Working For Central Ref.

NO PAPER LOGS EVER AGAIN, Like being legal, no worries if ever in a accident about being there. If your paper logs off by minutes, and you are in a accident, and they say you are not spose to be there. Well lets just say this happened to a friend of ours, and he got blamed for the accident even though it was not his fault, because by his log it would have never happened if he had been where the log said he should have been.

 

Hello PPL

I am getting ready to leave for Salt Lake City to Central's main HQ. I will be going thru their "re-fresher" course do some re-training. I am looking forward to joining Central Refrigerated. I have a couple of questions for any of you.

I live in Indiana how is Central about hometime when requested (with advance notice) after being out for 4 weeks?

What is the truck speed set at as a CO driver? (won't consider a lease for at least 2 years).

Does Central run ALL 48? any Canada?, do they run Hazmat? (I am Licensed and cleared for it) do I need to get TWIC and/or FAST?.

What kind of miles are you averaging currently? (wk/month), What Tractors does Central run? (Volvo, 2009 models had alot of electrical issues).

Can you team up (to run more miles) with someone if that were to a possibility.

Thank you in advance for your responses.

 

Their pretty good with home time, live in IN theirs plenty of freight going through their so you shouldn't have a problem. As company you only get 4 days for 4 weeks. 62 is the company set speed. Central does run the 48, not a whole lot of freight going into mexico and Canada for central, or at-least in my experience. I don't know if their still running hazmat, 2 years ago they were doing a load every now and again for coca-cola. TWIC will be nice for the ports otherwise some security will request to sit in your truck while they load/unload you. But central wont pay for it. You can get as many miles as possible, if you have the right dispatcher. Some co drivers tell me they only get 2k but i also know some that get over 3k a week. Volvos and Internationals are what co drivers are getting. You can team up with a company driver but wouldent recommend it from all the horror stories I've heard, unless you can get on the dedicated side and run non-stop. I was only company for 3 months before going o/o a few years ago, so maybe a few things have changed.

 

teejay, as a O/O how have u been doing?

 

In your area I would do my time as a Company driver, then get on Kraft dedicated.
They have ALLOT of freight in that region.
Plus it is better pay.
Yes, they loose detention and stop pay, but it is worth it.

 

rgr that and TY for the info

 

Hey there CD, whats the scoop on this Kraft dedicated? If ya got the time, i'd be appreciative to hear about this deal TIA !

 

Some aspects have been changed since I was there.
When I was with them it was .40 cpm, average was around 2800 miles per week. Though this was misleading. Since they counted the miles for local drivers. This brought the fleet average down, and allowed for better mileage pay.

You cannot get detention pay from Kraft when on the fleet. But allot of it is drop and hook.
Also kraft drivers did not get the on time delivery pay, which I think they have dropped company wide since then.
Also, after you have been on the fleet for a while you will possibly get a dedicated loop. This will be a set of stops you go to all the time, normally getting you thru home every week.
Mine was Avon NY to Independence MO to Granite City IL, then back to Avon. I did this a few times a week, 3200 miles per week.

To get on Kraft you have to be with Central for 6 months, and have 0 service failures. That means no late loads.
When on the fleet you have to be on time 100% of the time. If you are late you are off the fleet. And sometimes out of the company.
At times things out of your control do occur that hold up the load. Make sure you let them know as soon as these things happen. If you think you may be late.
Do not think you can make up the time, you may, but you may not.
Trucking company's depend on delivery of freight on time. This is what keeps contracts. Late delivery's lose contracts.

 

Ive been doing very well, avg 3500 miles a week but I normally run oregon to ny or oh then back. I live in va which isnt bad to get home but when I want to go to florida to see my girl its a night mare! At this moment they dead headed me 400 miles to do a 276 mile load which normally I wouldent take but thats all were getting down south so DONT come down here unless you have to and if you do pray your company kraft dedicated my buddy keeps dead heading to sc to get a load and bring back to atlanta, but that would be a o/o nightmare. Ive been lucky that after my last dm retired, my new one keeps me rolling. But I am not sure how the new program that reduces the dead head will effect us

 

Some more Kraft questions...

is the Kraft dedicated hard to get on?
what are some of the other locations Kraft ded goes to?
are the appointments pretty tight?

Thanks guys!