Central Refrigerated Truck Stop II

As you probably know we have a our truck leased to F2F an O/O company and yeah the first year isn't easy as we use Load boards for our freight, BUT as time goes on you make contacts and then they start calling you as you get a reputation as being reliable polite and on-time.

Most of the better brokers won't deal with a brand new # so the first year -18 months would be extremely tough until after your first safety Audit.

 

My aunt and uncle own their trucks out right, and are on with landstar, they do pretty well for themselves. They have 2 employees. It does take some getting contacts. But they do got people calling them when they need help. They do mostly flat bed. So im not sure how they would do in the van division of things. They want me to come work for them after a year with central. But with me not knowing how they do with vans, and also going from .41cpm to .28cpm, which is what he said i would start out at, is kind of hard to do. Been also debating about driving with central for 2 years, if swift keeps the midwest fleet that is, and then maybe doing local at pepsi, coke, or a beer delivery. A lot of options if you keep a clean record.

 

I have to say, .28/mi for a driver with a year in is a ripoff. You can get .35 without breaking a sweat.

 

In Cheyenne wyoming at the J. Been kind of a slow week. Miles are good, no problem there, just feels like Monday was forever and a day ago.

Well nothing new to update everyone with. Lol I guess no news is good news when your a lease op right?

unloader

 

Been at KRODE for 8 hours, just slowly but surely waiting. Good thing my next appt is a preload, becuae its at 2230, 2 hours away, so that aint happening.

Took a peek at my idle, says 31.1% Anyone know how strict they are on it? Its gonna go up again in 2 days when I have to sit in Michigan for a day.

 

Krode which Kraft site is that one I'm drawing a blank on it. I was on Kraft dedicated for a year and a half and that onevdont sound familiar but that was 4 yrs ago too.

 

Its a Kroger DC in Delaware, OH. Just got a call from them, saying, shift change is coming, there is a 2 hr gap in between, can you pull forward and close your doors till then. So i do so, and they have only taken off 2 pallets, since noon, when I got backed in the door.

 

I thought the same thing. KR is usually a kraft cold storage.

Kroger dc's are the worst. I've never been to a good one, but the one inside the loop in ATL is the worst place I've been to ever. I was actually late because I didn't know there was a 1.5 mile walk to factor in to my ETA.

 

ya i wouldnt lease with a company like lease op . .... no way! unless you team or train. my trainer was broke down for 1 week and he was negative for 2 weeks. thats crazy. at least with a monthly payment you wont be negative. but ya i want my own truck but i mean i wanna like work with a company. this way i use their trailers and stuff. and as or connections ....I mean i have 2 uncles who have their own authority and they already connections established but i dont know if i wanna do that

 

I apologize in advance if I start to ramble. I'll try and convey my current thoughts and feelings towards Central in under 10000 words...

First I'll start out by saying that the past month or so with Central has gone great. I've been getting decent miles (2300-2800 avg.). Most of my runs have been 700+ miles, with only a few snafus along the way. Nothing to complain about...heck, even when I was short 2 runs on a paycheck a month ago, a quick call into payroll got it fixed and got me payed in the less than two hours. So as I said, life with Central had been going great.

Until....

On Thursday morning, while I was DH'ing my way towards my 01 in KY, I got a most upsetting phone call from my sister. Her father, my step-father, had passed away late Wednesday night quite suddenly and unexpectedly. As you can imagine, getting such unsettling news took the wind right out of my sail. I pulled into the first rest stop I came to, and put a call into my DM, to see about getting turned headed west. My DM asked me when I might want to make it home, and I told him Tue/Wed time frame would be good. At that moment I did a quick check of how many miles I was at that time from home, and was about 2300 miles out. My DM said he'd get with the planner, and get back with me ASAP. So I sat at the rest area, made some calls, ate something, and waited for my DM to get back to me. 3 hours passed with no word, so I sent a mac to my DM stating I was still waiting for word on getting me headed home. His reply was "you mean you're still not headed to the 01 in KY?". I replied no, I was still at the same rest area, and was waiting on him. He replied back that he still needed me to head to the 01, pick up the load, while he worked on getting the load repowered. Although against my better judgement, I told would him I would head there and get the load, if he would keep me informed on the repower. A few hundred miles later, I arrived at the 01, NDMT, grabbed the trl and parked at the Pilot right near there to wait. (It should be pointed out I had 2 hrs left on my 14 at that point). A few hours later, my DM sends me a QC message asking if I've left the 01 yet. I answer yes, didn't you see the mac13/14? He asked why I was still right near the 01 and not headed east towards to 99 in Vermont. I told him I was still waiting on this repower, and if I headed down the hwy I would be going the opposite direction I needed to go. At this point, things degraded rapidly between him and I. He stated he had a rpwr set up, but since I didn't leave to 01 that opportunity was lost. I told him I was basically out of hours, and didn't see the sense heading further away from where I needed to go. At that point he basically just said get the load moving when I got hours to drive, and he'd hand this over to the night dispatch to try and find me a repower. Fast forward through Friday....no repower...no contact from DM, after repeated calls and macs. Finally got in touch with someone, and it's now the weekend group. They state they haven't found a repower, and I need to keep heading to the 99....in Vermont.

Fast forward to today. I'm presently sitting here in Vermont, where I have nearly a 36 hour wait to deliver at CSWVT. (already contacted them, zero chance of them getting me in early before my 0300appt, 8/12). To top it off, I was hit with a preset picking up Mon morning and delivering Tue morning in VA. I have yet to mac 11 that joke.

So lets recap. As I sit, I'm 2900+ miles from home. I have zero chance of making the funeral on Wed. Zero chance of catching my relatives who flew in from all over to be there. I gave up all that, so Central could make good on a truckload of Hot Pockets to the people of VT.

What pisses me off the most, and perhaps this is where I made my mistake, was that I was 2300 miles out on Thursday. I could have made the funeral. Could have been there for my family. I'd be curious what others might say, but in my gut I feel I should have put my foot down and said no to heading to the 01, and told my DM I wasn't going an inch further till I got a load home. I should mention that in our back and forth macs to each other, my DM did say he would put me on a bus from KY if I chose that option. (I laughed at him and his suggestion)

So needless to say, whenever I get home, it will be my last trip with Central. When a company chooses their business over the well-being of their employees, is the day I say goodbye to that company. My only real question I have now, is do I get a paid trip home? Or do I sit for a few more days before I've had enough and pay for my own way home? Time will tell.

As I said at the beginning of this essay...life had been good at Central. After a bit of a rough start my first few weeks solo, I was on autopilot...making decent money with no real complaints.

So before I end this, a question for the Central crowd. At this point, would it make any difference at all trying to speak to others up the chain from my DM? Would I get more of the same...more of "well there was no freight, AT ALL, headed west"? I feel any calls I might make at this point would be non-productive. I've got one foot out the door already...the other is close behind it.

Thanks for reading....be safe everyone.

(oh..and I just thought of this...my DH to the 01 I'm on now was just short of 400 miles. Not the first time I've DH'ed that far as a Co. driver. Is it crazy for me to think that having me DH similar miles to get to a long load headed west is not possible? Rhetorical question there...)