Just Got Hired on With Central out of Jurupa Valley - Going With Trainer This Monday!

Discussion in 'Central Refrigerated' started by GenericUserName, May 17, 2014.

  1. GenericUserName

    GenericUserName Road Train Member

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    So I got coded yesterday. They were going to send me out right away with a mentor but he's a smoker and I'm not so I'm waiting to get a non-smoker. They said monday I should be good to go. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
     
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  3. Clyde07

    Clyde07 Heavy Load Member

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    Start smoking
     
    DriverToBroker and tangerineGT Thank this.
  4. Lady K

    Lady K Road Train Member

    Ask questions!! The trainer has a set script that is in a training booklet, however that won't cover everything... If you don't know, ask..

    Also remember you aren't stuck with just one trainer... If there are conflicts to do have options... I can't talk about how the training is too much, because I was trained BS (before Swift)...
     
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  5. GenericUserName

    GenericUserName Road Train Member

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    Yeah I'm happy I didn't go with the first mentor not just because he was a smoker. I am pretty good at determining if I will have conflicts with someone within the first few minutes sometimes seconds of meeting them. And him I would clash with... One thing I never got an answer for and I'm sure it's somewhere in the papers they gave me but what is the idle policy? And if the truck is turned off not idling is there a way to keep me warm without having the engine on? Also I heard the power outlets work without having the engine on and when the battery is about to be drained the engine automatically kicks on is this true? Only the power inverters that plug into the cig lighter outlets are allowed. I have seen those kind of inverters go up to 400watt anybody know if they come any more powerful than that? like 600 or possibly 1000watts.
     
  6. Lady K

    Lady K Road Train Member

    With being a 'division of Swift' now... Now clue of the company policies... Sorry...
     
  7. Trygg

    Trygg Light Load Member

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    :( Poor guy.... :( I think you still have a chance to run and save yourself.
     
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  8. Trygg

    Trygg Light Load Member

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    No inverters over 400 watt that plug into the outlets that I've seen. So no microwaves, fridges, toasters, coffee makers, you name it. If it makes your life a tiny bit more enjoyable, Swift will find a way to ban it. Just a tip.
     
  9. Trygg

    Trygg Light Load Member

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    When you get out on the road with your trainer, make sure he/she lets you drive solo with them for the first week or two. (they're supposed to do this anyways, mine didn't) This will get you your hours behind the wheel quicker so you can get out of that less than minimum wage environment faster. My trainer had me go straight into team driving on day 1. I found out a couple weeks later that I wasn't going to be able to upgrade in the time period they had told me because of this. I was stuck at the shipper and shippee's every load, wasting hours off my clock that didn't go towards behind the wheel. My trainer took the open road driving and the long road hours. I ended up having to tell him towards week 4 that enough was enough and I was doing all the driving from there on out to get my hours in so I could get out of his truck. Pulled full days everyday for the next 2 weeks exhausting myself to death to just barely get the required hours in before he left for his home time back in Jurupa Valley California, and I could finally upgrade.

    Do as many backings as you can, and make sure the trainer lets you use YOUR fuel card to fuel. Once again mine didn't, this ended up to being a whole world of trouble for me when I got out on my own. My card wasn't ever activated and I was stuck for hours just to get fuel in my truck, not to mention I had no showers built up so for the first couple weeks on my own I had to pay out of pocket for every shower until I figured out how to work the fuel system this company has set up. Learn how to read an atlas... Oh yea, get all your items you'll need for your truck before you get off your trainers truck. Buy everything you can think of, because this company doesn't believe in common decency to allow you to get all your things for your truck and let you get situated in it. No as soon as you get your truck, you have a load assigned that is impossible to make unless you leave that instant and drive every single possible hour that you can and only shutdown for exactly 10 to get up and do it again.

    You'll learn quickly that there is no time for yourself. You barely have enough time to eat unless you work it right. Team driving gets you more free time, the loads have more time on them for you to stop at a walmart along the way if you want and buy some food, or get a haircut so you don't have hair hanging down to your ankles, have nice relaxed showers in the morning, be able to actually eat breakfast lunch and dinner, not just pick 1 and that's what you have to live on for the day. This is what the first couple weeks on your own are like.

    You think dispatch and headquarters would be understanding to a new driver? Nope. You call them up and ask a question, they treat you like you're a 10 year veteran and should already know this, then talk down to you for asking such questions, gets you to the point that you don't even want to call them, so any future problems you just try to figure out on your own, then find yourself coming to these forums asking other drivers for help, who in turn talk down to you as well, and tell you to ask the company, in which we already know their responses. So it's a vicious cycle where nobody is helpful, and basically you're on your own.

    Over the road maintenance? Who the hell are they? Is there anybody in that office that ever picks up the phone? Responds to a breakdown report? DO THEY EVEN EXIST??? If so they never have for me, I've tried to contact them 4 times, luckily the truck was still movable each time and so I just continued on till I got to a terminal, thinking they would contact me before I got there each time, never have. Why do we leave phone numbers to contact us at anyways? If my truck really was shut down and non movable, I would assume I'd be pretty much screwed. With no OTRM and dispatch telling you to contact them even though they don't exist, you're only option that I can see is to call a local tow company yourself and pay out of pocket, money you don't have to fix their truck in which you will never be reinbursed for, all the while having dispatch sending you fifty thousand messages saying you're late on the load and the breakdown is no excuse. You should have unhooked that trailer and towed it with your big manly muscles all the way there to get it there on time. I just don't understand this company. So dis-organized, so not helpful, and very little pay.

    So good luck, :D
     
  10. GenericUserName

    GenericUserName Road Train Member

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    Oh wow haha. I was already prepared to be treated like a dog.... Guess i should maintain those expectations.. Thanks for the, uh, heads up
     
  11. Trygg

    Trygg Light Load Member

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    It's just my total experience so far, you may have a better experience than I had, I'm sure others will chime in soon enough who promote the company and worship it. Don't get me wrong though, I don't see a whole lot of better options out there right now, so I'm not leaving anytime soon, I just disagree with a LOT that they do, and how they run this poorly managed company.
     
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