Central Refrigerated Truck Stop II

been raining all day. starting to get nippy.

got rebar getting wet. but we never tarp. and it's 60 feet. i only have 40 feet of tarp.

 

Celtic is back doing the IT work he did before driving... And from what I can tell via Facebook, he is doing well and is happy.

 

Doing better now that we are rolling and can even shut the truck off and restart it without jumping the starter

 

It ends up being the same ticket, or both.
If you are caught over bridge they will make you slide the tandoms to legal bridge length, then weigh again. Your overweight ticket will be based on the legal bridge setting.

 

Im glad to hear that but my point being I've been here for over four years.

1 There has been hundreds of people come in and asked the same questions over and over again and for the most part everyone's been very helpful. If you could go back to when JJ started he first Central thread and read tru the present you would see the meny talking the lease down. Here's an example lets say WVC get 40 students a week Fontana gets 20 Conley 20 out of the 80 20 get there CDL per week times 4 weeks that's 80 new drivers. If we times that by 12 months we now have 960 new drivers in a year. Central has around 1,800 trucks if for the last 4 years Central brought on 960 times 4 that's 3,840 where are they. There meny reasons why there not here the biggest one is the lease program. You jump on someone's case because they been there you say they did something wrong you may even say I'm a better driver BS these people talk the truth look at there years of experience hell look at JJ if Central would have treated him with all this respect that you get we'd still be posting on his thread. He started this thread back in 2008 when most if you hated big trucks. I have seen all of you in WVC at one time or another you in another body all thinking its right for you.



Lets talk about trainers there's not one out there that likes sharing ther truck let alone there bed with someone they don't no it's all about the money and if all the trainers got 3,000 to 3,300 miles a week that's good money so why train but they don't for the most part they need to train in order to make money. Winters coming on how many of you new drivers have driven an 79,000 pound truck and trailer in the snow your trainer is putting his life in your hands. My point they don't want to they need to its all about the money either one of you could have an accident read the accident thread and see it happens.

Lets talk about some people JJ was doing good with Central until they stopped giving him miles he did nothing wrong he tryed training but they wouldn't get back to WVC by the way he trained 1bad he has 17 years plus he wanted to bye his truck when his lease was up. They now own there own truck and lease it on to a company called farm 2 fleet doing great I no we talk all the time. By the way Central tryed to charge them $7,000.00 and there truck was in great condition.


Look at 1bad he was on the Kraft dedicated east coast 2 weeks into his year something happened Central billed him for the FULL 3,000.00 even though he only had 2 weeks to his year. 1bad now pulls out of the port doing great.


Mamamia and her hubby 2 great drivers husband and wife I had the oppertuity to train them both they got a 386 that just would not run spent way to much time in the shop Central would not replace the truck said its your problem hum where's the Central support on this one. They now own a large car Pete and pull a step deck and doing great.


I have always talked about people I no still with Central and how well there doing but there the small few that are. If all the drivers that came before you were treated as well as you say you are they'd still be here and guess what you wouldn't because Central would not be hiring.

Where are the 3,800 plus drivers that started with Central over the last 4 years at for the most part say 70% lost there shirts on the Central lease program.

Ill say this one more time. I drove for Central for 3 years and trained as a company driver for 6 months did not lease a truck for a year and trained 2 years in my Pete I did fine with Central. I started driving back in the late 70tys before some of you were even born.

For the most part Central looks at there drivers as a pencil when they can no longer sharpen them they toss em in the trash and get a new one.

 

The issues that I have with leases is not one that is limited to central.
If you choose to rent a truck from the company that controls your miles, then your chance of success is totally under the control of the company.

Another issue that I have is that while you are busy paying for the truck, fuel and everything else, the company has the ability to terminate your lease at any time for any reason, or no reason at all.

The lease payment that they charge is about the same as what you will find at any equipment leasing company for equal equipment. On that count I can say they are not jacking up the price. BUT. The rate you receive per mile is much less than what an owner Op will receive hauling for an owner OP company where 1.80 per mile is about the average in this environment for a refrigerated load.
So now you have the same payment you would have leasing from an equipment company, but with a 25% or more reduction in income.

So as you can see. My issues with leasing from a carrier is not based on any issue that I have with Central. It is more of a general industry issue.

