Celadon or Prime? Ready to pull the trigger.

Unless something has changed in the past year, all quality drivers graduates (celadon's school) either do team or solo in the reefer division for the first year. It is my understanding that you can choose what to do after that point.

Celadon does have plenty of freight most of the time, unlike many of the other driver mills. You just have to watch out for multiple trips to places drivers don't like to go. The first time they send you into northern New Jersey with three drops, then ask you to reload at four different places, knowing its forced dispatch and you can't refuse, you will swear you are about to quit. Then they turn around and send you from baldwindale, ny, to van nuys, ca. Then backload you from van nuys to Laredo. Then send you from Laredo to Minneapolis. At that point, you get to thinking these guys are alright...if they'd just raise their pay scale.
One more thing I will add is that celadon runs a lot of new equipment. None of the celadon marked reefers are more than two years old. The flatbeds are even newer, with a number of brand new ones still stacked up unused in Indy at the terminal. Even the vans are usually so new the factory shine is still evident. None of the American company trucks are older than 2014. Don't be surprised if you get a dispatch that includes a run to the trailer company to pick up another new one, either.
One last piece of advice I'll give: remember that every driver mill is set up to always favor the company over the driver. They love doing lease purchases because it transfer much of the cost and liability from them to the driver without reducing their income, for example. It also means they will do shady stuff like send you to do a drop and hook...except when you arrive you get sent to a door instead of the drop yard and you sit there for twelve hours while they floor load your trailer. Complain all you want, but the company usually isn't going to pay detention because it is a "drop and hook". That is rare, though...usually drop and hook means exactly what it says, and you are in and out in ten minutes. You will also get sent to crappy drop yards that are difficult to negotiate, take loads several hours toward their destination only to have the delivery appointment canceled and have to return it to the drop yard with dispatch not wanting to pay you, and end up playing musical trailers while dispatch looks for an Otr load. It's all part of the driver mill experience, and thus, of starting out in this business these days.

 

Prime