Thinking of joining Celadon

i had the same question.

 

From the limited info off their website, their pay seems kinda on the low side; from the SAFER website they have an ISS-D score of 93!

 

Just wondering how the MAGTEC/Celadon combo is working for the drivers?
Is 'BIG Brother' just watching or does 'BIG Brother' keep his thumb on the wheel?

 

Celadon ....
I thought I was step up to a better company... hah hah on me, I was told to bring 7 days worth of clothes "we'll get you right back home on your 1st load to get your stuff" so I drove myself down to Indy on a Sunday and checked into my "room" on site started orientation the next morning and was finished 2 days later, but there were no trucks at this time , so we need you all to come back in the morning... at 7am we were asked for 10 people to transport new truck to Richmond VA -5 trucks , and Greensboro NC- 5 trucks, no trucks were available for assignment in a class of 63 people the other 53 would have to wait there to be "assigned" so I raised my hand and was picked to deliver a new truck to Richmond,, be back at noon to get the trucks and codes,,, no codes at noon...be back here at 4pm and we'll get you rolling...
the 10 of us that rasied our hands got the trucks at 4pm with the codes to start them while doing my pre-trip I noticed that the License plate of the truck didn't match the registration , so off I go to permits who are gone for the day now, so the lead Mech. get it for me , I walk back to the truck and noticed it was the wrong truck Registration , go back , and i am told to wait until morning...
So now it is Friday morning we get the paperwork all squared away, and I login the quallcomm and wait for a load to Richmond VA, after 3 hours of waiting I login stating I am going into the terminal building for lunch... 30 minutes later when I return to the truck there is messages waiting on the qualcomm they assigned me a load to MN and took it off me while I was eating, when I called my DM he told me just wait he'd get something for me... all afternoon I waited ,called twice was told "I'm working on it" by the DM... I finally login and leave a message I am going back inside will head out in the morning. OK.... I login Saturday morning at 06:00am ready to go, and wait , have lunch, and wait and wait... i go back inside have diner go back upstairs I find out there is me and one of the other 10 guys still here, plus most of the 53 others, Sunday I am told , wait until monday... Monday I finally get to move I bobtail up to Lafayette IN pick up a brand new trailer # wabash trailers go back down to Brownsburg IN and drop it there and pick up a load there headed to Dallas TX, I headed out and made it there 4 hrs early on Wednesday morning. Drop and hook and I was sent a load down in Waco TX headed up to MA which I was to drop in Richmond VA and pickup my permanent truck there.. Woohoo..
Off I go to Waco I show up 6 hours early and the good poeple there take me early and I get to Drop and hook again.. Off I go back up, then East bound and down... into LA almost to Monroe.. then off to GA , then to VA and finally Richmond... then next morning , I am 5 and 1/2 hours early on Saturday.. drop the trailer and drive around the yard looking for MY truck, 3 trips around the yard , I don't see it no one in the shop, no one in the office, so I call Indy, "sorry we can't help you, you'll have to wait until Monday" so I wait all weekend , with no laundry facilities in the terminal I am start to get low on clean clothes, to find out on Monday that they had changed trucks on me, no message sent to me, no phone calls, and no word left at the gaurdshack there in Richmond... my new truck had been there all weekend,, So I transfered my almost all dirty clothes to the new truck and logged in to the qualcomm for a load assignment to get me home to pickup the rest of my stuff, got a load # about 10am to pickup an hour south at 11pm so I called to see if I could pick up early, and was told call back after 4:30PM that load is on 2nd shifts roster.. I called back and was told oh yeah come on down it is one of the 1st orders we are going to pull, I checked in at 5:45pm on site dropped my trailer and waited next to my "being Loaded" trailer , at 10:45pm I get the BOL and the seal , I drove back to Richmond and called it a night, left at 06:00 the next morning headed to Grand Rapids MI, I made it 670 mile to the other side of Akron OH and the truck started dying I was doing 25mph with the flashers going I limped it to the TA up the road to change the fuel filter per breakdown,, didn't help TA said something is wrong with the electrical.. I called it in breakdown needs the load transfered off to tow you to a dealership in Cleaveland OH so I sit in this TA with a truck which now doesn't idle in the snow for 22 hrs until the swap shows up Wednesday afternoon about 6 pm and the tow truck about an hour later I get to the frieghtliner shop and gather most of my stuff and headed to the only Comcheck friendly hotel the RedRoof inn and am told get an room and call us when the dealership knows something...
this is Easter weekend... I sat there and had to order out for 8 days while I was told oh yeah get the room another day , your truck should be finished soon:tomorrow:in a day or so ,, ect... finally I got a phone call from my new DM , seems my old DM was fired and she was wondering if I still worked for Celadon because he had wrote down I quit back when the truck was towed... I called a cab went and got my other stuff from the truck which was not even being worked on and went to the Cleaveland airport , rented a car and drove home to Michigan, still haven't received the last check from Richmond to the breakdown... Celadon is a joke... I drove a total of 6 days (3041 miles) out of 25 with the company

