Official Central Refrigerated Services' dirty tricks list!!!

I worked with CRS for nearly a year and feel it my duty to warn other drivers of what to expect:

I noticed that on every driver review I got, I was always put down has having been late for a load, even when it was not true at all. I asked another Central driver about this and he explained to me that the DM does that so he doesn't have to pay an on-time bonus. That's the only explanation that made sense to me. After bringing this up to my DM, my very next trip was planned in such a way that I had no choice but to deliver late, and the DM went through a lot of trouble to make sure I was late to the delivery. It involved getting another driver to show up to the pickup-location on time, then wait, then to abandon the pickup location, and then a day or so later I was called to do the load, only I was still on the previous driver's pickup & delivery schedule, so I was very late starting out. Anyways, what ended up happening was that for every review period, from that point on, I would always have 1 very well planned-out late load, and for what? So I couldn't collect some sort of on-time bonus? WTF? Isn't that sorta shooting yourself in the foot? And I just wondered if they were going to report this on my DAC. The whole point of joining CRS was to build a reputation so that I could work for a real company, but they pull this sort of crap often and it made me just depressed, cause I worked my *** off for them, and it seemed like it would be for nothing.

Now I want you to think about this. My Driver Manager, and the trip-planner had to have planned very carefully with deliberate intent to make their driver late on purpose. They had to have known I'd miss out on an on-time bonus. What incentive could they have to make their driver make less money, other than that they are getting the piece of the pie that I'm missing out of. Now consider that a good deal of driver-pay is bonuses, cause otherwise the driver makes a pathetic $.28/mile. This has to involved coordinated, informed, planned out corruption from the top all the way down with the sole purpose of stealing from the driver, for the company's gain, and this is how they operate with everything they do, to the point that the driver basically has no life and is compensated very very little for it. No morals? No integrity? Of course not! They must hate the driver. They might as well piss on them when they are down & laugh, like evil SS Nazis. This is what most of Central's management & staff are like. This is their core values, straight from Utah, and it's state religion that protects CRS, which allegedly donates largely to their state church.

This is just one of many, many examples of the type of thing that a driver has to put up w/ at CRS.

99% of the BS I tried to ignore, shut up, be respectful, and just try to do my end of the job in a dignified manner, no matter how they treated me, and it worked, but after nearly a year, I brought a complaint to their attention, and CRS' response response was to have me sent to the head of safety for "stealing fuel". Yes, I made a complaint, after nearly a year and their punishment was to bring me into their grand glass palace/fortress to one of their head upper-management, sit me down, and tell me that they knew I was stealing fuel. I could either turn myself in now to the police and they wouldn't press charges, or I could lie and deny it, and they would press charges to the full extent of the law. The guy actually told me that. Of course I never stole a drop. I told him this isn't Mexico. I've never seen a driver at the Pilot peddling stolen fuel. The accusation didn't make any sense, and furthermore, I felt like they were threatening me with ruining my reputation and all the work I'd done for them, just for making a complaint.

I swear this happened. The police were never called. Charges were not pressed. I think it was all a bunch of BS scare tactics. Did did similar stuff while I had a breakdown.

So something broke down on my truck and I pulled it into a nearby terminal so they could fix it. I checked into a "hotel-room" at the terminal and stayed there for about 2 days. I kept my cell phone on the whole time, and called the truck dealership who was making the repairs to see how much time I had left. When the truck was ready to be picked up, I went to my DM and let him know. Then I was called into the terminal manager's office. He referred to me as "notorious" for "thinking I could go around doing whatever I want." because I didn't call my DM every day. I talked to my DM when I dropped the truck off. We both knew it would take a few days. She had my phone number, and I actually saw her outside, and I walked passed their window whenever I got a bite to eat. She could have walked down the hall & knocked on my door! But I was "notorious" now, & he was talking down to me for this -or so it seemed- and finally at the end of this verbal reprimand he said "I hope you're not expecting your layover pay." I finally got what this little talk was all about. He was shaming me so I didn't make a request for my break-down pay, to save a buck for the company. WTF?

So, Central drivers, take note of this. When you break down, you have to contact your DM every day you're at the hotel, or even at the DM's terminal where she works, even if you're truck is being repaired the whole time, otherwise, you won't get your break-down pay. Your DM won't tell you this when you break down. Good luck finding the info in your manual, if it is in there.

That's another thing: Your CRS manual is speghetti. You won't know how to do any procedure properly to collect what you're owed, because it's arranged like spaghetti. It's a mess. There's no real organization. You have to search through that huge book, the whole book, just to find what archaic, unintuitive procedure is necessary to collect what you're owed. Done on purpose? Probably. That's how this company works! They are really brilliant business people, great at making money, but they use all that cleverness directed at stealing it from the driver, well, not technically stealing, but the end result is the same.

