Central Refrigerated Drivers

I am going to school at central in a couple of weeks. About all I know about trucking is what I have learned reading here and elsewhere on the web. I decided they were the best shot for getting quickly in to trucking at a reasonable school cost, with pay during training and for the first year as good or better than most of the trucking mills. Also, they also seemed to have fewer complaints than most of the mills. I don't expect miracles. I am just hoping I can adapt to living in a truck. Good luck.

 

Hey Sierrawayfarer:

Are you attending in Salt Lake or some other location?

What date are you going.

I'm starting April 5.

Like you looking for more information on the school too.

Unfortunately, you only read so much BAD and not alot of good.

But, I'm looking at it as a job and new experience, not something I'm gonna get rich at!

Seems to be a good place to start compared to what I've read about the other starter companies.

Take Care.

JST

 

JCT,

Yea, going to SLC next week. They said to put everything in a duffle bag so I ordered a large one on the web and it is really big. I was worried I would have to leave stuff behind but now I don't think so. Ordered an Xlg sleeping bag too. Haven't been in one in years and the materials have really improved. Gonna try to keep my head down and ears open through school and training. Really looking forward to the first time I come back home with my own truck. Best of luck.

 

The first time you go home and show off that BIG truck is freaking AMAZING lol.
Such a feeling of pride.

There is allot of info on the school in the other threads, just have to do some digging.

2 weeks.
Share rooms.
Dorms first week in terminal locations, and hotel second week.
Allot cramed down on you.
First few days are all about paperwork and getting your permit.
You save yourself allot of worry if you get your permit before going to the school.
Also medical crap is first week.
They are going over everything, making sure they have no reason to just get rid of you before you finish your first week. Normally allot only are there a few days.

I have seen people have backgound things come back as late as orientation though. This is when you are actually hired, after school is done.
If let go after the first week, you will have to pay at least part of the school.

Learn what you can. Backing will be the hard part, and remembering all the things to check for pretrip will mess up some people.

They will teach you tricks for backing. They are for passing the test, but they do work.
It is all about steer and counter steer.
A week is not enough time to really learn it, so they teach you just enough to pass the test. You should get the rest of the practice you need with your trainer (if he/she does their job).
I would insist on backing a few times a day when with a trainer.

They cannot really teach you communication skills or planning skills when in school.
It is critical that you learn these things though if you want any chance to succeed in trucking.
When they send you a load, you need to know your hours of service available, miles to shipper, miles to reciever, and all appt times.
You need to do the planning of the trip before you accept it, at least part of it.
You have to know if you can get there on time. And if not how to communicate your issues well with dispatch.

You also need to learn how to plan your route and days.
It is not just a job of run till you are out of hours, then find a place to park.
Before that truck moves every day you should know where you will be at the end of the day, and be pretty sure what time you will be there.

Anyway, that is enough for now.
It is not a really hard job, it can however be a very stressfull job.
It takes allot of organization to do well. And a good bit of common sence.

 

Thanks ChromeDome,

You said you should know where and when you are going to end up everyday before you start. I will make that a goal from the start. Another guy said going a little slower rather than fighting to pass truck after truck made him a lot less tired at the end of the day. Pretty sure backing will just take time but I am encouraged by the drivers that say to ignore the critics because we were all rookies once. This forum is a blessing.

 

jake3015,

I think central is better than some but like a lot of things in life it is what you make it. I think there are people that could be happy with any trucking company and those that could not be happy with any.

 

When I was with Central a few years ago it was the starter company to go to.
Training was a joke, still is. But if you get a decent trainer you should do ok.
MAKE THEM TRAIN YOU. Do not yell at them, but ask the questions.
Ask them to try and give you 2 pieces of info that you do not ask for, for every question you do ask.
Do this because for the most part you will not know what to ask. (this is after school when you are out with a trainer)
If you decide after 2 weeks of training that the trainer you have is only with you for the miles, and is not training you. Then you need to talk to the training dept. and request a new trainer.
May want to be at a terminal when you do this though. I have heard of some bad reactions from trainers.

