Central Ref

That was Dik Simon before Swift bought them out.

You may want to stay clear of them.

As far as why it is called Central I can only tell you what I ha heard on the street..

Note: I could not post the full name of Simon without the language filter kicking in, so I apologies for the misspelling of the company.

 

This has to be the most overactive filter in internet history. It's kind of Diked up.... LOL

 

Well I'll be jiggered. I had never made the connection that Swift owns Central, but you're 100% correct, and it certainly explains why Central Refrigerated Service has so many problems.

Here's an article from The Corporate Gallery, dated May 1, 2002. I found it extremely interesting.

www.thecorporatelibrary.com/ special/submissions/Swift-whitepaper.pdf

Swift Transportation:
A Fragile Web?

Take pen and paper to ink out Swift Transportation's relationships, and the page quickly resembles a fragile spider web, threads spun from its center - Chief Executive Officer Jerry Moyes - in dozens of directions, interwoven. The Swift Transportation web is held together by a network of Moyes' and other Swift officials' businesses, feeding Swift Transportation through intricate alliances.

Swift's structure is not immediately apparent to the public, including its shareholders: One must deconstruct the company's network of executives, directors, attorneys and business deals before recognizing the links that hold the corporation together - and the absence of independent controls that would protect it. The number of related party transactions rival the most incestuous of corporations.

That's why, perhaps, the ISS Corporate Governance Quotient says 90 percent of Standard & Poor's 400 companies do better than Swift at corporate governance. Like the spider's web, the ISS rating seems to warn, Swift is vulnerable.

Why should investors care?

Swift CEO Moyes owns, controls, and/or operates several other transportation companies who do millions of dollars in business with Swift.
For example, Swift purchases trucks, which it sells to Interstate Equipment Leasing, a Moyes-owned company. Between 1999 and 2002, Swift sold $125.7 million worth of equipment to Interstate, bringing in $5.7 million in commissions for Swift. Interstate Equipment Leasing then leases those trucks to owner-operator drivers who, via their contract with Interstate, drive for Swift.

The upshot? By using Interstate's contract drivers, who have no allegiance to Swift or its shareholders, Interstate and its owner, Moyes, reap a profit. Between 1999 and 2002, Swift paid Interstate nearly $97.4 million and Interstate paid Swift approximately $10 million for training and other services

There are many other corporate curiosities:

Moyes is the Chairman and majority shareholder of Central Freight Lines, Central Freight's Line's subsidiary, Central Refrigerated, recently purchased the assets of Simon Transportation. Moyes was the Chairman and majority stockholder of the now-bankrupt Simon Transportation, as well.

Between 1999 and 2002, Swift provided services to Central Freight Lines and its subsidiaries, of which Moyes is Chairman, valued at $52.3 million. Additionally, Swift paid nearly $2 million to CFLI during that same time for facilities rentals.

Swift purchased more than $7 million in refrigeration units from Thermo King West, a company owned by Swift Chief Financial Officer William Riley between 2000 and 2002

The Scudder Law Firm, the firm of Swift Director Earl Scudder, has collected legal service fees from Swift of $729,000 between 1999 and 2002.

Swift Transportation paid Swift Aviation, another of Moyes' wholly owned
enterprises, nearly $3 million between 1999 and 2002, for aviation services.

Such deals raise troubling questions. Who provides independent oversight of these transactions? Who monitors the asking/selling/leasing prices to be certain they are in the best interest of shareholders? Who safeguards the shareholders whose money is used to finance the deals?

Jerry Moyes owns, controls or is an investor in:

Arizona Culinary Institute
Arizona Diamondbacks
Central Freight Lines, Inc. (including Central Refrigerated Services and Jaguar Fast Freight)
Interstate Equipment Leasing
JM Investment Properties, LLC
JM Land Development, LLC
JM Land Development II, LLC
MGU & IO LLC
Phoenix Coyotes Hockey Club
Phoenix Suns
Simon Transportation Services (including DST Leasing)
SME Industries, Inc.[/b]
Southwest Premier Properties
Swift Transportation (including Common Market
Distribution Corp., Cooper Motor Lines, Inc., and M.S.
Carriers)
Swift Aviation Services
VJM Investments

Who, indeed

The Board of Directors' Committee on Compensation met just once in 2001. Its Audit Committee met only twice in the same year. In response to complaints about its dearth of corporate governance, Swift created a new Nominating Committee for 2003 and has nominated two new directors, including Dale M. Jensen, who serves on the board of the Arizona Diamondbacks Major League Baseball team, in which Moyes is an investor.

