Celadon ....

We have been treated like a 5 star driver at Celadon my husband has drove for over 12 yrs I have only been driving for less than a yr before I started driving my husband drove for Celadon went to a local company while I went to driving school then went back to Celadon. He has been there done that to most of the other popular companies and has also trained for some of them. Our Easter thing was a nice vacation while making MONEY

 

Just left Celadon, took a week to actually quit! You were lucky your truck broke down. I informed them I was giving notice and needed a load in to drop my stuff off and turn in truck.

The longer I was there I too would run hard, arrive early, then sit and wait, and wait and wait. I just wasn't making any money between that and the per diem scam. I just wasn't making any money.

At this point I didn't really have any hard feelings, I just felt like "well, it didn't work out, never know untill you try it". I was there about 4 months.

However, after an additional week of running I reminded them I had given notice and needed a load in. At the time I gave notice I proposed a plan, I had days off coming...I would use those and dump my stuff out of the truck. Then they could give me a load to get the truck where they wanted it and we'd part ways. First they asked what they could do to make me stay, I told them it was strickly a paycheck thing, they said they understood and said the plan sounded good.

Then after that week of running around to get a load home, and my reminder I had given notice, they left me sit in Denver for the weekend and wouldn't communicate in any way (Qualcom or phone). Then they assigned a load (without my accepting it) - I guess to to get out of DT pay. Which still wouldn't get me home or into the terminal.

Needless to say I was ready to blow a cork.

They did finally answer me after my wife called the Indy terminal -- she has a way of NOT being easy to ignore. They decided it was better to contact me after a few minutes of her I guess because I recieved several phone calls and qualcoms within about 5-6 minutes of her making contact (2 of the dispatchers weren't even mine but were letting me know it was being looked at and someone would be in touch). Don't know what she said exactly, but even the dispatch supervisor qualcommed me. So at least that gave me a chuckel and allowed me to cool down.

Since I was definitly done with them at that point, I saw no harm in sicking her on them!

Anyway, know I'm a newbie so mabe this is the norm, but it's no way to conduct business or treat people. I made sure I told "them" that when I went in the office to turn in their stupid air lock thing and my last load sheet.

On to the next one, gonna try Conway/CFI this time.

 

CFI is a good company but conway runs you like a dog

 

I know they did and MY husband worked for both

 

I have found in life that it's generally easy to be "nice" when things are going your way....the true measure of one's character and integrity is how do you behave and treat people when the crap hits the fan on high?

They say birds of a feather flock together, guess I'm looking for a flock that can wear a crap suit and still smile and get on with the job after the initial ducking and yelling is passed.

Celadon wasn't it, but hey, I'm new and still learning the ropes.

 

How you do at celadon depends greatly on your dm (driver manager). they have great ones, good ones and not-so-good ones. My husband, my son and I all started the same day. Different dm's. At the end of 3 months I was almost 3000 miles ahead of my husband and 5000 miles ahead of my son. Was I doing great? Nope! averaged about 1800 per week. Celadon was highly recommended to us by friends who started solo then teamed with celadon. With in a month, the 3 of us were ready to quit. I kept hearing from "old-timers", just hang in there, I've been here x amount of years, I don't know what's going on, we usually run our butts off, celadon is a great company, just hang in there. I never hear that any more. My son is no longer with celadon, neither are the friends that recommended celadon to us in the first place. My husband are running teams for celadon now. Celadon is more team oriented then solo. Every once in awhile I'll come across a solo driver that is doing very well with celadon, but very rarely. Celadon seems to run their drivers hard (really good) for 2 to 4 weeks, then nothing, almost dead stop. Example: the middle of July we all received a msg offering everyone an extra 2 days off (with out pay) to be used whenever, if we'd stay out until July 3rd because freight was so high. we ran really good that week, almost 7000 miles, then nothing. We came back from t/o on July 8th, our dispatch had us doing an interchange with another driver, the load still had 3 days to reach Laredo (we live just north of Tulsa), it was a solo run, but since it's a drop in Laredo we didn't mind. Until we met up with the other driver. He was furious, it was the best run he'd had in a long time, he had plenty of time on, they were taking it away from him to give to a team. when he argued with them, they changed the appt time, making it impossible for even a team to make it on time. It was a drop at our own celadon yard, we all knew it was a lie. Ok, so we arrived in Laredo around 4:00 pm on the 9th, at 0100 on the 10th they gave us a new load to KC. We arrived 4 hours early, on the 11th, the place wasn't open, I don't gripe about a 4 hour wait. 3 hours after unloading they sent us an mt move to Springfield, MO saying they had a laredo load for us. When we arrived there, the laredo load had cancelled, they immediately gave us a load picking up in Salem, MO dropping the 12th at wal-mart in cullman, al, we thought we were doing pretty good. we dropped at wal mart around 0600 on the 12th, at noon on the 13th they finally dispatched us. pick up in Nashville drop at Richmond, VA yard. not a good run for a team. we dropped in richmond around 0800 on the 14th. around 1300 they dispatched us again. drive to Greensboro and pick up a load at 1300 on the 15th, deliver in Minneapolis on the 17th. This means they had a good team waist 4 days on a 1294 mile run. Before we arrived in Minneapolis, we had a preplan, pickup in Minneapolis on the 17th, deliver in Seattle on the 18th. "that's more like it, we say to ourselves" until we get to Seattle, drop the load around 1800 and head to a truck stop. 5 other celadons sitting there, one said he'd been sitting there since wednesday. on the 19th, they sent us a new load, dead head to ontario, picking up on the 21st. We are now at the t/a in Ontario and don't pick up our load until tomorrow afternoon. It is a good load, but too late. Our first week back out, we had 3616 miles, not at all good for a team, that's really bad, but not as bad as the 2900 miles we'll have for last week. I don't know, it seems like celadon has a lot more "slow" periods then other companies, but since I don't work for the other companies, I can't be sure. We are looking for a new company.

 

When I drove for Celadon, they had very few teams, in fact out of my orientation(100 people) only 2 girls were a team, everybody else was a single.
You are somewhat correct about the DM, my fiorst DM wasa former driver, so he understood, my next DM(when I moved off a dedicated account) was a jerk and a drunk and didnt have a clue--but he ran me, or he would hear from me until he did and he knew it(he got fired eventually for having a drink or several while at lunch).
The sitting around is what really annoyed me about Celadon, plus the fact that they are not a very driver freindly company--not even close.