 

My Husband works for them and is really happy with them read my other thought about them through out this forum

 

The NEGATIVES: Every company has them.

1) If you get stuck in Texas after midnight on Saturday, you're going to sit until Monday. Last weekend I did a load to Laredo, and there were 158 drivers waiting for loads. To be fair though, I had a load on Monday evening, right at the tail end of a 34hr restart.

2) They don't like 34hr restarts as a rule. Which is fine with me, because I never took restarts unless I HAD to. I did 3700 miles with Celadon when I hadn't had a restart in 2 1/2 weeks...LEGALLY...so it's possible. Of course, if you end up in Texas on a weekend, you'll get a restart anyway.

3) Maintenance couldn't find their arse with a flashlight and a search warrant. They maintain thier trucks VERY well, but it will take them 3 days to do it. I spent 14 hours in a shop for a routine overhead. And immediately after leaving the shop, I got a qualcomm that my truck had to go back for something else. To be fair though, when I ignored a qualcomm about a PM (because I dreaded the shop), they ROUTED me to a Speedco for a PM.

4) They don't believe in EZPass. They have PrePass, but NOT EZPass. To me this is insane, and has no logical reasoning. While they DO reimburse for all tolls, I one time forked out over $140 for tolls in the NE of my own money before reimbursement. To be fair though, they will "front" you the money via ComCheck if you ask. But you have to know what the tolls are going to be beforehand.

For the tricks: VOLUNTEER, and keep your Macros current. I volunteer for HAZMAT, and take the loads that other people refuse (which is how I got my ONE NYC run). My Macros are always in on time. I don't complain and am pleasant to every department I deal with when I have a problem. And my DM takes care of me.

 

Not good
Well I can honestly say it was not a good experience.
1. They do not preplan (no matter how much I asked to get a load before I got to the customer)

2. Many many times this scenario happened
Get a load going to waxahachie, TX their term.. get there and they make you sit for 20 + hours, then try to give you a load that is 200 miles. what they do is have the Mexican drivers bring the load from Mexico to wax then the one you dropped off they take down to laredo.
(Celadon owns a company called Celadon Mexico in Mexico)
another scenario you will see is The Canadian drives dominate down in Laredo, (Celadon owns a Company called Celadon Canada that is out of Canada) So basically they send all of the drivers from Canada down to Laredo then send them all the way back to Canada.
Just freight I would like to see American drivers haul since it is our country.

3. Would end up taking 2 or more 34 hours breaks a week not by choice just cause they make me sit. that would happen at least 2 weeks out of the month.

4. Wasn't the easiest thing to get paid for detention

5. they claim the trucks go 68MPH if you have below a certain Idle time, if you go above that idle time the truck will only go 65. The truth is only the Volvo can read idle time and all of the new Volvo go to TEAMS only. most Volvo's are traded at the end of their lease so most don't get them.
Freightliners and Internationals don't get the 68Mph if you idle below a certain limit.
They go by fuel mileage, and you have to average below 6.5Mph (including idle time) in order to get 68Mph. Anybody knows that an impossible fuel mileage to get with a newer truck. So plan on only going 65Mph
The owner of the company came out during orientation and said , the idle time they have set it at and still allows you to go 68, will be approx 8 hours of Idle a day. A bunch of BS that was.

