Central Refrigeration Service, Inc. - West Valley, Ut.

HI there been awhile since I have been on here, been running but now have been stuck here in boise Id because when husband was driveing he hit a dear so had to get it fixed. Just wanted to say something about the thing with washington and oregon they are bad I went through the scale house on I-5 got pulled in my husband was sleeping in the sleeper. My logs were good we just came off home time, she asked me for my log book I gave it too her she said i SEE you have a co driver he needs to get up and i need his log book, I told her what the heck, they were doing a random drug and alc. busting so we said ok did a sobrity test ,gave them a piss cup, then we got back in the truck, she came back gave me my log book and shut us down just because I forgot to put the number of days off in the little box , husband was shut down because when he had finished driveing he didn't finish is log so we got shut down, Washington is just as bad they pulled husband in and wrote him up because a marker light was out on the trailer that you couldn't even see because of the black from the smoke stack so when central tells you to watch out it is for your own good, the reason they tell you this is feed back from drivers which some are dispatchers and some work in the office that do drive, mad dog still drives once in a while, Ron in the class does a coors run on the weekends it would surprize you just how many of them up there do drive, but listen to what they tell you it is for your own good, Be safe and have fun . Lonesomedove

 

Ok well as of today I told Central to fock off and will be turning in their slow ### truck into when I'm ready. I've been with them this time around for better than a year. The only difference between them and Swift is the name on the door. Seems they find enjoyment in screwing drivers out of their money. I'm an O/O and I took my KW in to have the head gasket replaced. Was told that it was warranty. Total bill was $4100.00. I was told that the truck was still under factory warranty and even bought an extended warranty from them. Ok well last 2 weeks I've been in the negative and found out why. The repairs have been coming out of my check. Seems the factory warranty ran out 1 month before I signed the papers. My extended did not cover any of this. There were repairs done that was never performed yet I can't prove anything. Well Central does not care and will put all blame on the driver. They have this attitude that all drivers are stupid. Almost every one in that sheet hole in Salt Lake are morons. They are only concerned about profits and how it looks to their boss. They want you to run illegal yet punish you for doing what is right. You new drivers coming in remember 1 thing. Its your license and your life thats on the line not theirs. They could give a crap about you. Do what you have to protect those two things I mentioned cause Central and alot of other companies don't. To Central you are only a warm body in a slave labor trade. Trust noone. I hope one of their idiots up there reads this cause it's only a tenth of what I really want to say and how I want to say it and I'm not afraid of them . Thanx for letting me vent

 

I have looked into their lease if I were to jump into one JCT Trucking would get my vote.

 

Dude, that sucks. Maybe you should take that head gasket off, since you know, you paid for it and all. I figure you own it.

 

John (aka jjranch) Tested out Friday morning and left with his trainer Friday afternoon. John actually met the guy he is training with when he first went to the school and sort of had it worked out to go out with him before he finished his school part.
I have talked to him a few times since Friday and he seems to be enjoying the whole experience.
They did a swap at Illinois and are now headed back to Utah with a load that has to deliver at 7:00am Monday morning, so back through wyoming and the snow to Utah.
So all is good, no waiting on a trainer, tested out Friday morning, out with a trainer Friday afternoon. He has had only Good things to say about the Company so far and one can only Judge a company on how they treat you.

Treat others the way you would like to be treated

 

My husband went through the school in Fontana,otherwise known as the " dust bowl". He had 2 differnt trainers, the first being a real scumbag who would leave his students overnight in the truck while he went out drinking until the next morning. That trainer ended up dropping my husband off at a park close to home and we had to wait for another trainer to take him on. His second trainer was very good and felt he was doing well enough to upgrade in 2 weeks.
After driving with Central for 15 months he had gone through Oregan and was shut down for a log violation that he was told by a weekend dispacher to do to " make it work". He was teminated due to the shutdown.
My personal opinion is that since he had finished paying off his school debt they needed a truck to give another student to do the same and make some more money so they got rid of him.
As soon as the school was paid off the miles he got dropped dramatically ..I would say that this is a good company to start off with, but a better company is waiting for you after you get experience.

