Central Transport International - Warren, Mi.

Way back when ..... I hired on with Genessee Cartage out of Flint. They had drivers assigned to 3 terminals, I believe - Flint and Port Huron were two of them. I worked at the Port Huron terminal and was on the Canadian board.

Here's a 'ridiculous miles' story ....

The Sarnia, ON terminal was just across the river. Getting there required crossing the border. This also meant the obligatory clearing Customs and Immigration. My first time dispatched from Port Huron to Sarnia, I accepted the load without question. My second load was right back to Port Huron. We had to call in for each load, so when I was dispatched with my second load, I pointed out that it had taken me 45 minutes to deliver the first load and according to the mileage chart, I would receive 5 miles of pay. At 27 cents per mile - well you figure out what I made per hour, after calling dispatch, being put on hold, etc., etc. I asked dispatch if I was going to stretch my legs out a little tonight or was I going to be a glorified shuttle driver? He said they had me slated to do cross border shuttles and I told him I would work the minimum 8 hours to get my $90 guaranteed daily pay. I still hustled and gave them a decent night's worth of work.

The problem with the dispatching that way was that on a good run, you could perform the delivery in about 45 minutes. Actually, you still can today, but the stars have to be aligned and you can't be backed up on either side of the border. Unfortunately, there are usually back-ups and the actual mileage was more like 10 or maybe 12 miles on the odometer. I think 5 miles could be accomplished if their loads were fired by cannon from one post office to the other.

Another story ......

I was a rookie driver and most of the others at my terminal were accomplished drivers - but this was a new terminal and we were all new to the Central Transport system. I ran my first couple nights in Michigan and surrounding territories, mostly from Port Huron to Romulus, Flint, Saginaw, Lansing, Caro, Toledo and other such terminals. Then came my first cross-border run. I remember it was on a Friday night and dispatch had a bunch of us scheduled to run to various terminals across Ontario. We all arrived at Port Huron around 10 pm or so, pre-tripped and hooked our loads. It seems like there were about 7 of us all going in the same direction. Then we figured out how to do the paperwork for Customs and decided to run together, convoy style. Back then, many of the Queen's Highways (402, 403, 405, etc.) weren't complete, so oftentimes we had to resort to King's Highways (81, 24, 3, 4, etc.) to get around. Queen's Highways are like our Interstate highways and King's Highways are similar to our U.S. and State roads, mostly 2-lanes.
So, off we went, getting thru Customs and regrouping just over the border. Hammer-down! We went about 40 miles to the end of 402, then on to the 2-lane roads for the next 45 miles or so. We just hit the 2 lanes and all of a sudden, the lead driver pulled over on the shoulder. Oh-oh! Must be trouble! I saw one of the drivers get out with a flashlight. I grabbed mine and went forward to where he was. I turned my flashlight to where he was looking and asked what was going on. He told me he was taking down his hubometer reading. When I asked why he was doing that, he said because it was midnight and he needed to know how many miles he traveled the previous day - for his logbook. I swear! All 7 of us pulled over so this guy could get his hub miles for his logbook! Needless to say, I kinda steered clear of that guy afterwards.


Kent

 

That was hilarious! I imagine he didn't lead too many convoys after that!

 

Apparently, Central Transport started getting hit at the scales somewhere for trailer deficiencies.

The Canadian McKinley trailers were always in good repair and everybody loved pulling those trailers. It seems to me that we had just started getting some 48 footers at the time and they were in pretty good shape too. But the rest of the fleet was a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Typical of a large company, they did things in a large way. Their hub terminal was Romulus. They had a decent sized repair garage there, so they decided to have every trailer make a load to Romulus in order to go through an 'inspection'. And to save on money, the road drivers were the mules who hauled the trailers through. After all, we didn't get paid delay time till after 2 hours, so we were free labor. No need in tying up yard switchers or city drivers who were on the clock - just have the road drivers babysit the repairs. And after they had this system in place for a while, it actually went pretty smooth.

Here's how it worked - arrive at the gate, guard logs the load, checks seals and calls terminal operations to see where load goes, driver proceeds directly to the shop, mechanics check with driver for noted discrepancies and then concentrate on repair of the month, whether driver noted deficiency or not. Repairs are made, driver pulls out and either spots trailer to the dock or drops in yard.

You could tell what the repair 'flavor-of-the-month' was because the mechanics would concentrate on it. I recall when they had 'skinned roof month' and you would typically pull your rig through the garage at Romulus while mechanics would be elevated to enable them to see the top of all the trailers as you went through. If the company got a lot of brake violations, you'd pull in and they would check the brakes. Lights were a constant problem, but if it wasn't 'light month', you may or may not have gotten them all fixed.

