Celadon (Bone-Heads)

Celadon didn't want to spend any money on this situation. I called International and they said that they would not allow an outside shop to perform and recall or warranty work. The only alternative was to send a service truck from International which was only 20 miles away. Now you might wonder if it was only 20 miles to the nearest dealer, why not take the risk and drive it. In order to get to the dealership I would need to jump on I-81 to PA 581, both major highways on wet roads with lots of road spray everytime another vehicle blows by you.

Celadon says, that if you don't want to drive the truck in the rain without a wiper than you will just have to wait it out for as long as it takes for good weather. So my next question my wife will be asking me is, "where's this week's paycheck?". Gee honey, I'll ask my lovely DM who lost his spine when the chips were down on one of his faithful drivers if he will push for layover pay. After all, it's the same person (DM) who went scrambling away with his tail between his legs when Jeri from maintenance apparently said "jump".

 

So here's the bottom line even though the fine folks at celadon will deny it... the driver is left with two choices - either drive the truck in bad weather conditions without wipers, or wait out the storm front along with dry roads without pay. I eventually had (or forced into making an unsafe decision) drive to the dealership in order to receive a paycheck.

 

I think that as long as you have the option to stay away from such a company such as this one, you're are a wise man.

 

...and, it's probably the only ride she has ever had.

 

I met her briefly one day, and she didn't seem very pleasant to deal with. As the story goes: I was asked to stop by a Speedco to get an oil sample pulled from my truck one day which I did. Speedco faxed the results over to Celadon and both Speedco and Celadon agreed that the oil didn't look healthy. Speedco offered to do an oil change at that time but the maintenance dept (Jeri) wanted to wait till the truck got into a terminal... no immediate date was set nor any further concern expressed by Celadon.#

A couple of days later as I was going through the Indianapolis area, I decided to stop in and get my elog stickers put on the truck which the shop apparently has to do personally for whatever reason. I went in and asked for these stickers and apparently the person I spoke with was Jeri. I inquired about the stickers and she rolled her eyes and said, "yeah, I'll get right on that." I said thank you and went to my truck to finish up some paperwork. About 20 minutes went by and I went back inside the shop and informed Jeri that I was under a load which was scheduled for delivery a couple hours away and that I needed to get rolling soon. She yelled across the shop for someone by name who apparently was the sticker boy... I'm sure every shop has a sticker boy who is specially trained in sticker applications.#

I returned back to the truck, got my paperwork and went into the cafeteria to transflow my last trip. Got back to the truck - no stickers, we really need to find a better qualified sticker boy. I couldn't wait any longer so I left. I informed my DM of the situation and he said he would immediately look into it, and by what followed next I think she (Jeri) was asked what was going on.#

I headed out to make my (on time) delivery when 30 minutes into my trip I get a message and a phone call telling me to turn around and come back to the shop. Jeri is now concerned about this oil sample that was taken a few days ago and fears that the truck may be in danger if I continue driving it. She wanted me to drop the load at the Indy terminal and bobtail over to the Cummins shop so they could prevent the truck's engine from mechanical failure. I check in with the Cummins shop thinking that I will probably have to get a hotel because my truck is going to have to go through some serious diagnostics.#

A couple of hours later a technician tells me that there is nothing wrong with the truck and if Celadon had faxed over the oil samples earlier, than they could of saved everyone some time, including having to reschedule a load that was on time. The tech at Cummins told me that it was totally unnecessary for me to bring the tractor in. After returning to the terminal I sat waiting to be dispatched. The good news, I finally got my stickers.#