The reason why leasing seem more lucrative at Central compared to the company positions is due to to the wage that Central pays company drivers. This is not limited to Central either. It is a training company issue. They are paying rates that were ok 15 years ago, but are low for today. The miles can be good at Central, but I see no reason why any driver that is on the road for a month at a time should be making less than 50k per year. Even starting out. Experienced company drivers should be making more than 60k per year running the same way. Is Central the reason behind this? Nope. So my issues are not with Central. I consider them a good place to start. But maybe not stay. Unless you like your whole life to center around work and the truck.

 

This is so true all companies are the same when it comes to a lease. A lease is dsinged so that the company has a fleet of trucks that cost them nothing Central wanted to be an all lease company by the year 2010 didn't happen.

Heres something I don't get to read about the negative side of a lease.

lets say your married with 2 kids and you'd like to be home every 5th week.
Your out for 4 weeks doing 3,000 miles a week now it's time to go home you have a fixed cost on the truck of $900.00 a week.
Your home for 4 days of the three left to run you will only see 1,000 miles if your lucky plus fuel is that enough to pay your $900.00 fixed no say it only pays $400.00 now going into you second week you still owe $500.00 plus $900.00 = $1,300.00 if you run 3,000 miles plus fuel will you be able to pay your negative yes but there's not much money going into the bank third week now at 3,000 miles you can get your normal check as well as the forth week. Out of the four weeks you drove only 2 were good but what about the 2 weeks you had no money to send home if your fixed cost to send home were $400.00 a week you would be $800.00 in the hole now you want to start the cycle all over again. This is what's called being negative. By the way this based on 3,000 miles a week if you drive less your negative will be greater and take longer to pay off and your fixed at home will be more.

There are many ways to go negative in a truck. Lets say you need a new set of drives you don't have the $2,500.00 in a maintenance account but Central will sell you the tires you will pay $100.00 a week till paid off not bad unless you have home time ouch the bad part is Central will also charge you an xtra $1,000.00 on your performance bond and take another $50.00 out of your check till paid your $100.00 now went to $150.00 a week guess your not going home this also holds true if you hit a deer and your truck goes into the shop you have a $1,000.00 deductible if its not in the maintenance account they got you again they pay it and charge you another $1,000.00 for your bond. These are just some of the hidden thing Steve in O/O's dosent tell you.

One more thing Steve is good at saying you can get up to 3,000 miles a week up to dose not mean you will get it just means you can get up to.

Im single kids all grown up pick up all paid off $1,000.00 in personal bills I can stay out for weeks at a time and make good money if your married your not me and your personal bills may be higher if I told you a lease was a good thing would I be telling the truth #### no just give them my name in the lease department I can get $150.00 if you do 12 students equals that's an extra $1,800.00 in my pocket ya baby getting paid to do nothing. You didn't know that's how it works you do know.

What is a performance bond. ?
It's something Central charges each driver who leases a truck a total of $2,200.00 paid at $50.00 a week till paid. If you finish your lease you get it back if not Central keeps it. Now say 10 people didn't finish in a month that's 22,000.00 that's money Central keeps just think if central had 100 people over a year drop out that's now $220,000.00 a year wow who profits from this lease. Central knows there's a high % of people that won't make it and they bank on it there are no guaranties anyone will stay for the 3 years.


I could go on and on about the lease and as CD said all companies are the same your not an
O/O nor a lease driver just a company driver making payments for a company.

sometime I will tell you the story about the 11 drivers who changed the lease to what it is today.

Everyone have a great day!

 

So after reading all the post I have a question, If you start out with Central and you stay a company driver will they continue to get you miles or will they try to starve you out to tempt you to go lease ? It has been a dream of mine to drive OTR and I am about to do this, but I would like to get with a company that will get you good miles and let you run company if that is what you choose to do.

 

the bottom line is this tiger.

and everyone needs to consider this.

you need schooling you need training you need experience.

we all want to make money but since you have no experience. you need to get your foot in the door somehow.

you'll get a paycheck.

as for the miles. if the truck isn't rolling. NO ONE make money. not you. not the company.

and from what i've read of the schools. the miles will depend on your attitude.

in other words. you have to show the company your willing to work. just like you do with ANY company you work for. not just trucking outfits.

 

You can just put them off by saying i am interested but not at this time after saying that a few times they will lose interest in you. they won't drop your miles because you didn't lease but if you get labeled as someone who can't make on time deliveries they will so be on time.