Central Refrigerated Truck Stop II

Ok... I have to jump in here!
First, "my a-hole safety guy"? Your going to have to do a better job than that! Walk by the Safety Department, throw a rock and you WILL hit someone that fits that description.

Ok seriously.... There is an FMCSA reg that says that you can ONLY run line 5 for a resonal distance. It is not in the part 395 that Central gives us. Allen, the safety manager gave me his copy (ok I took it... but when he saw I wasnt going to give it back, he said I could have it) of the reg that shows it.
Central (aka Allen) has determined this to be 2 hours. Now what we have done, is run it out and then when we stop, call safety and have them change it. Don has done that for us when we have been waiting for a load, drop out trailer and go sight seeing.

Also, I have been told this by the guy in the Sacramento, Ca. FMCSA office that answers questions about HOS.
(Background - I called FMCSA to file a complaint against Central for changing my logs without my permission first. His reply was "so what, let them"
1st, you can only be sited for HOS violations for the prior 14 days by an Officer on the street. Anything older the Company gets sited for.
Here is the caveat.
Now first, anything over 14days, you have to have hard copies of your logs. If those hard copies do not show a violation you can not be sited. Central gets the citation.
Now if your hard copies do show a violation, you can get an administrative citation (citation issued by FMCSA and not by a LEO) for that violation and any others that they fine because of or caused by that violation up to your next 34 hour reset.

I know this is not following the rederrick that Central spouts but they are covering Central's #####, not ours. They are using scare tactics to keep the peasants in line.
However, keep in mind Central can take action at any time for any reason even if they cause the violations. It is in the company policy. (Company policy is another line of crap that Central dishes out too.)


Important thing to remember is to fax your logs to yourself every time you approve them. You can get a service for $5 per month and they give you a fax number. And the faxes are converted to PDF files and email them to you.

 

So what would be the best thing to do starting out and how would it benefit me more than the other.
I live in Missouri and my recruiter said its possible to get a Midwest Regional run bc of that reason. So would it be better for me to just stay in the sourrounding 8 states or go ahead and run the entire 48? What do you other drivers like better?

 

So I had a meeting with the safety manager today (not at Central) and they have been instructed that anytime "Attending a CMV must be logged as on-duty time." Meaning that even when a driver is asleep in the sleeper being loaded or unloaded it has to be logged as on-duty. I know Central does not teach that and encourages logging 15min ON when you show up, then line 1 or 2 until you leave. I'm just wondering from you legal types any clauses or loop-holes you can see that I can bring to his attention, because this is going to kill my drivers miles, average time at a customer is 2-4 hours and we run shorter runs (200-300 miles) so we are at 3-4 customers a day. That's 6-16 hours of on-duty time!!

 

so if a driver goes into violation the dot sees it no matter what? i thought if the officer does a dot inspection they see it. it just doesnt make sense. so how many violations does central allow because seriously i see lots of drivers always saying "oh im in violation" something doesnt seem right here

 

i don't know the loop holes but I do know if the driver is immobilized at a dock and he or she is not responsible for unloading then by all means lay down in the sleeper. After all the central safety A-hole brigade preaches "do what you log and log what you do"! LOL. To bad there's not an HOS duty status for taking a wizz or a dump. Now that would be great!

 

I'll admit the biggest paycheck I ever received was at Central Ref. After taxes were taken out I got $1000 and some change.

 

I'm a lease op. My check this week was_$1497. After taxes I'm looking at $1100 and some change. I crunch numbers, have a spread sheet to track everything. I treat this like a business. The miles I ran for that pay week would net me just under 950 as a company driver.

I run hard, I play hard. I'm single with no family. I think this makes it easier to run as many miles as I can. Next week's check will be similar. I'm not bragging just letting those interested to know the money is there... As long as you look for it.

unloader

 

I think that would be on doody time

 

Oh! That's so bad it's good!!

 

I cannot site the reg off the top of my head, but it states that time waiting at a shipper or receiver must be logged on duty IF the driver is loading or unloading, assisting, or supervising the same. If you are doing none of those things you are well within your rights. People argue this constantly, but I have seen the reg cited. If you are watching a movie in the sb you are not "in readiness to operate a cmv."