For example: and you CRS drivers should take note of this little scam the CRS DM's & trip-planners pull. It's complicated, but that's how they work the system to cheat the drivers. If you're held at a Walmart for over 2 hours, they start paying the driver $4 per 15 minutes. This way, if it takes 10 hours to load, the driver is compensated and not held prisoner in Walmart hell, and lets face it the reefer division of Walmart is hell. This is why. All WM distro centers are basicly the same. The have a huge straight wall that's very high with many reeer trailer's stacked side by side with a small gap between them, parked, while WM "unloads" the trailers. All of these reefers are running and their fumes and exhaust has no where to go. The very high wall that all these reefers are parked in front of prevents the wind from sweeping the exhaust fumes away. It also prevents most of the winds from sweeping it away. There are reefers on the side and the design of the place just traps the exhaust in one place and almost every time I parked my semi at those lots I had the most terrible headaches. That's part of it. Then you have to wait in these huge lines to get to the window. Oh, then you find out you have to get a comcheck to pay for the lumpers to unload. Then you go back to the truck & find out you need that WM's EIN to make the request over qualcomm satalite. Go back in, get the EIN, go back to truck, make request & wait. Then go back in the long line AGAIN and pay, then the driver can wait for the unload to start. Yeah, lots of waiting. Lots of BS, and WM almost always takes up their full 2-hour window, & even if they go an hour over it, they will mark the paperwork down as having only gone 15 minutes over and CRS won't do anything to fix the lie. They don't have the driver's back. They will only pay for 15 minutes of waiting if that's what WM puts down in their paperwork. It's a real mess. WM sucks. So here's the CRS tactic: CRS has a load they know will take 10 hours to load the truck with, so what they do is they will work the pickup-time in such a way that the driver will show up at the pickup location earlier than the offical pickup-time given to him. This way, if the driver shows up 5 hours early, WM can take 7 hours to load, and the driver won't be compensated one penny for waiting 7 hours in WM hell. Central schedules loads like this so that the driver is given a choice, either he can try to load early, and show up at the WM early & leave after 2 hours - by the driver's thinking, then head to a truck-stop & sleep 8 hours before continuing with the load, OR, he can go to sleep for 4 hours, wake up at 2AM, drive to Walmart, get loaded in 2 hours, and then drive back to the truck-stop, and then start another 10-hour break, or continue the trip tired and risk getting caught driving w/ illegal logs. Yes, I know it's a little difficult to explain, but, I'm telling you, CRS did this to me with a load that took about 10 hours to load, and I walked 2 trucks down to the other Central driver waiting, picking up a similar load, and I asked him how long have you been waiting for them to load. Then I asked him if he got there early to avoid driving tired due to how they scheduled it. CRS did the same thing to him, and here's the thing, with both of us, CRS never scheduled our hours like that. They did this on purpose and we both agreed they had to have, and it made good business sense for CRS. They were saving a lot of money for their friends Walmart. No wonder they get so many loads going to Walmart. Walmart must love doing business w/ CRS! Central works with the shippers to not pay the driver what the driver is owed, and believe me, if a driver is ever owed money for being held up at a dock, it's at a Walmart dock.

About their qualcom: The qualcom can say whatever they want it to say. Your DM can edit your logs on the spot and make it look however he wants it to. If you run illegal, they can give you as many miles as you can possibly take, but ask yourself this, do you really want to be driven so hard that you're hallucinating on the highway and wake up in the middle of driving just in time to miss that cliff, for $.28/mile? It's not like you're working hard for a decent wage. You're not. You don't know what you're making. Their pay-roll statements are hard to figure out and it's so far behind, it's hard to figure anything out. Are you really getting paid for that sort of work? Look, here's the gameplan w/ CRS, you work for 6 months at $.28/mile and try not to get in any accidents, which you can do if you drive legal. Then after 6 mo's you join a real carrier for $.40/mile, maybe then, for a real wage, you drive how they want you to drive.
I actually was given a written punishment which I had to sign because I refused to drive illegal. What was the punishment for? Driving illegal. That's right. Imagine that. You have to be one seriously sick ****** to do that to a man. That could go on his DAC. That could ruin his career. That is messed up!!!
They will train you how you're supposed to edit your qualcom logs, and make it obvious to you how you can drive illegal for them. There's no way a satellite device could possibly go off-line that much during training. Does your GPS go offline THAT much? Never. Their training involves more than it seems. You will learn how to "fix" your logs. But in reality, that's just training the trainee to get in the mindset and to actually show he's willing. The DMs can make your logs look however legal they want them to look, that's why all the cops, when you hand them your qualcomm will wave them aside. Not because their too dumb to figure it out, but because they know that companys like CRS' qualcom logs are BS.
As for bribing your DM, yeah, they'll take it, but we're not talking about a petty sum. They want around $800 to start w/. They won't ask you for this directly, but they have their loyal drivers who get the good loads, and will let you know what's up. And don't complain about your DM to other drivers, cause you never know which one is one of their loyal lackees who get the best loads and tell everything you say to the DM.
The DMs will punish a driver severely for things as simple as insisting on driving legally. It's not FAIR! The stuff they come up with to make you're life miserable is increadable. These guys really brainstorm on how to screw you!