6. As most companies Celadon maintenance takes forever.
Okay lets see if I can remember it all. 2 week driving for Celadon down in SC the truck started to lose power. Well being an experienced driver usally the first thing you want to do is change the fuel filter and pray that is it. It took me forever to get them to authorize a purchase of a fuel filter, the impression I got was they was concerned I was going to try to sell the dang thing. Well that did not work as I pulled into Indy term I took it to the shop. Truck was down for 8 full days and I had requested a loaner several times cause I needed to run. never got a loaner. had a bad injector is all it was but took 8 days to fix? paid $160 for 8 days
A/C compressor froze up as I went to pull in at Indy term about 3 weeks later, It burned the belt off and I said no way am I going to let Indy fix it so I Bob tailed out and went to the TA to have them do warranty work and replace it. one week later I was back in Indy and A/C had stop working. I a hole in the line where the the idiot from the T/A had stepped down on it and made it rub against the frame when he changed the compressor.
5 days down time to change a A/C line. this is not a joke, 5 full days. paid $160 for 5 days
Truck fan started to make noise shortly after, I new the clutch fan was going out. about the same time I noticed The truck using water. I told them about it they looked at it and said nothing wrong 1 full day downtime.
A few weeks later and several gallons off water It got cold out. I turn the heater on and instantly I knew I had a bad heater core. So I turned off the heater core hoses that went into the dash and just use the bunk heater. (noway could I afford to have this truck back in the shop.)
The heater core most likely was damaged to to one of the Idiots Celadon shop or T/A had applied to much pressure to the A/C system and damaged the heater core. The truck Fan finally went all the way out and It would overheat if I tried to drive it more then a few miles.
Got it to a term Indy and told them to fix it all
2 days $80 paid in 2 days
A few weeks later the starter started would not work. Had to go out and tap on the starter with a hammer to get it to release. Well this worked for about a month and in that month I had told Indy shop to check it out and they said the starter was fine. (it didn't do it all the time but most of the time) So finally one day leaving laredo, TX I pulled up to the loves at
exit 39 to fuel and the dang truck would not start no matter what. They ended up towing it back to laredo and took 1 day to fix. no pay
A month or to later. I went to start the truck and the truck accelerator pedal would not work. I could Idle the truck down the road and shift but at Idle the truck would not go more then 35-40 in 10th gear. They wanted me to drive the truck 50 miles with no accelerator to Indy term threw Indianapolis
(I was north of Indy and the term is South of Indy)
I might add I was at a T/A and the only problem was the accelerator sensor that cost something like $75 + labor.
They would not let T/A fix it (company policy they claimed do to the fact I was close to a term)
I told them that I thought it was unsafe for me to drive back to Indy with no Accelerator And I was not going to do it. They argued with me a little and I told them look its not going to happen. You can fix it here at this T/A or you can tow it. They towed it to INDY? I don't understand the cost effectiveness in that but they did it. 2 days down not paid
Keep in mind with all this going on to the junk truck I had (2005 with 280,000, not old at all but junk) I was requesting another truck that I never got.

7. I had a very nice FM, she was great and always tried her best but the FM are very limited in what they can do unlike some other companies.
Several times she transferred me to her boss to see if we could work something out.
let me give you an example. after 2 bad weeks in a row of having 2200 and a 2100 week. I finally had a good week, I hit like 3600 miles. I was up in St paul Min and was out of hours (i delivered that load early by the way, a full 24 hours early) I took a 34 and during that i had asked to get a preplanned. well again they don't preplan. So, at the beginning of my 34 I had set myself avail at 0500 (when 34 was up) I called at 0700 to ask where my load was at, they said hold on, 1000 i called and asked where is my load, at 1300 they gave me a load that I could not pick up till 0100 that night, well I was not very happy and called in, told them I did not really want to sit there all day and wait for that. The load was going to waxahachie TX and was only like 400+ long. well as already mentioned I know how wax works. I drive 8 hours to wax sit 22 hours and get a 200 mile load. that's how it works when you go to wax. you may get lucky and get a load going down to Laredo but not often, but then that's another 400 miles 8 hr drive then you will have to sit till the next morning to get a load.
I spoke to the FM's manger and told him that I had just took a 34 and now you are making me sit another 20 hours before I can get a load (this was a common thing I might add, sitting) He told me that's all they had and I said fine what about it going to Wax and having to sit 2o+ hours there before I get a load. He said that does not happen. I said well that's funny because it happens to me and about any other driver I talk to down there. Then on top of the 22 hr wait you give us a 200 mile run. He said that does not happen neither. I could not do anything but laugh, I told him then pls look at my past 20 runs to and from wax and tell me that it did not happened. He really didn't say much about that again but the conversation progressed to me saying "You need to look at it from my point of view" His response was "No I don't" well this instantly told me that this COMPANY DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THIER DRIVERS if they allow upper management to think in such away. Not to mention every other word out of his mouth was F*** this and F*** that and 1 more F*** to boot. I personally do not speak that way and surly don't appreciate being spoke to like that, especially in a business manner from somebody that is supposed to be In a professional position/attitude.

