Profile For Keith G.

Hey Keith, I have gone to Celadon's program so I can answer any question you may have. They are building a new student dorm as we speak and should open the week you get here. They are also moving their driving range to the same area as the dorms. When I got here in October there was over 180 students for five range trucks (if they all worked) and four to five road trucks. They did a great job of pushing students thur the past month and I believe right now there are about 50 students. The next class starts Jan 6th. The provide transportation, food, and lodging at NO upfront cost to you. Like most companies you sign a contract to driver for x amount of miles. My advice to you is do the High Road Program here at truckingtruth. if you have any questions feel free to PM me and I will give you my cell number. As far as having stuff sent to you, I get about ten packages a week from amazon. Best of luck....all so who is your recruiter?

EXcellent, you're the man I'm lookin for Dale... Wendy Peace is the recruiter I'm dealing with, I'm scheduled for the class that starts January12th. I bought a folding camp chair to take with me, hurray for Amazon, and I'm trying to make sure my ducks are safely in the proper row so that I'm not scrambling at the last minute.. Wendy has been very helpful, i just get stressed easily when I think something MIGHT be going wrong(I know that's not a good trait for a driver but with part of my brain damaged by the stroke, it's something i have to deal with going forward). Thanx for your reply, I'll be in touch

Hey Keith...Celadon has definitely had some growing pains with their new training program but as Aces-N-Eights can attest they're still a solid place to get started.

And you shouldn't be surprised that recruiters aren't falling over themselves to answer nitpicky questions. They get paid to bring in drivers and there are a lot of desperate drivers and new recruits begging for an opportunity. Their thinking is that they can probably sign up three "sure things" and get their bonuses in the time it will take to email back and forth with you 100 times and then lose you to someone else. So you're not going to get great service from recruiters. They'll answer the basics, but their real money is made bringing in drivers and the nitpicky ones are the ones that will usually go elsewhere or not make it through the program anyhow more times then not. So don't judge the company based on that.

,Prime would be next BUT if i did that it would be a temporary solution, I'm looking for a long term plan and I have ZERO interest in paying somebody else's bills for them while trying to delude myself that I am an "owner/operator".If i went with Prime it would just be for a year or so to get my foot back in the door, then move on to some place I want be long term...

You do realize that Prime is not just lease drivers and owner operators anymore, right? They have a huge company fleet now and have for a number of years. I remember back in the day they were just about 100% lease but not anymore. In fact, their company drivers are some of the best paid in the industry so they're worth a look for sure.

Thanx Brett, unil i read about Prime's program I did think that they were strictly a lease operation, maybe I should have looked closer at them before choosing Celadon, I had talked to some Celadon drivers over the years when i was still on the road myself and they always seemed satisfied so when Roehl didn't jump at the chance to secure my awesome services(lol) I decided Celadon was the way to go, I think I'll pick Dale's brain a bit before i make any rash decisions

Folks, I've sort of been "away". There is a point in trucking where you're running so hard you don't have time for TT and barely have time to eat.

Well, this was this past week.

A week ago I was in the terminal for repairs. I had my 34 hour reset. Little did I know what was coming to me.

A week later, I destroyed my 70 hour clock. A week later, I park with 3 minutes left on my 70 hour clock and no recap hours coming back tonight.

This is my final week at Central. My next load load should be getting me to CA so I can go home.

Here is my last week at Central.

Good

Count the last 7 days.

3,847 miles in 7 days.

Let this be a testament that Central has the miles. The people crying about low miles probably don't do their job very well. Through all of this I was never late to any delivery, and believe me, I've had some wacko pickups. I've drove the best I can and repeatedly had to drive 8 hours nonstop to meet my deadlines. Every appointment was extremely tight with no room to play around.

My confidence is high but it's in check. Always have to be vigilant. I'm going to Prime better than I ever was and I'm on fire! I only have like a week left before I can change my status from Rookie Solo Driver to Experienced Driver. Pretty stoked about that! I waited a year to change it because I didnt want to cheat and change it before that year.

I arrived to my 99 with 9 minutes left on my 70 hour clock. After a pretrip I only have 3 minutes. With no recaps coming back tonight, I'm forced to take a 34 hour reset at a shipper/receiver.

I never really thought doing 3800 miles is actually possible to do in a week.

Good Job Daniel,running hard gives you a good sense of "gettin it done" doesn't it... one of the best years I ever had was back in my outlaw days,in 1992 I ran 187,000 miles as a solo(2-3 trips a week from PA to New England with Pennzoil motor oil)I think I ingested more Vivarin that year than food... good luck with Prime :)

I had actually researched JB and considered going to them. They offered .48 cpm which is really good. The only problem is where I live. The position was strictly dry van OTR, out 12 weeks, in one week and $800 for the week I was home. No way my wife would be cool with that.

