swift just bought central refrigerated.

Central shares a terminal in Houston and has one backed up to the terminal in Memphis.

They let Swift drivers drink their coffee in Houston at 10 cents a cup , I always put more
than that in the can , worth it to me , their bathroom is nicer too : )

 

10 cents a cup is hella cheap

I do the same when its donation style, when i sat at a rest area in Washington a couple weeks ago for 3 days there was a group who was giving out free coffee and cookies for donations for a kids computer program, being a generous computer nerd myself I probably donated 10 bucks or so for a few cups of coffee

 

You might be talking about a different Central. The terminal in Houston is Central Freight's terminal there, we used to be in a real dump down the road and around a corner, but the mechanics were always where they are now.

There are 4 Centrals that I can remember right now, Central Refrigerated that is now part of Swift, Central Freight which Jerry bought from the employees many years ago, Central Transport which has those awful yellowish orange colored trucks and trailers (usually pull doubles), and Central Hauling that you see mostly pulling CALARK trailers.

 

Not Central Refrigerated ... those are Central LTL a current wholly owned subside of Swift Inc and other than the name not related to Central Refrigerated ... until now.

Edit: ... yeah what innkeeper said.

 

What I have never figured out, why we can not purchase fuel at the Central terminal in Houston.

 

maybe soon you can

 

The Houston drop yard (what I call it) seems to not want us there at all..or that's the feeling I get when I go in there...LOL

 

Are they planning on keeping Central as its own entity or will it become part of Swift's temperature controlled fleet?

 

Welcome aboard Lady K

 

You need to remember there are other Centrals that are not part of Swift or even associated with one another. Central Refrigerated was owned and operated by Jerry Moyes and some of his family. It made sense for Swift to acquire it to bring it back into the original family owned company, which is now a publicly traded company of which I am sure that Jerry and family hold the majority percentage.

Jerry also owns Central Freight, which was a Texas based LTL. Many years ago Central Freight filed for bankruptcy and was bought by the employees. I don't know the particulars of how and when Jerry got it, but he did, which was why we Swift drivers were allowed to use some of the facilities in a limited manner. Over the last few years some of those privileges have gone away for some reason.

There is also Central Hauling and Central Transport which have no connection to us or to each other.

Now to answer your question, right now it is business as usual with each company being run as it was. If there will be co-branding of the two has yet to be announced or determined. I believe we are free to use each other's facilities. I have seen some of their equipment at the Lancaster yard.