The best schools to go to are the ones at Community colleges.
They are cheap. You can get student loans. Also you may be able to get grants.
Or if you are unemployed you can probably get a retraining grant from your state.
These schools take longer to finish, but the teachers there are normally professional, and you will learn allot more.

On the knowing where you will be at the end of every day.
This is very easy to do when you are on a longer run, or when you have a preset already on you (preset being your next load assignment).
Always allow for hold ups in your route.
Some city's you will be driving around traffic can be a nightmare. Allow at least an extra hour of drive time when passing a major city. St. Louis, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, LA, Dallas etc.
You will learn in time that some need more time than others. If I have to pass thru Chicago I will always add some extra, same with LA and Atlanta.
Mostly it is a time of day issue.
If you can set your schedule to pass at non peak times it will save allot of log hours.

Some drivers look at loads and see that they have almost an extra day (or more) to get the the receiver, so they waste time in route or at the beginning of the route.
This is a no no.
Get that load to as close to where it is going as possible as soon as reasonable. You can run shorter days if you want to better spread your hours if needed, but get it there.
Most holdups that make a load late occur in the last 100 miles.
If you waste the day sitting 500 miles away, because you like that truck stop better, and you end up breaking down or getting a flat 40 miles out from the receiver, it is now your fault the load is late.
You had the time, if you had driven it as you should have you may have still broken down (probably would have) but the load would have been able to be saved. Because the time would have been there to get another truck on it or have the issue fixed.

Also, sometimes you can deliver early.
I had a load of Mayo one time for kraft. It was not due in till Monday, could not drop till Sunday, and I was not allowed to drop it in the yard. I got into town on Friday evening and was going to have to sit on that load till noon Sunday.
I took a chance and checked in anyway.
The receiver was so happy to see me that he was almost jumping up and down.
The truck that was supposed to be bringing him the load that day had not gotten in yet. So they were going to have to come in on Saturday to finish loading there trailers to head out Sunday.
Since I got the load in early (before the truck due that day) they got all the trailers loaded and got the day off Saturday.
Just over one product. Held up a whole DC.

I had other things like that happen other times. But that one stands out.
You will at times ask dispatch to see if they can move up an appt. They will (if they feel like it) call customer service and ask them to call the receiver.
They may or may not do so. On a rare occasion they will move it up, on most occasions they never call.
Also, make sure you ask if there is a window on delivery.
Allot of the time they will give you a time, but it is in a window. They may tell you it has to be there at 10am, but actually you have between 6am and 12am.

Anyway.
See how much of that is communication and planning?
It is one part of the job that is hard to teach. But very needed.
Yes, the company will at times screw a driver.
Yes, a dispatcher or planner will at times screw a driver.
Yes, a company will at times screw a driver.
Actually all these happen allot lol.
But, DO NOT SCREW YOURSELF
If you always communicate you will always know you did everything you could.
If you are on a load and a hold up occurs that makes you not sure if you will be able to deliver on time. Always let them know ASAP. The load is #1.
I know you may want the miles from that awesome run, but making up time with an e-log is almost impossible. Let them know, let them save the load if they can.
This way it is off your back. If they know they can trust you to do all you can to get the loads delivered on time they will trust you with more long tight loads.
If you fail to communicate you will get service failures.

Ok, that is enough of a book for today.
I use to write these all the time in different Central threads. Pages and pages.
Maybe someone learned something from them, most that I wrote them for are no longer in trucking though. So I stopped eventually.
I cannot get on here every day.
I try for 2-3 times a week. But if you have questions just ask. I read the Central truck stop thread whenever I log on, first thing.
Or if you want to stay out of the flames a little I will try and remember to check here.
This info is for anyone that cares. I do not care what company you are with.
I would think about training, but my company does not do that, and I talk too much. So allot of trainees would not like that lol.