Central Transport - This job offer - Thoughts my friends?!

Company has a bad reputation. They make you load/unload trailers.

 

Good ole Duct Tape Transport. They have most roached out junk on the road I've ever seen.

 

Do you want local / regional work....sounds OK to me as far as the pay goes and benefits....don't know too much about them , but the essentials are all there for a decent job , if home time is a preference. If they have a terminal close by go and check them out...take a look at the equipment and then decide...pretty trucks and $1 will buy you a cup of coffee.....but , good jobs don't come around everyday....1 caveat to this though...if they see / have the need to advertize , that can be a red-flag , reason being the really great companies don't...they have no need to.....

 

A certain former member on here worked for them. I don't think it went too well for him.

 

I interviewed with them once......They told me what they paid and I laughed my way out the door. Really! It's bad pay and worse equipment. Other LTL companies in my area (almost all of them) pay around 20% more. Don't do it unless your desperate, there's a reason why they are always hiring. BTW, almost all LTL drivers load and unload trailers, including linehaul drivers except in a few cases. That's how LTL works.

 

I worked for them for 3 horrible months...

worst equipment I have ever driven....

most unorganized....dispatchers send you to the wrong terminal on linehaul then refuse to pay you.

 

Look up their safety rating. I heard its bad.

 

I worked for them 7 months. Docks are hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. You can make some serious money or at least I did up north. I averaged about $1800 a week but you went through hell to get it. I worked out of Kenosha, WI and drove to Hammond, IN every night through Chicago traffic. I cross docked my trailers and a few others then brought a load back to Kenosha and cross docked it for the P&D drivers to deliver. You won't start as a P&D but have to work your way into that position as they quit but the P&Ds stay longer than the driver/dock workers or linehaul drivers.

Equipment was the worst crap I've dealt with. The supervisors were all mean, ugly and always yelling like at you like boot camp creating a negative work environment. When you got to Hammond the drivers from everywhere would fight for the best of the worst forklift that first shift never stuck on the chargers. You were lucky to find one without square tires. Housekeeping was never done and with all them forklifts wide open it was one big dust cloud. That was the only fun part was the drivers on the lifts. It was us against them (the supers). Most of the trailers have racks built in them you have to tear down and set up. Many times the freight was just crammed in there with busted up pallets and you had to repalletize and clean up messes.. If your doors didn't close you back up two feet and ram and crunch the freight in there. The floor supervisors were all 22 year old college grads on their first power trip. Step out of line and they were there to teach you a lesson like make you unload an extra trailer knowing you had to get back to your yard.

It was 2 month's before I got my first lunch break. I finally told the the kids ## I'm eating my dinner. They didn't say a word but they will try to keep the newbies from taking breaks. Communication was all screwed up. One woman was backing out of a trailer while the yard dog hooked to the wrong one and pulled the trailer off the door and she warped the ground breaking her back. I never seen her again. It wasn't a couple weeks after that another driver was in one while it got pulled away but he didn't get hurt. Faces change about every two months for the high turnover rate. As soon as you made a friend they would disappear. Then the night come I was in a trailer backing out. I got a weird feeling but I didn't know what it was. It was similar to backing into a parking spot while the truck beside you moves out. You might be stopped but get that sense of movement. I was coming out of the trailer wide open and turned around to see if anyone was behind me just as I seen the trailer separating from the dock. I pressed on the brake pedal so hard and it felt like I was still moving. I literally stopped a few inches from the edge and warping the ground myself. I was scared to let go of the brake until the trailer stopped I was that close. I came unglued and was going after the yard dog driver first. He ran, lol. I then went to the ex-marine floor manager and laid in on him with every word in the book. To my surprise he just stood there and took it. I finally calmed down and there was many apologetic people. Dayshift management was super mad over a third wrong trailer incident. After the fact it was kind of fun blowing up on the bosses with no repercussion. After that incident the supers and the yard dog had to say twice the door and trailer number on the walkie talkies.

I was working 12 hour shifts with an hour commute each way. Weekends all you wanted to do was sleep. The job does wear you out. We had one guy a line haul driver that drove from Kenosha to Ft. Wayne, IN every night. When ever he laid out they made me do his run because I was the only other one with doubles endorsement. They gave you just enough time to get there and get back. If you stopped for a cup of coffee you got yelled at. I hated doing that run in fear of one little delay meant a butt chewing. You slip seated and the P&D drivers would get mad if you smoked in their truck but we did anyways. That was a never ending ordeal. Sorry but if I'm dealing with Chicago traffic every night I'm lighting a cigarette, lol.

That was when all my medical problems started and I was super fatigued from it so I quit. There was a few times driving home I had to pull over and take a nap. You can make a quick bankroll if you can put up with all the BS, but it's nothing but a gig. 2-6 months you'll be wanting to quit more than any other job you wanted to quit.
Hammond was high paying but I've heard their other terminals don't pay even close.