Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

I will wish you luck then sir. I have seen this too many times. You are missing things. Plus you still will end up having allot of risk for making company driver pay.
BTW. I made 50k as a company driver at central. And I make close to that now, as a company driver. If I wanted to go full OTR I would make over that as a company driver easy. And guess what? No risk for me.
Heck, with average freight rates over 2.00 per mile on average, as an owner op you should be making ALLOT more than 200k per year.

 

Wow, got to my shipper last night and was told by security that some driver tried to steal my load from under me, because they didn't have an available empty. Wonder if he was still awake when I pulled out of the lot with my load???

How rude is that?

 

What is your malfunction? You left Central to make less money? I don't understand this rage on your part. Do you feel your status on this thread is threatened in some way. What's next? You want to match warheads? I yield to you my good man.

I know I am missing a lot of things but so are you. You never leased but bellow like the Grand Poobah of leasing.

Don't understand this statement:
Plus you still will end up having allot of risk for making company driver pay.

That said...
I don't and never have considered or said I was an O/O. I am a L/O.

Outside of that
Sure there are O/O doing better and those doing worse. Some have their own authority while others lease their truck to a company and garnish the benefits of their discounts etc.. I am not in this group obviously so why you grouped me in with the $2.00/mile O/O's is misguided.

Most here are trying to figure out the best path to go and learn as much as they can to make the best decision for themselves.
I am just giving a different view of L/O vs all the negativity posed on those that don't know. Sure it could go bad. There are folks that lease over and over so something has to be going right for them. The $50k/year was to give a factual example and not gloating as you do which is why you took it that way.

The safest way is company driver but, no risk no reward. The company driver is the lowest on the pole from what I experienced. I had weeks of 1800 miles @ .30/mile the first year. I probably averaged 2k to 2400 a week. I tried to stay company driver but had to lease or drive a day cab or leave the fleet. So I leased and ok with it.

I have started to post more here rebutting all the false and exaggerated myths I've been reading for many months. Exposing spinners also.

So please don't say the next post will be your last like you did before chumming for someone to justify your existence is needed here. It truly is so don't take general posts so personal like you did here. This is just a public forum and not a defining or extension of one's self.

 

Rakusa, you are amongst the exception to the rule and chrome has contributed more useful information to this forum than most of care to remember.

I regularly make 2400-3000 miles per week. I am company and run a dedicated route. You being a lease operator doesn't guarantee you anymore or less miles than a company driver. Just ask the idiot who tried to take my load from me last night. I am rolling and he's still sleeping in his pretty red pete. however, all the expenses on your truck are yours to cover. How much will you earn if you just happen to blow and engine or a transmission, heaven forbid, wreak your truck. Yes, they are minor risks, but they are risks you must consider. Replace the rubber on your truck and you can kiss you nice weekly take home pay goodbye. Lease/owners are independent companies and have to pay that share of the employment takes Central pays for me. The only risk I have is not making my ontime, fuel, mileage and safety bonuses.. Ask those low mileage company drivers why they are low mileage and you'll get the rest of their sad story.. You don't need to lease a truck to get high mileage. You need to communicate more.

Again I am not saying you can't make a decent living as a lease operator.

The point here is you represent ONE side of this age old debate. Don't jump down someone throat because they represent the other. Not everybody is a lucky as you have been. You don't have to believe me. You just need to spent a few hours listening to all the horror stories told at Conley, Fontana or West Valley. I am happy it's working out from you... Me I am going to stay company, because I don't need or want the potential hassle that mama Mia went through...

 

I was not angry at all. And yes, I left Central to make less money. I wanted more consistent home time, my wife insisted.
So I went from a 40 cpm 3200 mile per week dedicated (at central), where I was thru the house for half a day every week. To a percentage job where I was home every friday afternoon.

I was later laid off from that job, due to downturn in the economy. So I went to another large company. I was getting 43 cpm here and home most weekends. But again, my wife wanted more consistency. So I recently went to a salary position. So that I get 775 per week, and if I run over 1800 miles I get my mileage rate (which should be almost every week) But I am now home by Sat morning every week. The 775 is basically a guarantee that I will make a minimum of 40k a year.
I cannot make that locally. Top pay for a local driver in my area is 14 bucks an hour. And laid off 4-5 months a year.

The biggest issue I have with Centrals lease program is that they have way to many extra costs, that you will not have at some other company's that you can lease on to if you have your own truck.
And that you have a massive risk in leasing on, that you do not have as a company driver. As a company driver I have no financial risk involved with loads. But as a lease OP with Central you do. Sure, most never get stuck with those costs. but it is possible.
If Central paid a decent wage to company drivers, then nobody would ever lease the trucks. Only a few fleets paid a decent rate per mile. Kraft was one, but I hear that they are not paying 40 cpm anymore.

With less than 2 years in the industry most people should never consider leasing or owning a truck. It takes longer than that to really learn the industry.

I have watched dozens of drivers loose everything just on this forum with central. I have seen dozens more while I was at the company. Central should be looked at as a door into the industry, and maybe into a decent paying dedicated for the longer term. Not as a company to lease a truck from.
This is not against Central in particular. Drivers should never lease or buy a truck from the same company that controls the freight they haul, and their income.
Yes, some people make more money than as a company driver. But in the long run, no matter how well they run their business, most do not. I am just trying to save these people from a rather large mistake.

And you are correct. I never signed a lease with Central or any other company. I read the contract fully. Understood it fully. And did the math with both the fixed and variable costs.
After doing all of that I saw that there was too much risk for too little gain.
Not all of us have to learn by making mistakes.

 

correct me if i'm wrong. but doesn't the lease operator make .90 cents per mile + fsc?

my truck is a 94 so it's paid for. the only payments it has are insurance. permits. registration. and whatever else.

it costs my truck .65 cents in fuel just to drive one mile. that leaves .25 cents for lease payments and all the other ripoffs one is charged with being a lease operator. and you still have to consider those unexpected breakdowns. AND. your at the mercy of the company for assigning you loads.

the company decides wether your kids eat or not. NOT UUUUUUUUU.

the warnings come from guys that have been in the industry long enough to know better. those very same guys have very close friends that actually went down that road. they are now living in a company truck becuase it's the only thing they have to call home. and they are two of the smarter people you will find on this websight.

everybody has the dream. but there's no golden rainbow at the end of that dream. instead, it has a wrecking ball.

 

That happened to me before too with a 2800 mi load. Apparently another driver had the same load info on the QC but he didnt get the message saying his load was unassigned. Nothing like Line haul. Now I just take a loaded trailer from the terminal and drive it 180 miles to give to someone else and take his trailer back to the terminal. Then when I get back I go deliver to Costco DC in Tracy or do a local Best buy delivery. Maybe ill see some of you guys at Costco.

 

Anyone live in stockton /modesto area want a line haul job home every day? The terminal manager in the Tracy terminal of the company I just started for is looking for another company line haul driver. Or thats what he told me in our interview. Guaranteed $125 a night for 360 miles. Comes out to about 0.35/mi. If you do a costco or best buy delivery then its +$50 and about $16/hr.

 

im my opnion rakusa did have some valid points BUT when it comes to slaming MY friends who i have personaly met and know. all i can say is GO START YOUR OWN MOTHER F'N THREAD. SORRY TO BE SO HARSH BUT I CALL EM AS I SEE EM.