Follow me through Central Refrigerated training

I have a question how long will in be before you recieve your fisrt check while in training.

 

You get $100 as soon as you get seated on your trainers truck. You will then get no check the following Wednesday and will receive your prorated pay the following Wednesday. Also amounts given are gross and you will see less due to taxes and you do not get a paper check all the money is loaded on your commdata card.

Hope that helps
ps you also have the option of a $200 advance that is taken out in 4 $50 payments from the next 4 checks.

 

Hello, dont be lonely, I am following your every word!!!
All your info helps, thank you.
I am going to orientation at fontana on May 20. i will already have my CDL from a private school. 3 days, then out with a trainer. Cant wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

G MAN

 

Day 15

I am getting so close to going to Fontana that i can taste it.

So the day started as usual with everyone doing pretrips the one down having brake issues one was getting set to go to the DMV so we only had one road truck today. The Road truck went out in the morning with 4 students in it and came back a little after 11:00. I worked on Offsets and in cab pretrip along with my air brake. At lunch time the yard boss grabbed me and another student to go with him to take a truck and trailer up to Yuba City (about an hour and a half north) I drove up there and the other student drove back. It was nice to get out and drive not just on the streets around the school but out on the freeway for about an hour. When we got back it was time to fill out logs and go home.

Only 2 more days in the yard then it is off to Fontana

 

Day 16

One more day till i am done with school. Today we pretriped the trucks and us that are heading to Fontana this weekend got in one truck to test out before going to Fontana. I drove first and the instructor only told us where to turn and offered no advice on driving. we went out to highway 50 then east to the hills I drove for about an hour and the instructor at the end of that said I needed to work on my shifting a little more and checking my right mirror (I was checking it just not moving my head enough so he could see I was). So with that all said an done I passed my test to go down to Central in Fontana. the rest of the people in my truck did not pass the test so I guess they will be going back out tomorrow. Then in the afternoon I was in the yard working on my parallel and ally dock I think after today I am ready to go and test with the DMV.

So tomorrow I will test out on pre trip and air brakes then head to the classroom and pick up my ticket to Fontana.

It's almost go time!

 

Good job Corsair4me!!!

 

Thanks PSUMoose do you ever get down to Fontana? if not maybe we will meet up in Salt Lake or Stockton some time.

 

Out of the 3 I'm in Stockton the most.

 

Day 17 Graduation Day

well today was it for school, time to go to Fontana.

All we did to day was pretripped for the new students coming in and practiced some skills this morning. Then we went back to the Classroom and got our paperwork and bus ticket information. Out of a class of 9, 4 are going to Fontana and the two guys that have CDLs where told they will be on a trianers truck Wednesday because they don't have to do any testing at central. After that we went back to the yard and practiced some more but with 10 new students showing up the yard was a little too crowded so we helped the new guys with there pretrips and worked on a few skills. well that is it school is done now I have a 9 hour bus ride to Fontana then DMV testing and orientation. I will keep posting how orientation and my DMV testing goes. When I get seated with a trainer ( I am being told it should be Thursday if I pass the DMV testing the first time) I will try to post as much as possible. I am planning on running hard with the trainer so not sure how much I will be able to.

So with that in mind I will give my final wrap up of my thoughts on the Sacramento school. As with anything in life you are going to get out of it what you put into it. The classroom time was what it is I was never big on sitting in a classroom so it was a little monotonous but it served its purposes of getting you passed the DMV written and giving you the basic knowledge you need to operate an 80K pound CMV. As far as the yard time the instructors where great and would work with you as much as you wanted. If you just sit back and expect someone to spoon feed you all the knowledge and techniques on how to drive a CMV this will not be the school for you. My feelings is there are not enough instructors in the yard at any giving time (one instructor for up to 12 students working on three different skills). So if you need help with something you better stand up and request the help or you will be left alone. while out on the road the instruction is good with one instructor to 3 or four students in a truck. The trucks are what you would expect for a school they are a little older and beat up from so many students. they are all sleeper cab trucks where they mounted airline seats and seat belts in the back for the students that are not driving. The yard itself is something to be desired it is about a 5 acre lot that is not paved so it gets hot and very dusty out there. They do try to keep it watered down but in Sacramento the water put on it dries fast and you are back to dust. there is also some big holes out there that the trucks can roll back into that can make it difficult sometimes when trying to fix yourself in a maneuver. So if I had to grade the school I would give it a C. The things that bring the grade down are manly the yard If they paved to even graveled the yard it would be a solid B.

If anyone would like more information about the school feel free to PM me or post your question on here and I will answer as soon as possible. I hope this will help someone out there that is looking into Central.

PSU since you say you are in Stockton the most I am sure we will meet up there someday that is close to my home.

 

Do you new drivers really understand the reefer business? You should talk to some veteran drivers (I mean old-school drivers) about it before you go with a reefer company. It may not be for you. I did it for a year. Just want to save some of you aggrivation and time if its not what you think.