money somewhere else after a yr or stay and lease so we can control better when and how much time we take off. I like the idea of being able to take a month off in winter (as long as we can cover the payments ) if we wanted to,as a company driver you can take no more than 4 days off. Anyway, now I'm rambling! Be safe!

 

No fail way of making money? Jess you want to take this, LOL

 

Please do not drink the koolaid, it is spiked! Ther are no guarantees with any trucki g company and central is no exception. As far as their lease purchase agreement, ask them if you can take the agreement to a lawyer to have looked at before you sign it. They will tell you that you cannot take the agreement out of the building. Don't get me wrong, I work for them and believe that they are resonable to work for. There are other companies that pay more, but from the standpoint of a " training company" they are good. When I first started it was pretty rocky and my weekly checks were about 200-400 bucks. I decided it was time to get aggressive with my dm and went thru 3 dm's before I finally found one that understood that I wanted to run hard and preferred to do reset at home and not in a truckstop. I am now getting a lot of miles as a COMPANY driver and will NEVER sign one of their lease agreements. I have spoken to 2 other l/o drivers recently and they said it was a mistake. The miles dropped off, but the payments remain the same. If you want to get a truck I suggest you save enough money to make a downpayment and finance it through your favorite lending institution.

 

I agree with Nomadtrucker About 1 in ever 5 l/o have the ability to make money and stay on top. The best thing would be to buy a truck out right and then work for the company as an o/o. I know that I don't have much experience and there are some l/o that have done extremely well but it is scary in the sense that the company could hold you hostage and make you broker than dust in a wind storm.

Now I run pretty well most weeks. This week is going to be a bit rocky and I pray that the following week will pick up. I did a 1100 mile load then 136 mile load am doing a 45 mile load and then a 352 mile load. Now thats not including the dead head but its still looking like a pretty sad week. I cant pick up the 45 until 2201 tonight and it drops tomorrow 0900 then i pick up the 352 and it drops Monday at 0600 this is alot of time for some pretty short loads. But I'm confident that by doing these they will come back to me with some pretty hefty loads after that. (However I wont hold my breath) I have never turned down a load and as you can see I take what they give me.

 

The only terminal in the south east is Conley. They may have a drop yard in other states but no actual terminal with a dispatch office. .

 

Wow, sounds like I stirred up a hornets nest! I am really not sure yet what my opinion is about the lease. He was in the car business so he understands what the lease says compared to the average person. And from what I have heard from different people if you have to change dispatchers to get more loads that's what you do if you have to take some #### loads at times that's what you do too! And its my impression that the only way to make money as a l/o is either as a trainer or a married team, a solo l/o is going to struggle. Please don't think I am trying to convince anyone that leasing is perfect. Merely sharing!

 

At Iowa 80 with 931 miles out of this 3k mile load to go. Need to deliver Monday 0800.

 

Mamamia, that's funny you mention the "zipper"! My wife could slam zip that thing so fast if you touched it, it would leave third degree burns! We know all to well about curtain slamming! So is your husband on the road with you now driving?

Poolplntrucker, you guys seem to have a knowledgeable trainer. Sounds like he is properly training a team to hustle.

" He takes every load as if its has to be now!"

That is what you need to do with every single load no matter how much time you have on it. This is the only way you will make money at it. As soon as you pick up your load you tell your dm when you will be there and you try to arrange to deliver early or drop. As soon as you get those instructions then your dm should be working on your next load. It's a little different from what the recruiters at school told you huh? This is why most of the newbies say that the driving is the easy part! It's nice though that a husband/wife team can split the truck duties. My wife used to do all the office work/phone calls, logs etc... I would do the extreme driving and take care of all the mechanical aspects of the truck and trailer. I was also a little better at navigating. Two people in the truck makes going into NYC a piece of cake!

Glad to you guys are doing well! Drive safe!

 

Thanks, Smurfette.

 

Not entirely true, catfish has a dispatch office with a central employee as a load planner in Isola, MS. They consider the fish place there a "terminal" it listed it I think the code is CRSIS if I remember right, it was listed as my "home" terminal. Plus they have drivers drop loads there

But unless you were on the fish dedicated most drivers never knew that it existed