 

They started a new policy about OOS violations and such anout 8 months
ago-they were having to many shut downs. Termination was one penalty
for such a violation...

 

Your husband needs to know he will probably hear this same line from other companies as well. However, he needs to understand that HE is the captain of that ship (truck). People in the terminal will say and do anything, whether legal or not, to get loads there at the originally scheduled time. The reality is, the customer will still need the load whenever it arrives and most customers are understanding when told as soon as possible that extenuating circumstances, including late loading by the shipper, will delay the arrival of their product. Having been shut down in Oregon, did the load get there on time? I think most likely not. But your husband got the shaft.

Sometimes these terminal personnel, especially with newer drivers, want to find out the ones who have the integrity to say, "No, I won't do that because it is a violation of the law and is against company policy (most, if not all companies have policies about logging legal)." After a couple of times being told that, they will no longer pressure the individual otherwise (been there, done that).

Best thing is for your husband to learn from this and never again bow to the pressure of ANYONE to run illegal. If every driver would run legal and refuse to fudge the books just to make a customer "happy" soon the shippers and receivers would get the idea and do their jobs right. If a receiver continually gets told that their delivery will be X hours later than originally scheduled because ABC shipper took five hours to load a load that should have been done in a half an hour, who do you suppose the receiver is going to go after? Most drivers and dispatchers assume it is the trucking company/driver. WRONG! They will soon be talking to ABC and saying, "You either get our items loaded on time so we can get them on time or we will find a different supplier or pay you less for the product."

You see folks, it is not our job to fix the problem by running faster and illegally to cover the shippers mistake! And if weather, traffic, construction or any of the other legitimate things that can delay a load come into play happen, if the receiver is notified early enough as to the exact reason and given a reasonable estimate of when the load will arrive, they will be appeased. I know there will be naysayers to this but you are the ones that are a part of the problem in this industry rather than those who want to be a part of the solution.

A driver put out of service or a driver in the ditch with damaged or destroyed freight means that load won't be there on time and the delay is ALWAYS longer than it would be to notify the receiver of the reason for a delay and get it there as quickly as possible inside all the confines of the law and safe driving.

 

Well John (aka jjranch) has been out with his trainer for a little over a week, boy have they done some miles! His trainer has been with the company for a quiet a while and is very happy with the miles and the pay....but he is a lease operator.
Paul (trainer) has a good FM and she will give you the miles if you want to run them.
They have picked up two trailers this week from Solo Drivers who ran out off hrs, I guess that's what they call time management lol. Because John did have his cdl before he went to central and had driven otr Paul pretty much lets him run his 10 or 11 hrs and is giving him plenty of backing practice.....although he is running a lil short of hrs right now he gets 6hrs back after midnight, so that should give you a rough idea how many miles they have been in the last 9 days.
I personally think after reading 100's of posts that what kind of trainer you get has a lot to do with so many new drivers quitting in there training period.

 

I could not run a trainee that hard. Maybe on the last week and a half or so, but that is just to test to he if he/ she could hack it. A trainee needs to prove, beyond a doubt, that they can run the truck the hours needed to get the loads delivered.

Doing this in the first few weeks is very dangerous though. I hope this trainer does not run like that with all his trainees, and is just doing this because jjranch is doing a refresher.

I still dont like the idea of lease operators being able to train. I think they should not be able too, and that only company drivers should train. This is because the owner op is much more likely to really push a driver to go go go.

He did not meet another central driver at a truck stop on his second day out, that talked to him and his trainer for a while outside the truck, did he?
Just wondering, I ran into a fresh trainee a week or so ago when I stopped for the night. Trainer had a red T2000. They had stopped to shower.
Anyway, I wish him good luck. I am in truck 62143, a black volvo, if he ever sees it tell him to not hesitate to stop and say hello.
This goes for any of you.