I swear CRS has a big PR firm. Watch how many, and what sort of clever replies this message gets from members who are happy as can be with CRS. CRS is wealthy, miserly, powerful, and evil to the core. Their PR goons are going to try to rip & discredit this to shred, but I'm telling you right now. This is for real. I'm not paid to say this. I have no possible incentive to say this. They did not ruin my DAC, to their credit, and that is one credit I'll give them. Another credit is that it certainly looked like I was paid for every load. They may have screwed me out of their bonuses, but I got my loads.

Starting out, they took huge percentages of miles off my loads, saying I drove 1100 miles instead of 1350. But after a few weeks I raised the issue & they quit. I figured it was cause I was new. I'm not one to complain to my boss, and it actually took me a long time to even bring that up. Paid 1100 imles for a 1350 mile trip, there's something wrong there, big time. And yes, I did get huge miles of trips like that as long as I was willing to run illegal. As soon as I refused to run illegal, I got punished severely, over & over, & then I got reassigned to regional, meaning all my loads were about 200 to 450 mile loads. When you have to wait 2 hours at load docks to get loaded & unloaded, and you're not compensated for that much waiting, and I already mentioned what it can be like, that can add up to a LOT of time at work for very very little money. Believe me! They will screw you and not care, & not think anything of it, on purpose, it's sick. They are misers intent on screwing their drivers. What compensation did I get for switching from coast to coast illegal, to regional legal? None. Same pay - $.28/mile. Just legal.
Also, the way they run you can be really really wrong. Like, they'll give you a load that is setup so that the only way you can be ontime is to not take any breaks, so you're forced to eat while driving & piss in a jar & eat out of vending machines. It's sick how they plan your loads.

Here's my list of Central's Dirty Tricks:


central's dirty tricks:

WAKE UP B****:
After a dispute, they wake you up at 4AM with a constant beep on the qualcom and an important message: "Is your load's temperature correct?" Solution: Unplug the QC every night. If they complain tell them the QC's batteries ran out for the night.

WAIT HERE:
After a dispute, you come to talk to the driver manager and she tells you to wait in her office, and she'll be right back to talk with you. Then she makes you wait 25 minutes, but it was a "family emergency", so it's OK, right?

WRITTEN UP AS CRIMINAL, FOR OBEYING THE LAW:
After a dispute when the driver refuses to edit the logs illegally, the DM immediately writes the driver up for editing his logs illegally a few months back.

POTATO LOAD W/ STUCK TANDEMS:
After a dispute, a split load is handed to a driver late at night, but the trailer's tandem adjuster is entirely missing, something the driver won't discover until after he is loaded to 79,500#. This potato load is weighed both before and after being loaded, to be sure it's at maximum weight. The scale is a few miles away from the potato loading station, and it will only take cash.

MANY UNASSIGNED LOADS:
Half the given loads are later unnassigned. They are usually unassined right before the DM leaves from his shift, so it's best to not copy the load info down on the notebook before nightfall.

WAKE UP, IT'S 2AM:
Every load starts or ends at 2AM, forcing the driver to sleep in daylight repeatedly, for weeks at a time.

TRUCK LAYOVER PAY WITH-HELD, YOUR FAULT!
Every time the truck breaks down, the upper-management accuses the driver of not doing his job right, and mistreats him, so that he is too ashamed to request layover pay / hotel reimbursement. "You were supposed to call the company every day. You're not communicating enough. Do you even want to work here? ... Were you planning on asking for layover pay?

WALMART WAITS:
The driver is scheduled in such a way that he will be late for a Walmart load. 95% of Walmarts will either reschedule (make the driver wait an entire day, idling with no income), or make the driver wait for 4 hours in their smoke-congested yard as punishment for being late, but only reimburse the driver for 15 minutes of waiting. Look out for all loads on "Enterprise dr." Even if it says the company name is "Sratford Distribution", if it's on "Enterprise dr." it's a Walmart load, and it might be a set-up.

ARRIVE EARLY AT WALMART AND GET BURNED:
The driver is scheduled so that when he is released from the 99 (Walmart), the only way to make it to the next 01 on time is to do an 8 hour split and drive to 0300AM.

