Thoughts About These Reefer Companies

Let's get the story straight. If you idle more than 30% in one calendar month WITHOUT a valid reason Central does charge you for that fuel. Key word here is 'WITHOUT' Being in Dallas for one day at 117 degs will NOT cause your idle time to go above 30% for the MONTH.

I was stuck in Sioux Falls for 8 days last July and my idle hit 30.7%. I told them I was in Sioux Falls, they said don't fret it.

Now I do know about one guy whose idle percentage was 75%. Fool idled his truck 24/7 while he was on Home time.. He got charged..

Most of Central's company fleet either have the ICON or Opt-Idle system in the truck and they will shutdown even if the system is not engaged. However, there are ways to fool the system. The lease/ops can get APU's In either case it is not hard to keep the idle percentage below 30% and stay comfortable. My idle rarely exceeds 10% and both times it did it was July and August. My idle in August was 22% and I still got a bonus..

There the real story on Central's idle policy..

 

no matter what i idle for my own comfort,i dont care if my company likes or not period.☻

 

never been deducted from my check either.☺

 

I've been thinking about sunco when i turn 22

 

I went through school/training at Stevens and drove with them for 8 months.

I feel they have an excellent school and training program. If you run illegal with them, you will not be employed long at all. Excellent safety/compliance program.

Top notch equipment and pretty good maintenance. Trucks have APUs and the only time that the A/C had problems keeping up was in Phoenix or Laredo when the thermometer was showing around 118°. I put a sunshade in the windshield and a towel over each door window and it helped alot. As far as the heater, the coldest temps that I got into was around zero. I dont think that I ever turned the heater up past about 72° or so. It goes up to 90°!

They are a great company to start out with. The main draw back is the pay is low.

Right before I left Stevens I talked with several Maverick drivers and they all said good things about the company.

 

I wouldn't work for any of those companies. Where do you live? That would be the deciding factor to determine what your options are. If you live in pennsylvania or california, call Calex Logistics if you are fresh out of school.

 

Calex won't hire rookies out of school. They want experienced drivers.

 

tommy grimes hired my wife straight out of school.
he also hired another lady from my wifes class.
(maybe I should have said Jim Fowler)

 

Well, that's certainly not the normal practice, but I guess exceptions can be made.

 

So Ronnie Dowdy went out of business, now Ronnie and his son are working for Maverick. This could be a good thing or horrible. I'll let you know when I figure it out, but so far it's not looking good.