On another note, JB Hunt is by far the LARGEST intermodal carrier in the United States and a good portion of freight is starting to move that way. Every other company is now realizing this but they are way behind JB when it comes to intermodal.

IMO, getting on with JB Hunt is an excellent career move if you can find a position that fits you and your goals.

I a week of paid time off every 3 months!? I'd take that in a heartbeat

I should qualify my comment, I'm not married and don't care about home time, in my last driving job I stayed on the road for months at a time, swinging by the house every blue moon just long enough to empty my overflowing mailbox. and check that the place was still there. I'm in a good position as far as frieght lanes also (i used to live 4 miles and now I am 1 mile off of I-80 in western PA and spent my first 7 years running from here to NY, NJ, MA, CT, NH, VT, ME, VA, MD, and Ohio so I'm not afraid of east coast loads)so 4 weeks paid time off a year sounds too good to be true:)

I had actually researched JB and considered going to them. They offered .48 cpm which is really good. The only problem is where I live. The position was strictly dry van OTR, out 12 weeks, in one week and $800 for the week I was home. No way my wife would be cool with that.

On another note, JB Hunt is by far the LARGEST intermodal carrier in the United States and a good portion of freight is starting to move that way. Every other company is now realizing this but they are way behind JB when it comes to intermodal.

IMO, getting on with JB Hunt is an excellent career move if you can find a position that fits you and your goals.

a week of paid time off every 3 months!? I'd take that in a heartbeat

Ok I know if you take blood pressure medicine you have to have the bottle showing the prescription with you in the truck. I was told by the classroom instructor that if taking vitamins you have to have the original bottle or packages they come in you can't use one of these daily pill organizer boxes to keep them in. I have looked in the FMC Safety regulations book and I can't find anything that specifically says this. I take several vitamins everyday I would like to know if it's legal to use these daily pill box dispensors to keep all my medication and vitamins in.

GOOD QUESTION... I'd like to know about this also, I'm 2 years into stroke recovery and take 1/2 dozen prescription meds each day

I thought I made a good choice when I chose to train with Celadon but I'm starting to wonder... I see folks round here talking about everybody and there dog EXCEPT Quality Drivers/Celadon:( I'm supposed to start training in Indianapolis 2 weeks from today and I've started having doubts about my recruiter(yeah yeah, I know, "if you don't get it in writing it's not true" I'm not some green kid out for my first trip around the block,I'm 52 yrs old and was OTR for 22 years until I had a stroke in 2011 (fortunately I was parked when it happened so i didn't run over anybody)... I know how the game is played. I would really like to pick the brain of somebody that has gone thru Celadon's program, my concerns are nitpicky(such as can I have things sent to me at the facility while I'm in training) but they're important to me, I have emailed the recruiter but each time i get a reply that is cheery and upbeat but does not answer what I actually asked. I have NOT signed anything yet so I'm considering refocusing my interests elsewhere, Roehl was my first choice but they want me to be at least 3 years into recovery from my Stroke and I don't want to wait that long, Celadon was second and I thought a good choice,Prime would be next BUT if i did that it would be a temporary solution, I'm looking for a long term plan and I have ZERO interest in paying somebody else's bills for them while trying to delude myself that I am an "owner/operator".If i went with Prime it would just be for a year or so to get my foot back in the door, then move on to some place I want be long term... Is there anybody here with first hand experience of the Celadon program?

Thanx guys, i really don't anticipate any problems with the physical but i did check with the recruiter and she said they do it during the first week of school.

Hi guys, this may be a dumb question but I'm asking anyway...Is the D.O.T. physical one of the very first things you do during driver training? I would think that'd be something they'd get out of the way early before investing time in potentionally unqualified candidates. I'm 2 years into recovery from a stroke and believe I can pass the physical with no problems, but i won't be completely comfortable until it is behind me

I AM IMPRESSED!... I guess I've spent too much time on Facebook, I would've bet dollars against donuts that somebody would tell him to not disclose the failed test"what they don't know won't hurt you driver" or something equally as bad. I gurantee you if this same question had been asked on some of the Facebook pages i look at there would've been a flood of so called "professionals" telling him to hide it. I'm glad I wasn't one of the first to reply, i would certainly have made a fool of myself by advising him to ignore the replies telling him to stop owning up to his past. good job guys!