There are no clear distinctions between those who guide Swift Transportation, and those companies who bill Swift for services.
Edward Labry currently chairs the Audit Committee. Labry's financial firm, Concord EFS, billed Swift for $1.2 million between 1999 and 2001. And Director Scudder, mentioned previously as earning $729,000 in fees from Swift, sits on the Compensation Committee.

The Central Connection

Appearances of conflict similar to those at Swift are abundant at Central Freight Lines, Inc., of which Moyes is also Chairman. For example:

Earl Scudder, who serves as Director for both Central Freight and Swift, as well as attorney for both firms, owns 100,000 shares of Class A common stock along with other members of his firm. Scudder's firm collected nearly $400,000 in 1998-98.

Central Freight sells tires at cost to Total Auto Pros (doing business as Auto Express), a firm headed by Ronald Moyes, who serves as both a director at Central Freight and is a co-owner of Swift Transportation.

Nearly $7 million in business has been transacted between Swift and Central Freight.

Jerry Moyes loaned $2.3 million to Central Freight in 1997 at 8.5 percent interest. In 1998, Central freight loaned Moyes $6 million at 6.9 percent interest.

In 1998, Central Freight sold 36 terminals and one additional property to Southwest Premier Properties, a company owned by Swift CEO Jerry Moyes, the majority owner, Central Freight President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Hal, and Attorney Earl Scudder, who provides legal services to both firms.

The Way the Game is Played

Swift Aviation provides transportation to the Arizona
Diamondbacks Major League Baseball team, the Phoenix Suns National
Basketball Association team and the Phoenix Coyotes Hockey Club - all
three programs in which Moyes is a significant investor.

Oh, What a Tangled Web...

So who at Swift Transportation is looking out for shareholders' best interests? Is Jerry Moyes shepherding Swift's growth or his own portfolio? Is Swift Transportation run for the benefit of the shareholders or related outside parties? Will Swift meet the challenges that all U.S. corporations face post-Enron and put the policies in place that provide shareholders with greater confidence in their company's governance? Will Swift's board
have a majority of independent directors that do not have ties to Moyes?

Swift Transportation has created a tangled web of corporate financial relationships. Now, Swift Transportation must be held responsible for answering legitimate questions that web raises in the minds of its shareholders.

 

First off, if you don't have a cdl it would be better to finance through a
private or vocational school and let the company you get hired with pay
for the payments. This way you won't be under contract and can leave the
company at any time. Then I would try to get on with crete or possibly
Marten. Schneider might not be a bad choice either. Or Roehl. I would stay away from Swift,Prime,Central ref. , stevens,Werner,and Cr. england unless you have no other alternative. They have a turnover of over 110% and are well known for using and abusing drivers. Im not sure how much you expect to make but first year earnings are typically
only 25k and doesn't even include road expenses. If you go with crete or
sunflower you'll train for 8 weeks and start out at a higher mileage pay,which is around 32cents a mile. At Cr england or Central it will be 27
or less. Good luck.

 

JimiJamm66 wrote:

You used the word "politics" up there, and it's the wrong word. Ownership, the model by which a company is run, and management decisions determine the way a company operates, and there's not a way to convince me that Central Refrigerated is run any different than Swift is. Have you ever heard that the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree? Central Refrigerated Service has always had a bad reputation for abusing drivers for profit gain.

Let me ask you a question. What makes you think that one company owned by a corporation would be run any better than the parent company? They operate in similar manners. I simply was ignorant of the fact that there was an actual connection between the two. I knew that Swift had bought Simon Truck Lines, but did not know that they changed the name of the company and kept it separate.

Where's the proof? I'll make it simple for you, and please don't take offense in what I am about to type:

Now I could look all the bad reports up and offer links to all of them for you, but I simply don't have time to do that for everyone. Hit the trucking discussion boards on the net, and you'd be surprised at what you can read.

The proof is in the fact that this is yet another company that constantly advertises in every trucking publication out there, and in the fact that they routinely attempt to recruit from inexperienced pools of people to fill their trucks. This is a first indication of a company that has massive turnover rates, and they lower standards to plug the dyke of flowing drivers going out the door. It also indicates that experienced drivers are not exactly swarming the doors to get in.

