Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

Ok so, yesterday another driver took my preloaded trailer by accident, my trailer number was 303387 and he was supposed to get 300387. He had a load going to Ohio and was within 15 minutes of his first stop in Troy, Ohio when I realized my trailer was NOT on the yard. I almost hooked to his and had to double check the number of the trailer assignment on the paperwork.

I called dispatch, they found out the guard shack let him out of the DC. D'OH!!!! so they had him turn around and drag it back. Took 3.5 hours, my clock was running and I was headed to Country Club Hills, and Joliet, Il, with a backhaul from Aurora.

Once he got back, I hooked up and hauled ### (I already had a short run 141 mile run earlier so my clock was running) From Gas City, to Country Club hills was 210 miles. I made the two store stops, but I ran out of hours before I could get to the backhaul, so now I'm on my 10 in Joliet, Il

 

Klingon, doesn't your truck have the siphon guard in it? I know ours does. It doesn't stop it entirely, but they can't get that much.

 

Are you over gross weight or is it the axle weights that are off?

 

A few words from sitting at the safety repeat of the quarter.....

1. If you are sitting in a class and ask a question about how to discern 40', and someone who obviously is not sitting in orientation with you tells you not to trust the stickers, do not argue with us and say the stickers are right. You trust those stickers all the time and don't cry when you get an overweight ticket.
2. If you really think you are going to have enough time and money to figure out the exact weight of fuel on each load, you are insane. Use the guideline of 8 lb per gallon, but when you are going to be pulling a close one consider scale locations, etc when setting tandems and it may be necessary to fuel and run it back across to ensure you will be legal, but I doubt you will have the time or inclination to do it on every load everytime you fuel.
3. There are times you will have to move your fifth wheel. Remember it is a tool when you need to move weight and are restricted at your length. If you forget you can do that, don't complain when you could have left with a load if you had made all possible movements and yet you forget it.
4. Know which states go off tire ratings and which go off 12000 lb on steers period. Again, there may be times you run at 12200 or 12400 on the steers because you are that close on weight. Do not be so naive as to think you won't ever have to do it.
5. I know my truck a whole heck of a lot better than you do, do not question my full tank close to gross steer weight, we have done it too many times pulling beer, and we know it better than you who is just now getting in your first truck of your own. I won't be able to tell you what your truck will axle at, but when you pull the same things over and over, you can estimate your axles based on how a load is loaded and be darn close. Don't go off those estimations as gospel, but again, I know my truck and my loads and my gauges and can come darn close to the weights on a cat scale.
6. Realize that your trainer may be a great person, but your training should not end with that trainer. Learn who you can trust on info, and glean all you can from all the people you can. Remember some of the idiots on the smoke deck are not too far from being unemployed, so their word isn't worth jack. However, there are some of us that literally have to be forced into a terminal because we have to take the safety repeat quarterly crud, and are not there except when we are ordered there.

Sorry for ranting, there were just a couple of people I wanted to tell that they were really not as smart as they thought they were.

Also, anyone have someone other than ATBS for an accountant. Granted I have a degree in accounting, but I am not all about trusting people who don't know as much as I do with my taxes.

 

Just a quick question. Central says they do a lifetime background,ok, in Ca. the law is no one can get access to anothers juvenile record. Has anyone had trouble not disclosing there juvenile record and some how they got access to it and got terminated?

 

Dude, i do not know what a life time background check is???, just don't lie, if they wanna fingerprint me no problem , but if you are hiding something, you are risking a bad reference on your job history

 

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/other/crimlawclean.htm

You may want to consider petitioning the court to have your juvenile records sealed. It would appear from this, that those records can be searched if you have not requested that they be sealed.

My opinion, and that is all this is opinion....if those records are not sealed, you should mention them. Most companies have some discretion in dealing with things like this. But, they will not tolerate surprises. If they have to find it, then there is little likelihood that they will work with you.

Please be aware I am not affiliated with Central. And this is only my personal opinion.

 

no it doesn't... but I had just above 1/4 tank anyway.... I was running at 79K so was keeping the tanks low...

 

Fatboy02, I would use caution on lying about a juevinile record! If you choose to say nothing and get by those 2-3 days they don't find out then this question will get ya "Are you Canada eligible? " that will get asked on your paperwork, if and its really not a big deal.....if you we're honest! Canada WILL NOT let you in with a juevenile record and Central will tell you if you do just check "no" but if you lied and didn't disclose it they'll get ya on lying. For the record I am not Canada eligible! DARN!

Chompi, the truck has some body damage, the worst being a broken front driver mirror. It's a 13 speed, the hubby asked a trucker at Pilot how to use the upper gears, he was nice enough to ride along for a short trip to explain itt. The truck has 275,000+ miles on it, sounds like the trainy is fixing to fall out! Our trainer had the same exact truck with lots of storage, this truck literally has only 25% of the storage he had, plus the top bunk is LOW we smack our heads everytime we sit down OW! And you can't sit up in the bed! They routed us to Conley to have it worked on!

 

Transmissions have allot of issues at training company's. It takes quite a while before new drivers learn how to shift without grinding gears, and how to take off from a stop without putting too much stress on the tranny.
Another issue that many people have with them is leaving their hand on the shifter when driving. If you put no pressure at all it is ok, but really not a good idea. Even slight side pressure will wear out your synchronizers over time.