Well, one month it was 'fix broken ribs month' You'd pull up to the guard shack at Romulus, then go directly to the shop where they had mechanics waiting to inspect for broken side ribs on the trailers. When breaks were detected, the mechanics were instructed to place a replacement piece over the top, drill thru the new piece and old ones, and pop-rivet the whole assembly into place. Some trailers might have 2, 3 or 4 ribs (on one side) that were broken, so it was a welcome relief to see the repairs.

Well, they never checked to see what was inside. So off they go, doing repairs as needed, happy as a lark. Ooops, where's that leak coming from? Open the doors and find that they just drilled into 55 gallon drums of paint on a miscellaneous load. Bought that load! Drilled into a load of tires. Ooops - bought that load! Oil drums, fiberglass resin .... well, you get the picture.

After a couple weeks of this and buying enough loads due to damage from repairs, they rethought the 'drill-into-side-of-trailer' strategy and decided in might be better to bring an empty trailer to the shop for that particular repair.

This has been another tale of Central Transport.

 

When I was there, in the 80's, if Maddie decided Central needed more trailers, he wouldn't buy new trailers, he would buy another company, to get the equipment! We pulled trailers that said Central Transport, McKinlay ltd., US Truck Company, General Highway Express, Mason/Dixon, the list goes on...
Then you would occasionally find a US Truck Co heavy hauler trailer, circa 1966, with 4 or 5 axles under it, being used for city peddles!

Kent, Romulus was huge, but did you ever go to the old CT terminal in New Buffalo, Michigan? They had a big shop there, also, but with some of the worst mechanics.

 

My brother-in-law ran a lease truck out of New Buffalo, but I never made it to that terminal. Hey, maybe that's why his truck kept breaking down! And here I always thought it was because they had a master plan to sell a truck to him and never let him pay it off .....

Speaking of 8-legger trailers ..... they had me hook one on a Saturday night and pull it from Olds Lansing to Buick Flint. I was base plated for 90,000#, but I think the whole rig came in just under 160,000# that night. My little 290-cut-back-to-270hp-come-along pulled and pulled. After about 52 miles, I finally hit the governor and maxed out at 62mph. Of course, by then, I only had another 3 miles to go before getting off at Dort Highway and heading north.

Ahhhh! Those were the days!

 

Ahh hell, now that was funny! Thankfully your overmatched Come-along didn't turn into a 'Come apart' LOL! That doesn't suprise me though; they had a few 8 axle flats sitting at Rom (collecting dust, I guess); finally one day the mechanics decided to move 'em (to re-organize the yard), and the one wouldn't budge. I never heard so much swearing in my life, I think the mech. was under one of those trailers for a good half hour unsticking brakes!
And their romulus yard is really big, but the shop is small, and it is usually has some basket-case of a trailer in it (at least it did when I was there). And then of course they don't work past 6:30 (or so), so if you were on nightime linehaul (like yours truly) you could be screwed, if the tractor you claimed was jacked up!

 

Speaking of multi-axle trailers ..... those with more than 2 axles .....

The 8-leggers kinda look like a caterpillar and I was amazed when I saw one sitting, parked, without the use of landing gear!

My first experience pulling multi-axle trailers occurred when I had a load from Ontario somewhere to Buick - Flint. I hooked the trailer, noticed the extra axles and flipped the switch to lift the axles in order to make it out of the yard and turn corners and such. Off I go!

I ran and ran down the road, and after a while, forgetting about the lift axles. I finally got to my exit at Dort Highway and was only a couple miles from my destination. Down the exit ramp I went, the light turned green and around the corner to the right I turned.

Imagine my amazement when I started to jackknife, right there in broad daylight, on dry pavement! Yep, squealing tires and all, at about 10mph. The more I pulled, the more the trailer went straight and pushed me into a jackknife. Quick thinking (real quick thinking!!) and I remembered the lift-axle switch. Flip the switch, up come the axles and around the corner I went, just like nothing happened. Of course, this scene took place right in front of my Teamsters Local 332 in Flint, MI.

Man - was I embarrassed!

 

Not as embarrased as you would have been had you forgot the lift switch and crashed into your local!!!

 

Yes, you are right about that!

Unfortunately, I seem to have gotten a little off-thread lately ..... I have begun to post my stories in the "Stories from the Road" section, as they really don't pertain to reporting a bad trucking company.

Sorry about the off-thread postings ... I got a little ahead of myself .....

 

I have been at ctii first as a JWA and now as ctii for 4.5 years. I run linehaul from an endline to the charlotte terminal. I must say that the bull***t is very deep at times and they (corporate) will try your patience quite a bit, but it pays good if you stick around long enough and you are home every night and every weekend. If anyone has any specific questions, email me if you like and I will tell all.