Central Refrigerated Service good or bad

C U in class

 

Am I disgruntled? No, not really, I'm just not happy with the way things are going right now, and have had some DM issues and other issues that haven't been the best. I'm just not impressed. I hear their training is pretty good though, but I don't know if I've landed two "dud" DMs, or if this is how it is going to be in trucking. And by running illegal, I mean just that, cooking your log books, or speeding flat out in a 55mph state. Remember, YOU get the ticket, not the DM in his/her office.

 

After dealing with them and how they have treated me the last month, I can not in good faith, recommend Central Refridgerated as a employer.

 

Just to throw in my two cents, I have never worked for Central Refer, but I have toured their yard and met a few of their people. I work for a company that competes with Central for loads and therefore meet a lot of Central's customers. Their drivers aren't all bad (no better or worse than any other company, I'd guess), despite the fact that Central is basically owned by Swift.

Anyway, a lot of their customers don't like dealing with Central Refer and say that they are constantly screwing up pickup/delivery times, misinforming their drivers about where to go or what those appointments are to be, etc. They consistently underbid on a lot of loads, though (my company lost a local Conagra to them), so continue to get business.

There's my two cents.

 

Apparently;
The "Simon" family isn't too pleased with Central either. Last trip thru SLC, I saw a few "Simon Trucking" trucks. Logo looked almost identical to the old "Dick Simon" logo (Central bought Dick Simon a few years ago), except the name DICK was gone and the name "Simon" was moved to the center of the LOGO (complete with skunk). Also, saw a few trucks called "Kelle's Transport" out of SLC that had a stylized "Skunk" logo.

 

That's Kelle Simon, nothing to do with Dick Simon Trucking DBA Central Refeer. You'll find some old equipment with Dick Simson still on the sides, and there are still accounts with Dick Simon as the name for Central (Is it Ohio Tollbooth cards?)

Why am I starting to get the feeling that there is really only like five major companies and the rest are little spurs of the same company. And how in the heck did Salt Lake City become the complete mecca for trucking?

England, Simon, Moyes all raised and played together in SLC.

 

Those Utah trucking companies at least used to be the biggest consumer of advertising space in the Salt Lake Tribune. That space was always in the "help wanted" section, though. It seems the big players have abandoned the SLT of late and have begun advertising in smaller papers in the region.

I remember Simon and its cute little skunk help-wanteds especially. One some Sundays, those guys would advertise for job openings from janitor to terminal manager. It was like trucking's version of Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre", only it kept happening over and over there in the late 90s before Simon got absorbed by JerryCo. Jerry took over not too long after the psycho driver crashed his Simon truck into the California State Capitol building in Sacramento and bar-b-qued both himself and the skunk truck.

 

I got a funny one for you. I was told by the head guy at Central, a fellow by the name of "Carl" not too long ago "Why did we hire you? You don't live anywhere near any loads we pick up" The best part is they where running ads in the local newspapers (both of the them) at the time they hired me.



And there are more Central drivers in this area as well! It's like the company doesn't have a clue where they are hiring from! And there is still no word on where my stuff is, I think it would be funny if cromedome has my old truck though!

 

I have to admit; I always had an "attitude" against the Skunk Co ever since I discovered they were using the Federal Way Flying J as a "drop-lot", using anywhere between 10 and 25 spaces nightly in an area that has a marked shortage of "safe" parking for drivers. And I got the "you don't like it: too bad" attitude from the Folks in SLC (both from Dick Simon and Flying J)