Central Refrigerated Service was under investigation last year at the same exact time that Swift was, for immense safety related violations. Falsification of log books was the number one charge on the table. The settlement involved as most people know, involved some hefty fines levied on Moyes and the company, and his ousting as the man in charge of the parent Corporation (Yes..I just read about this today). Central's ISS-2 remains up at the top (94), which means that not much has changed in thier management tactics to drive that number down.

Let's make a comparison to just one of many companies that makes this thing a bit more clear. Wal-Mart does not run driver training schools. Wal-Mart hires only experienced drivers. Wal-Mart doesn't advertise for drivers except in rare circumstances or when they open a new DC. Drivers stay with them. Why? That's rather simple isn't it? They pay well, and they provide quality jobs that are worth having. Among the local positions that are offered, they do run OTR as well.

The most often mentioned carriers out there discussed are among the worst, and known for their terrible working conditions, high turnover rates, terrible safety records, and almost all of them utilize newbies in their operations.

And for the umpteenth time, there is only one exception to the training carrier list to just about all of the above, and that is Schneider National Carriers. They are far from perfect, but they have turned that company around completely, and reversed from being one of the most unsafe, to among the safest. They've dumped problem accounts, and have been concentrating on dedicated accounts. They are known now for their honesty in dealing with inquiries from potential drivers and newbies, and they have set up key people to do nothing but work out difficulties a driver is having, to keep retention in place. They still go through a bunch of folks, but nowhere near what they used to.

And lastly, Central Refrigerated Service hauls refrigerated freight...(duh!!..I know). The reason I bring this up, is because that kind of freight is among the worst out here to deal with on a daily basis. It's highly possible that grocery warehouses are going to be a steady diet of deliveries that you will be involved with, and the conditions in dealing with them are extremely aggravating, frustrating, stressful, and the waiting times involved, even if detention is paid, will not often cover the time lost. In order to overcome this, drivers are either encouraged to falsify logs to be able to drive miles to make a living, or the company will look the other way if you do it by personal choice.

As a general rule, when companies are bought, and it is profitable and stable, the name is kept. Customers hate doing business with unknown companies. A name change is usually a result of an absense of those things, or to overcome a terrible reputation. Central fooled me. I somehow missed the fact that Swift owned them. I still knew that the company had some terrible problems. Their lease/purchase program should have tipped me off. I analyzed it earlier this year, and found it similar to Swift's, but still missed the connection.

[/quote]I guess it would be more helpful to find a driver that is employed with them. Or someone that has a had some type of experiance with the company it self. Swift turned me down for there driving program due to a few more speeding tickets then i should have. Central didnot now I know it could be looked at that central standards are lower or maybe they need drivers could be a number of things. However the ? still goes unanswered if they have a good driving school and if they treat there drivers good. There is nothing I could find in direct realation to there company. So if anyone can answer please do so.

 

Quick background: 2002 lost job, nearly $22.00hr, truck and car repo, house and 11acres sold on court house steps. Fast forward... been a rough four years. Have to move again by Jan 1st. Boy lives with me and I will have to cut him loose (back to Ex). Don't have many options way I see it. Won't have a home, so I figured I'd hop in a truck. Nearly 40 yrs old with 16 years military (trying to get back in, waiting on waiver, no gurantee .) I spoke with a bunch of drivers, company and O/O's at old job. They all pointed me to TMC. I have no experience, will have to go under contract for lack of money (can't finance either). TMC sponsors through Roadmaster driver training. Looking at that route. Would really appreciate any words of wisdom. Need solid, integrity minded, advice. Ole man has to keep paying out. Taking serious consideration to all responses. Not much time though. Thanks a bunch!!!

 

I've been driving for a little more than 15 yrs and Jan of this year till March I worked for Central. Figured I'd give a bigger company a shot. Central for the most part is not a bad company. It is temp controlled freight but their units are dummy proof. U can get good miles and not be pushed illegal to do it. Never had that problem there which was weird to me. 99% of their customers are drop and hook and I rarely had to deal with lumpers. I was a trainer for about 2 months and there are a number of tests you will have to pass to upgrade. You have up to 8 weeks to get it or you get sent home. Reason I left is the company I left to go work for them made it worth my while to come back.