My overall experience with this company was a bad one and would not recommend it to anyone.

 

wow
i worked for this company years ago and didn't like them. they were always playing game with you. they would get me somewhere and them couldn't get me out like i wanted. i remember when i finale quit them about 2 days before thanksgiving back when i worked for them. i was at their larado terminal and they knew that i had requested three weeks earlier to br routed towards home because i had a lot of family coming to town for the holiday and i just wanted to get threw the house for a day. i only live two hours from indy terminal. i was just going to past through the house for a couple of hours to speak with everyone them get on with the stop.
back them i was running ford company loads and i would have been heading right to ford on the way home. when i got to laredo they couldn't find me a load. i messed around a whole day there figuring they would find one by the next day. i was turn away loads that were taking me the other direction. expecially when you see guys coming in later and getting a load going in the direction i need to at least get started towards. i had more time in then most of those new guy. so the second day after when they couldn't find me anything. i call the bus station and got the time of the busses and started cleaning out my truck. i sent them a message on the quailcomm they i was quitting and about 10 minutes before my cab had shown up i heard the quailcomm go off. they had a route for me to greenwood, ind. by then it was to late. i responded back and say no thanks i quit. at that point the dispatcher came out as i was getting into my cab. he tried to reason with me. i said no. it was amazing how they found something suddenly. i will never work for that company again. i remember they tried to re-recuit me several times over the next couple of months. as you see i am not with them. so i see that they haven't change much in the last 20 years. it was in the 80s when i was there.

 

As the wife of hot rod mike, let me just say that I went with him on a few runs. One of which was to wax term and it was right after hurricane katrina. There was another hurricane and people are leaving texas due to it may head there. Well living in Florida ya know when its time to leave. But because of celadon and their inability to have loads, we were STILL sitting there with this hurricane only 24 hours from hitting almost right where we were. I'm freaking out and we sit. And sit. And sit. You get my drift. Well we FINALLY got a load as people are sitting in traffic trying to get out too. That was scary timing. I cant believe they would not have their drivers out of danger AHEAD of time. Knowing that there are fuel stops, and log books to worry about, and all the other stuff drivers have to worry about. I also remember the trip I took with him when it was cx roberson. Now they were a pretty decent company. Not the best, but certainly not celadon. When we were told to come to Indy to be a celadon driver, we were pretty happy because so many drivers were comming out of that little room so upset that they were not wanted and now had to look for another job right after Christmas time. So we went to Indy and sat. Well there was a change over in companies so we were patient and sure it had to do with all the red tape. Well it wasnt. This became a normal routine. Then there was the time we got sent to Indy and I wound up getting a terrible virus. I slept in the dorm room for days. Poor Mike is trying to get me home and keeps telling them I need to go home. But about 4 days later we FINALLY got sent home. That was a good rest for me in a way, but not for the wallet. And we try not to chase money as I know that God always supplies, but he went from pretty good checks in the beginning, to lower and lower checks as time went on. Well I just know from riding with him that he got more and more frustrated which makes for a bad home time. So if I can tell drivers with a family, the only thing that is good is the 7 day vacation with the pay. But good luck trying to get to that point. It takes FOREVER AND A DAY. They really dont want to give you the money, but they would LOVE to give you the vacation at one of their terminals. They should put that in their brochures. COME TO CELADON AND WE WILL GIVE YOU A 7 DAY VACATION AT ONE OF OUR LOVELY TERMINALS.