Central Refrigerated Truck Stop II

Do you have a Freightliner? Ours is a 2012.

Ours has two flasher relays... One for the truck and one for the trailer. If it happens with older trailers, they use incandescent light bulbs, so more power draw compared to the newer trailers and the LED lights. Might mean a relay GOING bad, just not out yet. Have you kept track of the trailer numbers of which ones you had when this was happening? 57's and 56's are the newer, 55's and 54's older. Suggestion... Go by a dealer and pick up a relay, they're not to expensive compared to the waiting and PIA it is to have a shop do this. Swap it out... If its still doing it, keep the relay as a spare and try swapping out flasher... A little more expensive, but not much. Some trucks will have a flasher for the tractor and the trailer... If neither of those work, try changing out the pigtail. If you have a Freightliner (2012) and we meet up, we have a spare relay and pigtail so could try some of that.

 

It's a 2012, and nothing past 565 has been a problem. I noticed it was all pre 566 trls that were doing it. Where is the relay? Btw, I do have a 2012 cascadia.

 

And as far as meeting up, haven't you noticed I only go to crsco when you're at crshen? Lol. I never go west of Texas so that would be the only place we might meet.

 

How does it take over an hour for dispatch to find me an mt? $5 says if I just bobtailed to Allentown I'd be rolling with an mt already, but I decided to follow the rules.

 

It was under the hood against the firewall. As to which number, I'd have to look at he manuals. I do know it was about an inch square in shape... Not that THAT would help :/... Klingon does all the 'outside' stuff, so can't tell you much more.

 

We need to get our safety meeting done, so one of these Tuesdays we will be catching one in Conley. Maybe we will catch you then

 

Hey I just thought of something seeing how i'm a pretty cluey kinda guy and intelligent as well maybe its so quiet in hear because everyone one is so busy driving and earning a living that they don't have time to get on "Truckers Reports"" as much as they'd like to!

 

Hey Guys and Gals of this thread, I am seriously considering Central after school as a company driver and have a couple of questions that I could use your help on.
1. Do they really have a forced dispatch model, and if so how does it work? As a new company driver, can you refuse a load (say into NYC)? Is forced dispatch a no bigging in the big scheme of things?
2. Do the trucks really come with a refrigerator? Really?
3. Inverters? Are they already installed and usable in the truck? What wattage?
4. Does their idle policy keep you cool in the heat of summer? If you dont use it all, can you accumulate idle time?
5. Important thing here-do they micro manage you to death or give you the load and leave you alone? Do you do your own routing or does the DM do it for you?
6. Are they fair with the pay; dentention, layover, breakdown? Do they pay for these things on time with no hassles?
7. Is the freight REALLY 90% no touch, and 70% drop and hook?
8. Anyone know how the trainers are? Decent, honest folks interested in TEACHING and HELPING their students LEARN? Or?
That's it for now....all these questions arise from many conversations I had with the recruiter....and I get from TTR what recruiters will say and do to get you scuked in....so real life, honest people out there, please help.
Be safe!
G MAN

 

1. Yes, it's forced dispatch. Any company you consider will be. However, the odds of getting sent into the 5 boroughs is pretty slim because we deliver mostly to distribution centers, and they are mostly located outside major cities.

2. The trucks don't come with refrigerators unless you get an owner op spec truck that has been moved to the company fleet. It's pretty unlikely.

3. Again, no inverter unless its an owner op spec truck. They will install one for you if you pay for it, but you can get a plug in one that will run most things other than a microwave. That's your best bet.

4. I never had a problem with idle time. It's kind of a personal thing though, because if you run nights and want it to be 72° in the truck all day you will go over on your idle. During periods of unusual heat (like last summer) they will suspend the idle policy. They won't tell you when they do this though. You can't accumulate idle time, so it's on a week by week basis. If you don't idle on Thursday, for example, you could idle a little longer on the other days of the week.

5. You will be micromanaged at first, but once you prove you know what you're doing they won't bother you too much. They really don't have time to babysit all the drivers. The computer will send you routing and you need to more or less follow it. Small changes are fine but big ones might get you in trouble. The truth is you usually just want to follow it, because that "better" way you see on the map may not be better. There may be a good reason why routing doesn't send you that way.

6. Detention and layover are pretty straight forward, but you must make sure all your ducks are in a row. If you give them a reason to decline it they will. Depending on your fleet it might take 2 weeks to get detention pay, or it might get paid at the same time as the load.

7. Freight is well over 90% no touch, but no where near 70% drop and hook. Some fleets are a very high percentage of d/h, but on the general fleet is probably more like 25% d/h.

8. Trainers are people. Just like any group of people who are not science experiments, results vary. My trainer was excellent, but a friend of mine had a pretty lack luster trainer. It's luck of the draw really, but I think the majority do a pretty decent job.

Hope that helps.

 

It does, thanks. See above for some clarification, if you dont mind: