yeah ive been thinking about landstar also, just want to stick with central for a little longer before i decide to go or not

 

I saw a Central truck at a local restaurant this morning and it was white. Gotta say, I would choose black if I have the choice cause that white one was just a filthy pig.

 

So far I havent heard too much bad about central Ref. Course theres always guys griping about someone, but overall, they seem to be pretty solid for a training company.

 

Well I just wanted to say this post has been interesting. I was going to do local driving in Portland, Or. you can start directly out of school at about 16.50 h/r, I wanted to do local because I have a wife and a son. However I wanted to get a little expierence behind my belt first, and I wanted to have the expierence of going over the road. At my previous job I was a locksmith making about 40k a year. It just wasnt enough to provide a good life for my family, I have friends and realatives in trucking and I think it is a good career. I started training at IITR Truck driving school on August 14th and graduated on September 8th. Several companies came to the school to try to recruit us, and Central seemed like the best over the road one. I liked it because they said I can easily be home every 9-14 days which sounded great since I have a family. Gordon was every 21 days. central says I can easily make 55k my first year. Which after reading this thread I wonder if that will really happen. Cockroach's post about his wages in the beginning like 2-300 a week take home I hope that doesnt happen, I understand during trining 425 the first 2 weeks and 500 the second 2 weeks. but solo I could not survive on that pay. I did notice that central paid .26 a mile in his post now they start at .29 with an additional .01 per mile if you average at least 10500 miles a month. My recruiter said I could easily get about 2800 to 3500 a week running legally. 3500 he said is easy to do. Hopefully this is realistic. also $650 per quarter bonus for no preventable accidents/freight claims. hopefully I will be able to get those bonuses. So I guess I will see how it goes I leave in a few hours for greyhound to salt lake city. Shoud be on the road sometime after friday. Every company I have looked out someone had complaints about so there is no perfect company out there hopefully this one will turn out well.

I dont know if anyone still reads this board but It was a great information source for me. I would love to hear opinions.

i'll check in later

 

gordon is every 14 days or longer if you want to stay out... 21 days in False

 

Thanks to all that contributed to this thread and hope it continues with Central Refrigerated drivers, past and present weighing in. This was the best and most informative thread about driving situations i've read and i've read a lot of them. Hope to hear from cockroach when he returns from Iraq to know he's allright. This has saved me from going with Swift or Werner and to go with Central Refrigerated. They sound the best so far for a newbie.

 

Good luck to ya. Be careful and you will do fine. Even though I no longer work for Central I still have contact with my trainer driver and we are still friends.

 

Read you left after 7mos.due to a home time issue. Still driving? Fair and nice that they pro rate training fees if you leave early. Could you tell me about Riverside's accomodations... the hotel and room, how many to a room and how many in the class? I recall that you learned fast and your otr training was only 3 weeks so did you feel it sufficient and if so, that possibility is nice and better than the 6wks teaming with a potential nightmare at Swift and Werner's 275hrs.... Thanks Bumper and bol

 

I agree with Rokk on this one. Trainees need to remember that running the extra miles is what makes training worth doing! My husband trained for CR England for about 6 months. And yep he made quite a bit of money training. Of course when he ran solo for them he hardly made anything! But we decided it was not worth it. Long haul driver trainers have a very high mortality rate of being killed by some stupid crap their trainee does. Remember that a trainer actually pays the company an amount to have the extra person in their truck so the truck can go the extra miles. So if you think that a trainer can afford to sit up there in the drivers seat and just watch you drive the whole time. You really do have something else coming.

 

Central Ref is a very good reefer outfit.Most guys I talked to are very happy.As they have EZ-PASS TOO.