My experience at Central Transport

..or Duct Tape Transport as I affectionately used to call it.



So I worked for Central for about a year total in two different terminals, doing linehaul at both. Let me start out by saying this is by far the worst LTL company in the United States, in terms of pay, benefits and equipment, they stand in a league of their own. With that said I must divide my experience in two chapters as I worked at two different terminals in two different states. First in Ohio and later in Florida.

In Ohio, things actually went quite well for me, considering the resources the company allowed my terminal manager to work with he was a fcking super hero. This is where management comes into play in the LTL world. I actually loved my job there, yes, the trailers would've only been road legal in 1980s Somalia but at least my shop they did their best to keep the tractors "operable". I was lucky enough to have a run that kept me on a toll road all trip long, thus not having to worry about scales(oh, they sure love Central at a chicken coop).

Pay was quite low when compared to any other LTL company, but when compared to any big OTR outfit it was actually decent. I used to bring home $850 a week after Ohio's tax mafia was done with my rectum. I had saturday and sunday off. I had no benefits (personal choice) as their health insurance is the worse I've ever seen. Not surpringly it's company owned insurance, just another way Matty Moroun exploits the working man and squeezes every last penny he can so he can watch another toll bridge be built while he craps his diaper.

I stayed there for 10 months, mostly because I loved the atmosphere, I had a great manager, other drivers were really cool, it was a laid back atmosphere, we smoked on the dock while on our forklifts for christ's sake. It was and probably will be the most carefree and worry free job I will ever have. I also loved the fact that my truck did 75 mph (man, I will forever miss that truck). It was all simple Chrysler freight, very organized and laid back. Just a great operation. No drama since they had everything down to a routine). I had a great thing going on there. Until I decided to move to Florida for personal reasons and it all went downhill from there.

I asked to be transfered to their terminal in Orlando, Florida. What a difference, this was the typical Central sh!thole everybody always complained about. Their terminal down here is an old Consolidated Freightways yard which they had to spit in half with another company as it was so gigantic it covered an entire block. It's safe to say they probably haven't done any remodeling or cleaning since the CF days, they might even be using their old computers as well. The bathroom smelled like it hadn't been clean since the late 90s (which probably wasn't). Not a week went by without me seeing a wrecker come in towing a truck back. Dollies completely stuck on their brakes, trailer doors that won't roll up or down or latch. Trucks with broken ACs, air leaks, fuel leaks, that often overheated and/or shut down while going down the road. Some of their steering wheels had so much play you would have to drive like the Flinstones just to stay within the white lines.

Lower pay than in Ohio by far. They ditched the cents per mile scale and went with a "flat rate" pay for runs. My run paid $67.50 for 207 miles, that's 31 cents per mile for Christ's sake! I'm sure CF was paying more than that back when Jesus was a baby. Other runs paid $85 for 280 miles and $55 for 150 miles. The worst was if they ever sent you to do a drop n hook which actually corresponded to their city drivers, 35 miles at 33 cents per mile (LOL, what an insult). Dock pay was $16.50 which they bumped up to $17.50 to see if they could keep their drivers longer that three months. Management was careless, useless and downright clueless. They expect 14 hour per day shifts from everybody as they have no dock workers to pick up the slack or help their linehaul drivers with their loads.

The freight, I have never seen so much destroyed freight in my entire life, if you could actually open the trailer doors without the help of a forklift or a crow bar. Transmissions stacked on top cardboard skids, axles on top boxes of food products. Just a complete mess of scattered and ruined freight YOU had to pick up and fix. Roofs that leaked every time it rained. Just a complete hellhole. The worst part of the job was friday night into saturday morning as they had no dock workers and expected everything out of their linehaul drivers they would expect you to work "until the freight is gone", this could mean a 16 or 17 hour shift. Some of the guys told me they once worked from 7 pm to 2:30 pm because of late arrivals.

Right now I don't remember any more stories about this rat infested wasteland of a terminal but if I do I will post more. I only lasted two months in this place, I started looking for another job from day one when they knowingly gave me a truck that had problems with the "EGR valve", whatever that means, what it actually meant was that when I wasn't going 70 mph I was going 45 as the truck would not mantain speed going down the highway.

I'm not pro-union, but if any company needs a union really bad is Central. Even if it's just to piss of that old S.O.B. or his greedy scummy descendants that will keep reaping benefits off it. A union is their biggest fear.

 

Hammond was the shop that unionized and then they shut it down and transfered all the freight to New Buffalo, am I right? I heard of that story.

 

You should see the offices. They look outdated even for 1995 standards. The terminal in Orlando doesn't have central cooling/heating. So only the manager's and the sales rep's office have an air conditioner (wall mounted like the the good old 80s). Here is where it gets patheticly disgusting:

The breakroom HAS NO AIR. It's a tiny room with no windows and only an old dusty $15 fan from walmart, it's so hot in there if you get a Snickers bar from the vending machine IT WILL BE MELTED.

I still laugh at the fact that when I quit the manager was surprised I wasn't giving a two weeks notice, I remember him saying "well, if it doesn't work out at your new job...". Man, if it doesn't work out I will find something better than this sh!thole, I don't think there are many terminals worse than this.

 

Central is untouchable until Matty loses the GM and Chrysler contracts. If that ever happens his entire empire will crumble.

 

I left a month ago. I got a good ltl job now lol