Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

You can be home every three weeks, it all depends on where you live. I don't recommend going home any more often. It takes 4 days to a week to get into the groove, and to get your DM used to running you, a week of running well, and then a week to get home.

I don't recommend any less time between time off than that. My co-driver and I, as a team, had to go about 5 months where we were home ever 2 weeks because of appointments, planned events, etc. We weren't seeing any money, because by the time they got us out where there was decent freight, it was time to come home.

In theory, you can be home every 9 days for 1 day off, but you'll never see any milage. 3 weeks, 4 if you can alternate, you'll be fine.

 

1) as someone who went that route, I can say that them changing it was probably for the best. 3 people in a truck is rough. We only did it 7 days, but it was not easy.
I don't think they'll bend the rules for you. Like 1Bad mentioned, unless your trainer is driving and you two are sleeping in the bottom bunk, someone's going to be stuck up and awake. For at least the first couple weeks, you're not going to be sleeping well anyway, with the adjustment to sleeping in a truck, so it's not a good situation.

2) They used to train teams together, and you didn't have to be married to do it. They advised that you each take a separate trainer because trucks are small, but they also gave us the choice of 2 weeks with a trainer separate, and then 2 weeks in a truck with a trainer who'd take a team. I don't train, so I don't know when it changed.

3) You can't be confident about anything in this industry. I will say, as a woman, I was safe enough with my trainer. He was a mid 60s guy, and we got along fine. I used to run into him when I was still OTR and he would introduce me to the current student.

Training apart is going to be hard on your relationship. I recommend a pair of good phones and headsets. And, a whole lot of patience. It's rough being apart, both learning new things, but in the end, it can work out better for you. Your trainer is not going to cover everything, or will cover things differently. By having 2 different trainers, you two will have a much larger knowledge base to pull from when things go south.

 

No qualcomm. I broke down in the fuel island. Phone only. I'll do just about whatever needs to be done. It's just the threats of being charged for stuff that irritates me. I'm a company guy, not a o/o. OTRM didnt treat me bad on the phone. Just one little statement pissed me off. "If we send a service guy and find out the problem was one of the things I ask you to check, your DM may charge you for the service call. " That did it for me.

Maybe my thinking is all wrong.

 

When I worked for Central I had a few tense moments, mostly with weekenders and their snarly attitude towards drivers. I am an easy dog to hunt with, but don't piss me off. I think the main moral problem with Central is the high turnover rate. It is high for drivers, DMs and maintenance folks as well. I finished my year and moved on with zero reqrets.

 

Is there an easier way for us to do this? We have been searching for what seems to be an eternity on how we could do this together with minimal time apart if any at all. Would we be better off to go through a private trucking? I also have seen compnaies that would allow me to train her? How bad is it out there on women drivers with trainers? How did some you deal with not being able to be there with her? Once again thanks you for the feedback, hats off to all of you.

 

If you want trained together, call Covenant and see if they'll train you together. When my other half and I were looking at companies, they were the only other company we knew of that would train teams together.

You're only going to be apart for 4-5 weeks. It sounds bad, but really, it's not. You're going to be spending your time driving and sleeping, and it will go by pretty fast. If you can't handle being apart that long, then your relationship needs work.

My other half and I had never been apart for more than 2-3 days when we started trucking, and we'd been together 2.5 years. 7 days out on the road, she dislocated her ankle and had to get off the truck. I finished out my training, which was 3 weeks and 2 days, got my truck, and took 3 days to get home. I saw her for 24 hours, then she hopped on a bus and cam back to Central, and spent 3 weeks with her trainer. When she finished and upgraded, I was right there in West Valley City, waiting for her.

We saw each other twice, both times for less than 24 hours, in 7 weeks. We survived. You two can do it too.

What do you mean by private trucking? buying your own truck, and trying to make it work? Hiring on with a small company? You're going to run into the problem of trying to get a job with no experience. Small companies can't afford to hire folks without even basic experience, and while a third part trucking school will give you some of that, you're not going to get it all. I went to really good school, and they didn't cover everything. Some things can only be learned by doing.

It's not bad out here on women, the industry is much, much better than it used to be. And Central doesn't encourage crap. If your fiance ends up with a crap trainer, she can get off that truck and get another one. So can you. There are women trainers if she wants one, but they're harder to get. If she doesn't smoke, I can recommend her my trainer. He's crusty and can be a pain, but she's not going to get bullied or hit on by him.

You can train her with Central, IF you survive 6 months with the company, have the required winter driving, and you lease a truck. If she's ready to drive now, making her wait wouldn't be fair to her.

How do you cope with being apart? You do it like eating an elephant: one bite at a time. Get phones, get headsets, and spend time talking and texting. Just don't text and drive. Send photos of the places you're at, ask how her day is, etc. Keep in touch, it's all you can do.

Have you asked her how she feels about all of this? She may not have the same concerns you do, or have different ones.

 

I don't believe they allow husbands or wives to train the other. I heard that it was a problem once and they no longer allow it. Check with a recruiter for the straight scoop.

If you guys are having doubts about the trustworthiness of one or the other, maybe this isn't the best thing for you to do. I leave my wife at home for 4-6 weeks at a time and never have any doubts about her being faithful. Trust is a hard thing to earn and an easy thing to lose.

 

Just dropped a trailer at Central Freight Lines in Houston to pick up another one. What is up with all the crooked trailers? Most of them were swift trailers but there was plenty of Central and US Express trailers parked crooked too. Some of the droped trailers took up two spaces. I mean really come on do people really not care about other drivers?

 

Nope they don't.. Go to champaign, il and it's even worse..

 

the yard jockeys in champlaign dont even care. they are worse than the road drivers sometimes.