Week One at Central Ref...(woman's perspective)

My husband and I are planning on making the trip out to UT the third week of September. There are some things I am concerned with when it comes to the two of us, like what if one of us makes it and not the other, what do we do. He has some issues with his blood pressure getting high at times, and I am doubting my ability to lift 50/75 lbs. over my head three times. Is that in a row???? I mean I am not a weakling, and can carry around a bag of feed to feed the geese without an issue, but I am not in the habit of putting it over my head. Should I really be concerned???

 

Does anyone know if Central still has a school in New York. Their recruiters never answer the phone or e-mails. Thanks for any info.

 

Nope only Fontana,Ca Sacremento, CA and West valley City, Ut. if you need any questions further answered check out the Central Refrigerated Truck stop thread. Caution its about 490 pages long but after reading it all of your questions would be answered. alot of us current drivers are on that thread posting regularly JJRanch.

 

I have no run ins with the law. One speeding ticket like 10 years ago. Nothing for piss test. Nothing in my background that would send me home that I can think of.

I'm kinda worried about all of these medical disqualifications I hear about more than anything to be honest. I'm in my mid-thirties and not in the best shape of my life which isn't suprising.

I want to go to school in Spring which is time enough to be as ready as I can be but is bloodpressure the most common problem? I haven't had mine checked in 2 years probably and never really pay any attention to what tell me it is because it's just numbers to me but they've never said it was high or something. I see what the DoT regs are and it's a pretty high BP so I'm told but I'm not sure if they these bigger companies make it even stricter. Someone's husband is going through Centrals school right now and she's kinda documenting his progress on another trucker board and his BP was a bit too high but they let him retake it the next day and it was in range. However in this thread the lady is saying they booted people out day one which makes me think it might be something else.

 

Snowwy put a link to the dot regs in the Central Ref Truck Stop forum that is now 491 pages long (just go almost to the end, if you want to see more about JJ & Snowwy's answer to my question above). As far as the blood pressure, as Snowwy says, 140/90 is the majic number to be under. Here is the link though. http://www3.bjc.org/BarnesCare_PDFs/NewDOTguide.pdf

 

I went with my partner in April of this year. I didn't make it past the first test which was bloodpressure. The recruiter took me to the room my partner was testing in and pulled him out to let him know. They asked what we wanted to do and we said that he was going to continue without me. I went home and he is driving. I went back in June to try again and again my bloodpressure was up. I rescheduled for September and got a note telling me that I can only try twice. So, I'm moving over to Swift and when I get on the road we will partner up then. After all the things I've been hearing though, I think Central did me a huge favor by not letting me try again. Good Luck--just think positive and do what JJ Ranch told you to on the Central Thread and you should be fine.

 

Thank you very much utahhomesick, that is definitely good to know. I think we will be fine, but it just helps to know for sure, you know???

 

..if so many of u recruits are worried about your BP just go to a local grocery that has a pharmacy, say like Albertsons, they usually have a BP machine right there & u can check it yourself & see if you're in that 140/90 range.. if you're not then u might want to have it checked locally before heading to training.. no sense in going if you already know you won't pass their physical..

 

A few thoughts on the physical from my experience. BP is fairly easy to correct if you get thte right medicine from your M.D. and start early enough. You'll also need to have your doctor fill out a form from Central regarding most of your scripted meds. Their looking for things that could cause drowsiness, so they want to cover their backside by having a note on file from your doctor giving you the OK to drive. This link to Roehl's website gives a reasonably similar description of what to expect on the work-well test that Central gives. http://www.goroehl.com/downloads/id/Roehl%20Pre-Work%20Screening.pdf. One difference that I recall was that we had to first put the loaded milk crate on a normal height table. Instead of using a duffle bag (like Roehl depicts) we used a milk crate again and had to put it up on a shelf that was adjusted to about eye-level for each individual. Be sure to have the tester re-adjust the shelf if the person before you was much taller. 50 to 70 lbs in a crate and they had to be placed on the table or shelf three times in succession.
Nothing was expected that one could not imagine encountering during the course of a normal truck driving workday.

 

Try to go when you are all stressed out and nervous! That will give you your high range!