Central Refrigerated Truck Stop III

Those numbers look pretty good. Does it hurt to sit on that fat wallet? I applied to Swiftral and a bunch of other places. Been out of trucking little over a year and miss it. Hope to be back on the road soon.

 

Swiftral. Good one. Lol. Idk if I like that better or centwift. Then again itd have to be ms. Centwift or ms. Swiftral. For ms carriers too. Lol

 

Stop 2 was abandoned now we are on three. To funny. Question for you trainers out there. How the heck do you sleep? I'm no a truck with a guy that has no OTR experience but some local experience shuttling trailers between yards and I find it hard to sleep when he is driving. My new company also is pushing to get me to be a trainer so any input on how you guys run with a new trainee would be good.

 

I've been a trainer with a different company. you pray to which ever spiritual entity you believe in then try to get some sleep before the trainee wakes you up within the first hour to ask you something they probably should have already figured out just by having driven 4 wheelers. It can be good money, and ulcers.

 

I'm going to keep my receipts for a couple weeks so I can try to figure out the average price per gallon but I do know that the Fuel Surcharge I have been getting is about half of what I was was charged for paying at the pump. We are actually getting about 7.5 MPG so that helps but so far I've been pretty happy with the paychecks. Have had a few roadbumps that I had to call in about, (detention, trailer washout reimbursement and scale reimbursement) but overall not too many problems. Hoping that in the next month or so most of the kinks are worked out.

 

Thought I'd check back in with everyone. Just read the last several pages and I have to say it makes me even happier I left when I did. I didn't get a call from central until a full 7 days after I left them the ultimatum, and the person who called me said "I know you were in the shop, just wanted to get an update on your situation." Telling him I was home and had another job lead to him asking if there was anything they could do to get me back, sounding rather defeated. I feel sorry for all the guys and gals in the office who have to deal not only with swift garbage, but at the same time having all their previously loyal drivers heading for the emergency exits.

On a more personal note, I don't get why people get "the otr itch" after they come off the road. I enjoyed driving quite a bit, but the benefits to coming home are staggering. I forgot how much I love to get a burger and a beer with friends on a saturday night. I forgot how much I love being able to decide what, when, and where I want to eat (and eating healthy again!). I forgot how much I love being able to run by the store after work to pick something up. I even forgot how much I love driving without worrying about truck legal routes and parking. Did I mention I forgot how awesome it is to see the same faces every day when I go into work?

I also forgot how hard polishing is on the body, but I'll be back in shape soon enough, and the pro's outweigh the con's any day.

Best of luck to everyone out there; you really don't deserve the mess you've been thrown into.

 

I get that OTR itch, I just want to go back out west for a couple days lol. I told the terminal manager, if he ever gets a truck that needs taken back to WVC, call me up lol. So far we have about 15 unseated trucks at the terminal. No signs of getting reseated either, better get some newbies in soon.

 

I'm working on training my first newbie to do just that. I figure training will be going full blast for a while. I wouldn't be suprised to see some sort of incentive like a sign on bonus in the next year.

So far I'm enjoying training. I let my student figure out how to back in the dock, without me telling him (I did help him set up) and he did great. Pretty good for less than a week on my truck.I think the best policy is to allow him to do just as much as he can do on his own with me keeping watch to make sure that mistakes aren't a safety issue.

We'll see how it goes when we start driving more like a team.

 

wow new page... Ok, I'll start here. Been gone for a while (phone crapped out). So I got the new IPhone 5S, pretty expensive camera if you ask me.
you basically have to run like a local when training, nap when you can and sleep as much as possible while taking every opportunity to increase your student's ability to drive independently. I don't really sleep that much anyway, but if dispatch is taking it easy then I just let my student do the majority of the driving. I've had 2 so far who spoke English as a first language, so sleep has been the biggest challenge. For some reason all students are able to drive no problem.... Unless there's a mountain, traffic, stop sign, weather, scale house, too much sun, not enough sun, they're hungry, they're thirsty, they saw that sign they just didn't understand what it meant (all trucks must stop!), or they are having a bad day! Lol. I feel like I'm cranking out some competent drivers though and my pay is catching up. Me being slow with paperwork paid off. They just reinstated my direct deposit over the phone. I am happy for P4P and everyone else that found a good home elsewhere but I'm also glad I've stuck it out. My DM has been amazing and I'm pretty sure I'll have most of the kinks worked out in the new system by the end of the month! Jury is still out on whether I stay long term but for me it's just starting to feel like time to go home. Oh yeah, I got engaged the 31st!! Lol. It was kind of a done deal but I put a ring on that finger during home time.