I am changing careers and am going into trucking. I was looking seriously at Schneider, but going for their training and you sign your life away for 18 months now (raised from 12 months)

I am not in a financial position to pay for school myself out of pocket.

So my second choice is Central.

I have a few dumb questions.

1. I live in ohio (no kids just me and the wife) how hard is home time to get?
2. I know they are owned by Swift, can you choose the area you want to run in like regional? I would prefer to run mostly north and south, Michigan to Florida and the southeast carrolinas and such.
3. What is their idle policy?
4. What kind of inverters can yo have? I have to sleep with a CPAP machine as I have sleep apnea.

Anything else I need to know would be helpfull

 

Pulling reefer sucks...lots of grocery whorehouses and dealing with lumpers. Live loads galore and oodles o' stops. People in the truckstop hate you when you park next to them. You will run as a second logbook to an O/O or company "trainer" for a month...Central will dispatch you like an iterod sled-dog team, pay you sqat, and your "trainer" of 6 months or so will be in the bunk snoozing away.

Then become a first-seat driver for .29 cpm where you won't even gross $1k running 3k miles per week. Good luck seeing home. They will pressure you to lease a truck for .85 cpm.

Welcome to the wonderful world of coolie-carrier OTR trucking.

 

Yawn....I thought you were going to get some new material?

A new kid starting out is not going to get a nifty day cab with a 24foot pup trailer and drive around town backing into JCPenneys all day picking up back hauls, so how about giving him a break and letting someone who actually works for Central give him the truth for a change.

 

Hey I'd like to know to, I already have a CDL and I am going with Central Monday some inside scoop would help alot.

 

You will be there Monday too? I am going to start on Monday as well. Are you going to train at SLC?

 

Well I already have my CDL but no OTR experience. So I'm going through there training period.

 

Cool guess I will see you there. Are they having you go through the whole training or just the 28 days with a trainer?

 

I'm just going through the 28 days. But I live in texas so I'm leaving out of the Irving terminal.

 

Well, first of all most pups these days are 28' not 24'. Second, bumping JC Penny docks is alot of BS...as is most any truckin' job dealing with retail accounts.

No, I don't work for Central but I did pull a reefer for a year so I think I'm at least somewhat qualified to give the guy advice. Why put a reefer on your back for .29 cpm and deal with all the BS at grocery warehouses and meat-packing plants when you can pull dry-van for better money with more drop/hook and better hometime?

 

Because he has zero experience. Any experience he gets will help him.

I know my Central experience helped me get my current job hauling Walmart Produce.