Yep, I got my list of fueling yards today and all Swift terminals are on the list.

ok so take my training pay of 375, subtract taxes... subtract my cash advance, subtract my bills for last month that comes out to -$700 since SKULLTAX is currently at %15 that makes my tax -$105 woohoo i'm getting a refund this month :wink: :lol: When can I expect my check?[/quote]

NO, you missunderstand. YOU send me the $105. I'm Skull remember?
Pay Skull Taxes To Skull! Now when can I expect my check??? 8)
Or maybe "UNCLE KNUCKLES & UNCLE VITO" Go truckin? :shock:

You forgot that this thread uses COCKROACHMATH, anyways going back on topic.

Drivers in Memphis Tennesse can't drive!! I don't think I have ever seen a blinker blinking, I saw a 4 wheeler speeding down the right lane weaving on and off the shoulder to get around cars, a bunch of people passed me using a left turn lane (including a swift bobtail) and I know I wasn't going to slow because it was a 40 zone and I was doin about 47.Thepilots in this town are also just scary.. anyways we picked up our beer and are headed for alabama, we just did a swap and i'm now off duty for a while.

Off duty or sleeper?? :?

I use sleeper Line 2 for ALL off time.I told D.O.T. Can I help it if I'm lazy?

you get your trainer yet Bumper?

Hmm when they gave us the list they told us to cross out all the swift because we don't use them any more... weird.

Cockroach. Do you fuel at T.A.'s or Petro's?

We have stopped at pilot, ta, and petro's the computer tells us where to go for the cheapest fuel for each trip we do, so it all depends on the price of fuel at the time.

I hear thru the grapevine, THAT Central REF is moving away from Swift?
Also ordered freightliner condos.Any truth on this cockroach? 8)

When I left salt-lake they had just ran out of Volvos, so they where talking about putting new hires into the Freightliners that are sitting at the lot waiting to be sold... temporarily until they got more Volvos. I have heard nothing of new Freightliners. Although there is bitching and moaning about the volvos being way to heavy and also cheap pieces of crud. Maybe they listened and are getting freightliners to replace the Volvos that they got to replace the freightliners? haha Plus they did tell us not to fuel at swift any more... I'm with an owner-op now though so that doesn't affect me.. I'll let you know when I upgrade.

Thanks Cockroach. How does your trainer like the lease program? The
KW Specs look very watered down and plain jane to me.How is the truck?

he is mixed, he used to own his own truck but took over the lease for someone else. They say 85% or so ppl fail the lease purchase program.

yea, thats not a high percentage, better off goin company an gettin stuck with a volvo. do u plan on leavin after a year or stickin around?

Cockroach; Only 15% of ALL Lease Operators make it through? :shock:
I wonder what the percentage is at C.R.England? Or Prime Inc?

So people say things in the trucking industry can go from great to crap in just a matter of minutes, this is so true.

After my last post I had a bout a week of great running, I slept so well we had no shipper or receiver complications at all, no wrong turns. It was just cool, then I got my load to come home. I swapped trainers in ohio and took of towards denver with the new guy (who was really cool) when we got to denver to grab the home-load the truck broke down =\ at this point I was lined up to get to utah on monday, upgrade tuesday and be home by thursday morning. Well a company driver was supposed to pick me up and drive me to utah since my truck was broke. Well this guy took of without me and left me stranded in denver over night but our dispatcher found another driver to pick me up.. now I'm one day late =\ on the way to utah we end up missing our exit and so it takes us a few extra hours to to get to utah... =\ once in utah its so late that I can't upgrade (everyones gone home) But its not all bad, I've got some friends in the area and we get some drinks. the next morning I do my upgrade and pass it all great, so I go to get my truck, yay they have 8 at the terminal.. but they are all in the shop =\ they won't be ready until the next day. That really screws me because I have a military drill and would arrive a day late for formation. They spend several hours trying to find me a ride to home but the one they could find the driver refused :( They do find me a load that would get me there on time but can't find a driver to take it until the next morning which would make me late also. In the end they got me another greyhound ticket (ugh!) but the trip was not nearly as bad as the one down to utah.

During the whole ordeal my newly assigned fleet manager, the regional, the manager of fleets, and the equipment guy where all very very helpfull. 3 of them stayed after an extra hour to make sure I got home in time.

Nothing that happened by the way was central's fault but everyone involved did everything they could to help.. The plan as it stands is to fly me to a location with a truck when I'm done with my hometime so as it stands I am now officially a solo company driver but without a truck.

Yes, I am back in for a day after two weeks out there with him. His name is Justin Smith and we are doing great. One of my biggest concerns was my somewhat messed up left knee....Justin taught me how to shift the tranny without a clutch and I am doing much better!!!!