In order to get a decent night sleep between the Walmart delivery and the next 01, the driver calls up Walmart and finds out that they will let him in up to 6 hours early. The driver leaves 2 to 3 hours early, so that he can get a good sleep in after the unload, and won't be driving all the way to 3 in the morning (thinking he will outsmart the evil DM), but instead, he ends up waiting 5 to 6 hours for his load to be unloaded, and only gets paid for the usual 2+ hours after the apointment time, ie: all the hours saved from arriving several hours before the appointment time will be unpaid. Can you see the genius in this? It's sick.
The solution is to pay attention to your trip manifest (the papers stapled together with your Bill of lading). If it's a thick bunch of papers, it might take 8 hours to unload. Look through it, and see how many seperate pallets it will be broken down in to, and how many seperate products are included. If it looks like it will take Walmart 8 hours to unload, arrive only 40 minutes early to that Walmart, so you can get paid for as much waiting as possible.
Also, very important, take a picture of your mac13, mac16, and your mac53 request. They will delete your mac13 from your qualcom history and claim they owe you nothing because you "forgot" to mac13 your load. Just fax them your pictures and call safety, and talk to the fleet manager.
Oh, BTW, that next 01 was a preloaded pickup, they just lied about the load info over the qualcom, as usual "live load only" means anything goes.

Example: WM's 99 is at 2000. Normally, WM would release you at 2200. They you have to drive 2 hours to get near the next 01. Then you can only sleep 8 hours to arrive at the 01 at 08:30 the next day.
So to keep from having to drive all night and sleeping less than 8 hours, you show up at Walmart 2 hours early, so that you might leave 2 hours early and sleep well.
Nope, instead, Walmart takes 5 hours to load. You might have collected money for waiting 3 hours, but instead, you can only collect for waiting 1.

Brillian DM! Absolutely brilliant! You are a ####### genius!


ITS PAYDAY DEADLINE, RUSH RUSH RUSH!!!
The DM finally gives you a good 800 mile trip, but the 99 is scheduled at Wednesday 0800. After you are released, she rushes you to the next 01. "Please get there as fast as you can." She says. Then she makes you mac11 2 loads in which the only way to get there on time is to not take any stops in between. The only way you can get paid for your last big load is to make a stop against her orders and fax the trip-pack papers to payroll, then drop it in the box, which would certainly make you late. Be wary of the DM rushing you on Wednesday. If you don't drop the trip info by then, you might not get paid at all, and guess where all that money goes to. The DM gets a bigger share of the pie if you get a smaller one. That's part of Central's DM bonus policy that drivers are not informed about. If the driver doesn't play along, he gets on the Central's dirty little tricks list, and that means little pay, lots of work, and dirty tricks. It is designed to push you to ask for another DM, who will probably do the same thing. What DM wants a driver who doesn't let the DM steal from him, or won't run 10, sleep 8, run 10, sleep 8, with no other breaks for him? You need to get a tiny TA calendar and always be aware of the DM trying to rush you through Wednesday. I told them flat out "Please do not steal what I have earned. Please be truthful with me. Lets be fair and lets all get along." How do you suppose they replied?

 

I had a divorce, & since then, things went downhill. Long gaps of unemployment, & such. Central was one of the few companys willing to hire me in a massively horrible economy. That's the best thing about CRS. They will hire a person with no experience & a bad work history AS LONG AS HE HAS NO CRIMINAL RECORD. (that they can see)

Here's a neat thing for you noobs w/ criminal records. If it's expunged, CRS can't find out about it. I don't care what they say. When I went to orientation, the head guy gave a talk and tried to scare all the new hires into admitting they had a criminal record, telling them that even if it was expunged, he will still give them a chance, as long as they admitted it, but he knows about all criminal records, even expunged ones. That was a bold-faced lie. Some of the new hires fell for it & turned themselves in, in hopes of leniancy. I saw then waiting to get a bus-trip home the next day. Those that did not admit to having their criminal record expunged were hired on. I'm telling you - listen up - these guys are CRAFTY. They are brilliant at what they do - but the driver won't profit from this brilliance.

Keep your expunged criminal record to yourself, and Central Refrigerated Services will still hire you as long as you don't have a criminal record that has not been expunged.

If you look at my "Official Worst Trucking Companys" list, you will see that CRS is not on there. However, they have the exact same score as SWIFT, which lends some credability to my list, since they are owned by the same family. Probably the head of SWIFT wanted to expand and decided to use his daughter as a sock-puppet so it won't look like a monopoly or some sort of tricky, crafty legal maneuvering. I'm telling ya, these guys are brilliant, but they are MISERS and could care less about their drivers.

Why doesn't every member of this forum who makes a public complaint just use their real name, age, and time of driving? Cause freedom of speech does not exist anymore as long as companys sue individuals who don't have enough money to pay lawyer's fees for telling the truth!