Central Refrigeration Service, Inc. - West Valley, Ut.

I would not go to CRE if I were you (or anyone else for that matter). They have you with a trainer for 4 or 5 weeks like at Central, then they make you ride with a lease op for several weeks. All of which is low paying.

The first couple of weeks at Central hurts financially. Be ready. You will spend a good bit of cash at the school and on the road each week. Of the training pay you get, little of it will reach home each week. You will not start getting decent money sent home for at least 2 months from the time you start school. This is anywhere, at any company.
You need to have money saved up before you head to training.

Second. If you have anything in your past that you left off of the application, don't bother to even go to training. They say they do all the checks before you head there, they don't. This is why half the students that show up the first day don't make it to the end of the week. Also some fail the health exam. Though they do there best to get you to Doctors to get you past this part. I had a hearing loss, I went to a hearing specialist and he tested me and cleared me to drive.
It was odd. I have been driving on and off since around 1991 and never let my license go, and always took my DOT physicals, never had an issue before.

Normally OTR drivers at Central get home only when they request. This is one day for each week out, and you must request 9 days in advance. You may eventually get lucky and get on a dedicated run, in which case you may get home more.

We go to your area allot in the late summer and fall. For Apples and potato's. I have also done line hauls on the weekend up there for bullet freight and Central Freight.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do. This is not just a job, it is a lifestyle. Some people live it and love it. If you try and force yourself to just do it as a job it will eat you alive.

 

Congrats Brickman81! When are you heading out with your trainer?

 

Don't know yet, I'm to report to the hiring office Monday morning to pick up my paper work & head over to the DMV to pick up my class A. We have had guys waiting for a week to get picked up & some that got on a truck the day after finishing class. I hope to be going before the end of the week.

 

Do they have like a 100 students show up or do they have smaller classes? I've heard on here that all the companys that train you usually bring in 100's and usually widdle them down to a select few. Thanks

 

They have several schools going.

Buffalo NY. Usually gets about a dozen in, maybe 6 or so make it. They pull students from Maryland north. Students from this school do there orentation in Conley GA. While at Conley they stay in the terminal rooms.

Irving TX. About the same, usually a few more start, 8 make it. Most students here are from TX or states right near here.

Salt Lake UT. More they usually have the largest classes, this is due to sending students there from all over the south east and other areas. They had a school in Alabama, but they closed it because the licence cost was so much more for the students. It was cheaper for the student to go to Salt Lake.

Fontana CA. Usually students from California. I have not seen many here from other states.

All are about the same. Testing is easer in NY than the others though. All that is needed to pass the backing portion in NY is straight back and paralell park. The students are not even shown how to do any angled backing, this bothers me allot. Espically since these students are technically qualified drivers at this point, with a class A licence. Nobody would be dumb enough to hire them, but still it is the licence.

They are trying to make a deal with the state of GA to get a school at the Conley terminal, but there is a licence rule there about state of issue. So if they cannot give licences to out of state students they will not do it.

At Irving, Fontana and Buffalo all students stay at Hotels. This use to be the case at Salt Lake also, though I heard that they were starting to house the students in the driver rooms at the terminal. I actually hope this is the case. The rooms suck, and drivers there with a down truck should have first dibs on the hotels.

All tests are proformed by the testers at the Drivers Licence dept for the state. So they dont have the issue Swift had with its schools, where they had trainers testing students under contract to the state.

I hope this helps.

 

All testing at the Fontana school is done in house however, the DMV recalls something like 10-20% of all students to retest them.

 

Yes you've been a big help thanks. Where did you hear about the georgia school being started? I live in sc so I guess I would go to texas. Thanks

 

SC they would send you to TX or SLC, depends where they have room. Most are going to SLC.
The last I talked to anyone about the GA school was a month or so ago, when they closed the Alabama school. I helped to move all the trucks and supplys from there to Conley.
The school may or may not happen. They have a bunch of hoops to jump theu to get it done. Someone else may have newer info than I do. We will just have to see who chimes in here.

 

Great informative thread...thanks everyone

 

Hey, Brickman81, congratulations!