Two more weeks to go!!!

Well we no longer use Swifts Centers for fuel......havent heard a thing on trux though...I dont get mine till the end of the month.

well thats good that ur halfway done with ur training bumper, are you drivingwith a o/o or a company driver? an how u like it so far? as congrats on moving up to solo cockroach, let us know how it goes.

Im training with an O/O who has a Freightliner Columbia. Which is what I learned in, and took my CDL test in too, so the Volvo will be alot different for me.

Im ready to get the training over with and get out on my own though. Time to put up or shut up as they say.....LOL

Cockroach; That was a Bad luck run, But I'll bet it happened for a reason.

Central had a truck right up by where I lived so I did a truck recovery for them. It was super clean INSIDE (filthy outside but I can truck wash that) white, cummins motor, super singles, and a ten speed transmission. Exactly the truck I wanted.

As to the rumors that central is sticking people into freightliners now I can't comment on that because I have no clue but there are a bunch of brand spankin new volvos sitting here in the SLC terminal.

I am out on my own now! WooHoo. my first day SUCKED. The routing forgot to mention a connecting highway so the road I was looking for never crossed my road and the one I was on ended and dumped me onto a small two lane back hills no turn around low hanging power lines sharp tiny 90 turns road. I found a little side road to back into right before the dang thing dead ended (whew) and then booked it utah but got slowed up by freezing rain and dense fog. so it took me two days to get down here instead of one. my dispatcher said it was cool (safer to slow down then crash) and gave my load to a team so it could get delivered on time. Then I could not get my trailer to unhook, I had 2 other drivers yanking on the release with me but it would not budge, so someone from the shop came over grabbed the handle and it slid I got the right out. he gave me the 'stupid driver' kinda glare and left *shrug*

The idle optimizes in these volvos are stupid.. =\ Some idiot engineer decided an ALARM should go off before the engine starts up. WTF?

if that problem happens again go to the other side of the fithwheel you will c a bolt sticking out get a hammer wack it go bac to other side and pull it schould release . if not you may have to get some one to hit it while you pull the lever.

Well put up or shut up time just got closer. I was called on Friday and told to go get my things from my trainers truck. He was being given a new trainee and I am upgrading on Monday. Not enough trainers available right now and if you have at least 3 weeks done and the trainer feels you can do it, your going to work.

Been running around all weekend trying to get my "Truck Stuff" together!

LOL

And away I go!!!

Hey Bumper; Good luck.keep us updated.

Congratulations, Bumper and Cockroach for getting your own trucks.

I have a couple of questions for both of you when you get around to answering them.

In your opinion how has school and training been for both of you? What has been good and not so good about the company since you started? If you could have done it over would you have chose them again? I am seriously considering them just looking for some answers.

Thanks and have fun on the road.

I went through the Fontana California school in October and it needed some improvements and equipment and it appears that the equipment is there now. I dont feel I was ready to drive a truck, but I was capable of passing the CDL test, which is their objective. They dont have the time to teach you how to fully drive the truck, just how to pass the 4 phases of the test.

My trainer was first rate. I learned how to drive the truck from him.
I was only given three weeks of training with him instead of four, but I feel ready to go nonetheless. This is the busy part of the year and they need drivers on the road.

I feel that Central will treat me ok and if I had to do it over again, I would. I did alot of research before I chose them and nothing has changed my mind about that decision.

Now to see how the next few months go....:)

That's good to hear Bumper. About a year ago I went to CR England's school and lasted and lasted a day . It was an absolute nightmare and left a bad taste in my mouth. I have been looking at Central Ref. for awhile trying to get as much information as I can. I think I might call their recruiter tomorrow.

Bumper, What did you get? A Volvo? Or freightliner?

i see central trucks all the time down the street at the Albertsons DC in brea, if you guys are ever in town ill treat you guys to lunch.

ok so i sat in SLC for 2 days after that last laod (by request) got my 34 hour reset and accepted my load to reno, it would be tight but no problem.. they say i will have extra stops but after taking my 10 hour rest i figure it wouldn't be a problem. well i pick up the load and find out there are 5 additional stops each after 2 hours after the one before, so there is no way to make this because from pickup to last delivery is 21 hours with only an hour leeway between each stop.. anyways i tell this to night dispatch and they tell me to goto stop one and talk to my dispatcher in the morning. well i sent him a qualcom saying i hit my 14 hours and couldn't do the rest and what to do, well he tells me to call him and says i shouldn't ever beam that im out of hours on the qualcom because then they can't move me.. if i said i was close to running out or called they could have fudged me somewhere to get my load dropped or taken but i got left in the parking lot and had to sit at the receiver and someone had to come get my trailer.

now i have been told by a few different people at central (not all drivers even) that if i log everything exactly as i do it i will get stuck and such, and that as I'm out here longer i will learn how to log things so that I can earn more money.

and someone else said that central is a big company and is not looking at everyone with a fine tooth comb, as long as you don't do anything major your won't lose your job.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm of course you will never get this in official channels (i.e. qualcom)

Also the only point it seems to me for safty in this company is to cover thier own companies own rear end... totally unresponsive about questions to them about safety issues =\

every company has its ups and downs...

although i have said i have no intention of fudging my logs they are ok with that.. just allot of hinting i could run more miles if i did a few white lies..

