Celadon ....

Celadon is a good company, for some drivers. If you talk to a lot of celadon drivers, it's split. Some drivers seem to do well with celadon, most do not. When I started in March 07, I rarely came across an unhappy celadon driver, now I rarely come across a happy celadon driver. One driver said he believes the low mileage really started when celadon began actively recruiting teams. Celadon is a team oriented company. Celadon will run a solo, and a team, really really hard (good) for a few weeks, then nothing, it's like they just can't keep it up. But, when you go in to the Indy, Wax or Laredo terminals, you do have to sit and sit and sit, but all 3 of the yards are stuffed full of loaded trailers. Doesn't make sense.

Celadon does preplan loads. We'll got two or three weeks, getting a preplan with almost every load, then it stops for a few weeks. Like I said they just can't seem to keep up the good work.

as a team, it takes us 3 to 3 1/2 months to earn the 1 week/1000.00. It's the only thing that keeps us here.

Celadon does have preprass AND EZPASS. Ezpass is only for the teams, (don't make sense to me either).

Teams are ALWAYS dispatched before solo's are.

Celadon isn't for everyone. Good luck to anyone going to work for them, hope you like restarts.

 

What part of the country do you live in? And what is your new company? Is it ok to ask that? (I'm new to this forum stuff). Thanks.

 

My husband runs 48 for Celadon, and other than a brief period of a couple of weeks after his first DM left until he got his new one, miles were a bit low, but other than that we have had no problems with them. He gets good miles, and yes, they do care about the log book sheets. He gets reminded if he doesn't get them in often enough. The only time that happens is if he doesn't send them in just before starting home time. I don't know anyone else that has the kind of vacation package they have either! Who else out there has a week's paid at $1000 every 30k miles. They get him home when he wants to be, including once recently on short notice when I had to have emergency dental work - he was home shortly after I got home from the dentist, and he only had about 48 hours from the time I told him about it to the time they did the work. Maybe the regional DM's are different, but the 48 state ones are fine.

 

I don't think celadon has regional dm's, as far as I know they only have one "regional", El Paso and west, I was told you have to live near El Paso to get in. As for the "48 states ones are fine", each dm is different. You have excellent ones, good ones, not-so-good, and really bad ones, (just like us drivers).

The day I started, my husband and son also started with celadon. We each had a different dm. I thought I was doing pretty good, at the end of our 1st two months, I did the math, I was almost 3000 miles ahead of my husband in "paid miles" and 5000 miles ahead of my son. then I actually added up my miles, and realized I was only averaging 2000 miles or less per week.

There are some drivers that do real well with celadon, most do not. I have heard wonderful things about the dm's that are based in Lavergne, tn (nashville). I have 2 dm's, one of them is wonderful, the other is new, trying to be patient while she learns.

If you really want to know about a company, go to a truck stop, pretend you already work for the company you want to know about, and ask some drivers. Ask more then one driver, and ALWAYS ask "how long have you worked for the company" I don't even want to hear from a driver that's been with a company less then 6 months, they just don't know.

 

Congratulations on what sounds like a wonderful new job. Michigan is just too far from home for me.