Central Refrigerated Truck Stop II

Tomah, WI has parking in front of the gate, and we sometimes drop there. Best Walmart ever.

 

Bumper, how long were at Central? Also, if you tell Central you are not interested in leasing, do they treat you any differently? I've heard other companies will try to starve you out of miles in order to persuade you to sign a lease or just quit. I'm hoping those are just rumors

 

There are companies that do that (wont name names) but central isn't one of them.

 

I started in Centrals Fontana School in October 2005 and left in Dec 2006 when I went to Crete, the first time.

 

How did you like it over at Crete?

 

I worked and trained for Crete for 2 years. When I was there it was a great company. They kept me running and had a great maintenance program. I left in Dec 2007, and from what I hear things have changed. They used to let you pick your load if you were in an area with options. They used to print out a spreadsheet showing how many loads originated and terminated in each state every month. I don't know if that is still done, but I've read on here and been told by people I know that recently quit working there the load selections are pretty much non existent. I can't give you any recent info, but I know they used to be one of the more reputable companies out there.

 

When it comes to Technology and being on the road, what do most of you guys/gals do? What kind of plans, etc... do you typically go with? I'm talking about internet access. Laptops, Cell Phones (Data Plans), Ipads, etc... Do you get WiFi in the parking lot of a truck stop or just in the McDonalds (lol, I always here people reference McD's when talking about WiFi) I would just like to get an idea on average how much Data is needed overall with the trucking lifestyle. I get it that WiFi will be available at times, but overall how much DATA have you Veteran truckers discovered on a monthly average it takes? I personally have Verizon and so I was trying to get an idea as to how many GB I may need when I get out trucking.

 

it depends on how much you will do with it.. Just check email, TTR and FB with an occasional weather report so you can claim it on taxes as a 'tool'? Then not much.. 5-10G should be fine... We (hubby and I) had 10G with a Mobile hotspot, and that was enough except for when he decided to watch a couple You Tube videos, or if we tried to watch something from Netflix... Totally ate up the bandwidth!! We also broke down and got 'smartphones' ... So we upped our plan again ... I think we are addicted.. LOL! So if you can restrain usage, go with a smaller plan (we have Verizon)... If that's not enough, they are always glad to increase it

 

My experience with Central 1/2009-1/1011 with regards to leasing was that after a relatively good week or month I would get a message over the Qualcomm letting me know how much more I would have made as a Lease driver. Once, while at the terminal in West Valley, I was "invited" to meet with the lease dept. to discuss leasing options. I let him know that I was not interested and let him know my reasons. There was no pressure once he knew there was no way he was going to "make the sale". I was given my voucher for a free lunch at the cafe as promised, shook hands, and that was that. I still continued to receive the messages, which I simply deleted.

I noticed no change in my miles after the meeting.

I had always heard that L/O's got "priority" in loads over company drivers but I always had doubts about that. Central still needs the trucks to run a certain number of miles in order to cover their costs.

Again, this was my experience. YMMV

 

River Runner... It's still the same way... Or so I've heard. We leased