Central Transport (not Central Refrigerated)

i have heard...now this is only a rumour....that...the old man wants out and the kid doesn't.

of course the way the run the biz....our belief is that they are running it like a tax write off for their fortune...and in worse cases...be a buy out or go b.k.

lately we have been pulling alot of swift trailers....so.....is there a deal in the making?

who knows....stay tuned to as the world spins and spins with C.T.

oh...a side note...sometimes we will see the exact same freight two days later we loaded on a different trailer. our joke is that C.T. actually has NO CUSTOMERS....they just move the SAME FREIGHT AROUND.

 

My brother works for CT, has a linehaul run, from Mishawaka In, to wherever they send him. Sometimes it's Indy, sometimes Lansing or Detroit, lately it's been Cleveland. He HATES it! Looking for something better as we speak.

I worked for Central in the mid 80's, when they were still Teamsters, and still drove the "red racers". We were consolidating freight, and hauling it into AM General, Mishawaka, and South Bend. Even then, the equipment was old and decrepid. Old trailers, some from the early 70's, had to have a crowbar to close some of the doors. Still owned by Matty Marroon, I believe. He's supposedly the largest landowner in Michigan, he also owns the Ambassador Bridge, in Detroit. When things got slow, he laid off the mechanics and shop people first, and then the equipment really went downhill! Pay was good for the time, though.

 

That is too funny! I know I hauled the same freight around a few times; mostly dealing with auto part racks. You know, haul MTs one way, backhaul the loaded ones. But there were times that I hauled the same freight between Romulus and Indy; Take an MT, bring the same MT back! LOL! (I slept in my daycab for this?!)

 

Anything new on Central? Here in PA, I haven't heard anything bad (here locally anyway). I was told they MAY be hiring in Pittsburgh (McKees Rocks), PA. It is for a city driver, and their "road" drivers go no further than Cleveland.

Who knows? I guess we will see. I just want a nice big paycheck again!

 

I don't see near as many of there trucks here in dfw as i used to. I know part of them moves gm parts. I used to talk to some of there drivers they seem content ....

 

When I went to do a paper app here in Pittsburgh, their dock was pretty slow. The dispatcher also unloaded when trucks (or in this case truck) came in. Still, for the kind of money they are offering, I thought it would be worth looking into. I know they do a lot of P&D around Pittsburgh. A lot of the businesses looked familiar.

We will see. I have my app in there, and every other LTL freight company in the Pittsburgh area!

 

Well, I stopped today at the Pittsburgh terminal and, as my luck would have it, the terminal manager was on vacation. I did, however, talk to a sales rep, who was filling in for the TM and he said Central is very busy. He said they are busier than they've been in two years. That is promising, I think.

I am planning on talking to the TM when he gets back.

 

They absolutely STINK!!!!!
Junk equipment, no overtime, work 15 hours and paid for 11, dispatch calls you in for work and you sit around for 2 free hours before you punch-in....and on and on it goes.
Turnover is through the roof!
Oh yeah, they have this handheld device called a Dolphin they use on the dock...and your pay is determined by piece-work and how much freight you move.
It is OFTEN wrong and nobody cares.

Just a real cheap, low-ball scum outfit.
I would strongly advise RUNNING away from this joke of a trucking company.

However, if you need work they may be your only option.
If so, then I hope and pray that your stay at CT is a SHORT one and you can eventually hire-on to a better outfit.

 

Holy crap, thank you Paddington!!! I see you're from Cleveland, so you may be one of the guys who pulls to Pittsburgh.

I saw the Dolphin, but they told me it was similar to a QC, and just gets you scanned in and out. Also, if there's a pickup in the area, it tells you where it is.

They advertise here with an hourly rate. They don't pay overtime??????? Why?????? I had read that on here, but could not believe it...All their competition does! Con-Way does for sure. How do they keep drivers?? I don't doubt what you say, but how do they keep drivers??

I have apps in with all the LTL carriers here in the Pittsburgh area. A guy at Con-Way told me to get on with an outfit to make some money (although unemployment isn't too bad), and when Con Way calls, jump ship.

Now that you mention OT, I applied at PJAX, who I know you've seen and/or heard of. Their local ad says hourly PLUS OT. I hope it isn't one of those ads where they do pay OT BUT....it's over 50 hours....or something ridiculous like that.

I am hoping to get on somewhere...LTL seems like the way to go from what I have heard from Con-Way, UPS, and FedEx drivers.

 

Nah, man I worked for those guys back in 05'. I work for FedEx Freight now. Central was my first local gig coming off the road but I only lasted 4 days there LOL. First day on the job they put me in this beat-to-crap twin-screw Ford built in the 80's peddling freight dragging a 53' with barn doors around. Truck had sagging doors, wipers didn't work, no AC in the sumertime, brakes horribly out of adjustment, truck would pull to the right constantly, no turn signal on pasenger side, bald steers. I wrote everything up and the next day they put me back in the same truck with nothing fixed. I talk to the TM and he tells me "you wanna work, you drive that truck." I tossed the keys on his desk and say I'm outta here this ain't worth killing someone. So then he tells me to go home and cool off and come back tomorrow. So next day I punch-in and work the outbound and they don't care about racking freight, using dunnage, straps, etc...just shotgun load the trailers. So much damaged freight, they didn't care. Thankfully, FedEx called me and I walked off Central and hired there...been with em ever since.

Those guys are hard-core man, they peddle Erie, PA out of their Cleveland barn LOL...I dunno about working there I've heard alot of stories about that place...none of em' good. But like I said, it beat OTR and maybe a good way to get you foot into the LTL door.

Yeah, it's not what it once was. Alot of outfits are cutting pay and bennies, but that's everywhere not just trucking. Plus the big guys YRC may be going under so that's alot of men out of work and the Teamsters set the bar for wages and bennies.

But LTL has been good to me...I work about 45 hours/wk 9:30-18:00 everyday and gross about $1050 every week. No weekends sleep in my own bed everynight. I was making LESS $$$ in OTR working DOUBLE the hours and sleeping in a truck everynight plus working weekends.