Central Refrigerated Truck Stop III

I drove for #### Simon . It was interesting for a minute

 

I started out with Simon as well. Then Central bought us and now Swift bought Central.

I know it sounds funny because we're so big, but back in the day we felt like the underdogs. We felt like a real team out there. And not just us, but our cousin companies like Knight and Knight Refrigerated.

I don't know if they still do it, but when we were pulling Albertson's loads in Arizona one of my favorite drop yards was actually a Knight yard, which we were invited to use. They had a mobile home on site, where you could go in and watch TV on the couch and do your laundry. It was much more like a home away from home than it was a drop yard.

And on the CB, our company channel was channel 5. We'd go on there and chat back and forth. And when parked in West Valley City, the CR England drivers would jump on channel 5 as well and we'd trash talk back and forth.

Good times...

 

I worked for them in 2001 as a lease operator and left to haul air freight . They went under shortly after . Made 1500 a week did well . Back in the day they ran triple digit Pete's and flatbed sad well as van

 

My girlfriend delivers to a frozen consignee pretty regularly, and they know her there. The guy behind the desk was telling her that Swift drivers come in for a specific load (in reefers) and they're almost always 2-3 hours late, or later. Somehow I'm not surprised. I think since Swift is mostly dry van, which has bigger windows to deliver with, on time is not as big of a deal to them.

 

I deal with that infrequently. Or, I get to a dry load, or a load where the bill box is missing (and the driver's tucked the bills in the inspection door or reefer) and I find that someone's opened the trailer, and just threaded the seal back in place. That's annoying. If you think a trailer is empty, grab a flashlight and look in the inspection door, for crying out loud!

I've come across 2 drivers who were midway through reclaiming their load locks out of a trailer in the last couple of months. Both of them didn't bother to contact dispatch about it, just went and did it. One guy had 4 on his truck, and one on his catwalk, so I'm not entirely sure why he did it.

 

The Pete's were a "reward" truck. If you ran for 10 years accident free, you received a Pete that was not governed. A Pete that was not governed is the same as a pay raise as back then we ran a lot in the western states where 75 was the norm.

The best part? Any time you saw a driver pull in with a Pete, you knew this was a senior driver with 10 years accident free. Much respect was given to those drivers.

 

Me again, still trying to find Central drivers who may have or have had Rodger, Kraft Dedicated Northwest, as a DM. I loved him as a DM. As a Lease Operator, he was the only one that kept me from negative pay days, and I had about 5 different DM's in my 5+ years. They would change because of sick, promotions, or they would quit.
Anyways, wondering how hes doing with the Swift change and if the Western Kraft is still running.

Did most of you keep the same DM's after the swift change?

Thanks.

 

Anyone else notice that the idle notifications on the Qualcomm now talk to you. So annoying.

 

I was talking to a local driver in Phoenix a while back.... I had ask if he had any extra load locks because he was delivering our load, he told me he didn't have ant with him but he had 40 or 50 at home in his garage.
i ended up buying some more.