PAM or Central?

Reminds me of a man on death row. Death by firing squad or death by hanging.

Truly, your first trucking job will most likely suck. You do not make much money your first year. You will be given a trainer you can not stand. You won't sleep when the truck is moving and you have so much BS that you will want to scream 99% of the time.

Your job is just to survive the first year. Try not to kill anyone and don't tear up the equipment. Central is, I think, a reefer company. You will have learn more driving a reefer then a van because there is more to learn. I would go that way but I have no experience with either company. Take the first one who offers to actually pay you and get your experience and get with another company in six months to a year.

After your starter company except no less then 39 cpm. After 3 years no less then 42 cpm and after 5 years no less then 45 cpm. Always go Union if you can. JMO.

 

Pulling a reefer is not difficult. The unit is easy to operate. You'll learn the basics from school/orientation, then more from your trainer, hopefully. The rest you'll learn on your own or from fellow drivers. Produce is probably the most attention intensive thing you'll haul. Sometimes you'll have to be on the dock to check temps as it's being loaded, sometimes you'll have to check temps during transit. Some companies want you to call in with a temp check, some trust you to take care of your load. The biggest thing is to make sure the reefer is set to the temp on the bills, and it stays running. You also have to have them washed out more often than a dry van.

How easy it is to deal with a reefer trailer, as far as them working properly, will depend on how well the company you work for upkeeps their equipment. This varies wildly. But this is true for every type of trailer out there.

 

Wooly Rhino,

How are you?

This is good advice.

Unfortunately, it may be easier said than done. Like any other employee in the United States of America, the truck driver may have to settle for less money than you suggest, due to the scarcity of jobs throughout the country, regardless of what line of work an individual is in.

Also, union jobs, while they pay well with excellent benefits, are really becoming more scarce as time goes by.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Between these two I'd pick Central no doubt. Assuming it's the reefer Central from Salt Lake City and not the bottom feeder LTL outfit with the yellow junkyard dog trucks.

 

Central Ref.

I trained with them in March 2013. No regrets. Solid company, or at least they were. I'm not sure with the whole SWIFT buyout. I'm sure some things have changed. I'd still thoroughly investigate them.

unloader

 

Been to and through Atlanta thousands of times....seen a LOT of buses. Where there's a will, there's a way.
White Dog is getting tired of tired excuses.

 

Central because their trucks are more beautiful than PAM.