Is this common in the trucking industry?

Too common! :?
But you and only you can control what you write in your logbook!
If something happens, it's all on you!!!
The company will dis own you faster then you know what!
Have them answer questions like this over the Qualcomm, see how that goes! First message you will get is "call dispatch!" They don't want nothing on record!
Invest in a micro-recorder, tape phone conversations! :wink:
You can work 14 hours in a day, you can drive for 11 of those, is that not enough??
Do factory workers hang around not getting paid for all they do?
Why should you lie and cheat only so you can do more unpaid and at a great risk to you? :roll:
The choice is yours!

I get the feeling that right now i am being tested to see what i will do, how far/hard i will run... I don't have a problem taking crummy loads that others dont like but _won't_ run illegally, my dispatcher so far seams really cool and just is trying to find out how I'll run.. he had no problem whatsoever and made no big stink about it when i refused to run with it. (though I could have run for 21 straight hours and figured out how i could have logged it where noone would have known!) Before a driver was tellign me he ran for 24 hours straight then stopped to let his book catch up and sleep and i didn't understand how that could happen but that was when i was back in orientation and hadn't been shown the tricks..

Also my dispatcher is REALLY cool about me running out of route and stuff like that, he is not always on my back like some others i have seen are. so far he doesn't seem to really push ppl to 'fudge' only to allow it if they want the extra $$? and remind me not to say i'm out of hours on my qualcom cause then he can't 'work with me' to get me to a truck stop or somethin.. hmm

honestly though if i'm tired, i'll goto a truck stop and say i'm out of hours, then they can't move me. right?

Hey Cockroach; What are you driving?New Volvo? Or freightliner?

I thought I said already, I got a volvo, used (120,000 mileS) but very good shape.

Today I just did my hardest back ever, blind-side back with a bunch of scrap metal laying where I needed to put my tractor but I got in fine after getting out 8 times and doing 15 pullups.

I am now on my way to tacoma washington with this craft load... I have one appointment at 7:30 am and another a few blocks down the road at 7:31 am... I wonder how they expect me to pull that off! haha They better unload my truck fast!

Cockroach, I just graduated from AIT in Tucson (24 weeks) and head to orientation in SLC on Sunday. Are the facilities decent there-the "VIP Lounge" as it was called by the recruiter? Do they provide any meals. Is it open bay "barracks" style sleeping or individual rooms? Any info would be very helpful. Thank you.

the rooms are about the size of a jail cell and constructed as such. You will be sleeping on a nice rubber bed :)

btw the hot and cold water in the showers are swapped so if you turn it all the way to hot you will get a nice cold surprise! :)

-----

So I've gone to 3 grocery warehouses so far and they aren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be.. of course one of the pro's of working for central is that so far ALL MY LUMPERS HAVE BE PAID FOR :) :) :) by who? the grocery warehouse, cool.. the lumpers even did the paperwork for me I just had to sign. woohoo :) plus i've never been paid detention because i've never hit the 2 hr mark.

I have hear that central charges the consignee like 200 per hour for each hour past 2, this doesn't surprise me.. when i went to supervalue she took a big marker and wrote 2 hr and what my 2 hr point was in huge big letters on my bill before having me give it to the lumper, she didn't write this on the papers for the other drivers who where not there.

so far I have still not fingerprinted a load..

one load i did go back and help the stores unloader push the pallet jack over the plate thing but he did all the work..

also I was told that any lumper fees paid are charged right back to the consignee, (plus a handling fee) I think thats why most of the warehouses pay the lumper directly for you.

Thanks for the help. See ya on the road!

Cockroach if you get up into the northeast, Give me a shout.I saw a Black Volvo 670 on the Mass Pike today.I thought only the Dick Simon trucks were Black? And Centrals were white with red stripes.

Company drivers have black or white trucks, mine is white. I can't remember the slogan but the truck colors has something to do with it, the solution is as clear as black and white or something like that.. I have not left oregon/washington/california since going solo... i mean im close to home which is cool but if i wanted to be on the west coast i woulda joined gordon.