Follow me through Central Refrigerated training

I tried calling her a few times today, and it always went to voice mail. I left a message. I will try more tomorrow.

 

AngusATAT...Try emailing them. My Recruiter responded almost instantly to my e-mail but I can never reach by phone either.

My last question to her was "Should I get my permit before arriving in Georgia?" And she responded 3 minutes later "No, don't get your permit first. They don't transfer state to state. So you will just get your permit when your here in Utah."

Figured I would post that in case anyone else had the same question

 

I think they do it as part of the screening process. If you really want to this you will keep calling, if you are just looking you will let it go,

 

well i told them i wanted winter experience with a trainer. they said call back 2 weeks before im ready to leave. saddly i REALLY wanna go now. but because i dont have cold weather exp i rather go then. Please need the extra cash to help support myself while there. can never trust what might go wrong. like Irene.

 

Ok guys, so after 25 pages of this thread and countless others, I've decided to take the leap and jump into trucking. Like many of you, I've read mostly good things about Central and was actually referred to them by a central driver at a truckstop in Dallas. I've already worked with my recruiter and if my replacement SS card gets here fast enough, I'll be in SLC this Sunday for the next weeks class. I would like to thank you all so much for your posts here. My wife and I have read them all, and I feel I am making the right decision with Central. I'll keep you posted and can't wait to hit the road with you guys.

 

Oh, I forgot to ask the a couple of ??s in my last post. What do you do when you've finished the school and orientation and you're waiting on a trainer? Would I be stuck in SLC for a few days or do they send you back home? Also, I was wondering what you new guys paychecks were looking like (if you don't mind me asking). I know that the cost of the school is taken out at a weekly amount as well as insurance ($85/wk for me w/ family), but I just read that they also take $40/wk for a reserve fund of some sorts. So I was just wondering if you're still bringing home a decent check every week. Now don't get me wrong, I'm most certainly not getting into trucking for fast money, but as we all know things are tight and a budget helps.

 

Yea it's a Motel, owned by Awckmed himself. The guy who owns the Motel is a complete tool, yells and screams at the people staying here for stupid stuff. He also enforces a 10 pm property curfew and will get you sent home if you violate it. Best off to just stay in the room and shut the door.

Emailing has been the most effective for me as well.

Answers in RED .... Looks like $73.07 per check for the 1st 1-2 months goes back to the company.




Day 3 though .... today we took 2 more tests which were fairly easy to pass. Watched some video and looked at a few trucks, nothing real special TBH. The tests were on Air Brakes and Combo's.

I don't want to come accross discouraging with what I am going to say but I'd like to be honest here. I'm not impressed yet, yea the instructor is nice but the whole process seems unorganized to me. We have folks being sent home 3 days into this becuase info is being found on MVR's that should have, better yet "could have" been found prior to bringing them in. Personally this issue falls on the student as well, if they knew that the company didn't hire with traffic citations 3 years or newer why apply, but then again if the MVR was ran prior to bringing the student in and having her sit here for 3 days getting her hopes up .... I think you guys get the picture.

Me personally, I've been in contact with a recruiter for 4 weeks now, in 4 weeks she knew that I've only had 1 employer for the last 15 years, she has yet to obtain verification of my previous employer and I'm now being told it's my responsibility to do so or I will not leave Conley. This leads back to the disorganization issue ... seems like the process is not being started until you physically arrive to the academy, which may be due to the large number of folks trying to be hired.

As for the academy itself, you the student are being held to a $3000 tuition in return for CDL training, so far all that has been done is "here's the Utah CDL permit exam questions, lets take 3 practice tests for the next 3 days so you can pass that, then we will teach you the bare basics in pre-trip, backing, city driving and mountain driving ... when you finish that the same guy who tuaght you will certify you" ... All my rambling leads to this, for $3000 all I believe we are getting is a job with on the job training.

 

Thanks for the info oXo, I agree with you on the $3k for OJT, but like everybody I've talked to, "ya gotta start somewhere". I think most of these companies are relatively the same, some just sound sweeter but turn out to be the same program. I do trust that Central is probably one of the more rounded of the mill companies so that's why I chose them. I'm just lookin to get this first year or so of experience down so I can start looking at more options.

P.S. I'd like to thank everyone for the PMs on my ??s and would have done so via PM but I can't send PMs yet lol, so thankyou.

 

Same here. Sorry I haven't been able to respond to PMs yet!

Here is my update... I have talked with my recruiter a couple of times. Apparently there is an issue because I was let go at the last place I worked. (Long story involving a bad manager). Central has a policy about this sort of thing, so it may cause me to not be able to be hired. My recruiter had me email over some paperwork, and is going to try and see if they can make an exception in my case.

Keep your fingers crossed for me! I should know later today if they will accept me, and if they do, I will most likely be able to start class on September 6th, which is my birthday. Wouldn't that be a nice B-Day present?

I have often thought about driving a Big Truck in the past. My dad was a truck driver, and retired from Roadway after working for them for over 20 years. Now that my kids are grown and off to college, and my old profession is extremely difficult to find job openings for, I figure this is the perfect time for me to give this new career a shot.

 

Hey Angus, I think I'll be starting the Sep 6th class as well, so I guess I'll see ya there, lol. So what is the policy on being let go from a previous employer? I put down on my paperwork that I was let go from a company back in '08 for lack of knowledge of electronics. I scored the lowest out of six guys and me and the next lowest guy got let go from the company. It's funny how I'm not concerned at all with the testing or driving, I'm more worried about my life history lol. Well I should be talking with my recruiter today and I'll be sure to ask him about that. Until then, be safe everyone.