Celadon Training School Truth Or Lies?

t doesn't sound like you ever even got a hotel room and you left. So I don't think you have any actual experiences to share, just a bunch of complaints you've passed on from other people you met there.

He says he went to class and couldn't eat because he wasn't on the list, and that there where people in the class from previous training sessions. So I do think he or she did get a room and try to start training.

I'm a little surprised how quick people seem to be on him for relating what he experienced. Yes some of it was what he was told by other people, but some of it was also first hand experience. Strange thing is some of what he was told has also been expressed by another poster in a different thread in the training forum.

I'm not taking anyone's side, just merely pointing out its not the first time some of these things have been said about celadon on this site.

Am I missing something?

Yes you're missing the point.

As a current driver who went through what he *tried* to go through I can tell you he came in with the wrong perspective and attitude. Trucking is a world of complete and utter buIIshlt for the first few months. Things won't go your way. You won't agree on how the company runs their training program, you'll have problems. But it's how you respond to those problems that makes or breaks you. You have to have turtle-shell skin to thrive in this industry.

What his problem was is that he didnt give Celadon a chance before he called foul and quit. He arrived and spent 2 days tops. Listened to people complain and then left. If you're going to say that a company sucks then go through their roller coaster, go through their training, become a solo driver and then you have a real say if a company sucks or not. Usually it's the drivers fault, but did we ever hear the poster take blame for anything? Surely he didnt come in as a perfect student.

A while ago when I was just getting into my hotel. I almost got robbed, and I arrived at the hotel bed at 11pm and had to be up at 6am for hard training the next day. Did I complain? No, I sucked it up.

My schooling was way too fast paced. It was very stressful and I personally didnt agree with how they were running it. Did I complain? No, I sucked it up and took a seat on their roller coaster.

I completed their training program and I felt like I went to hell and back. Did I complain? A little, I vented. But I kept my attitude professional to my employers.

The fact is you can't just give up the second trucking tosses a curveball at you. Here's something that every successful driver on this forum says. I want you to go to our Training Diaries forum and look at some of the training journal. Every single persons experience was very negative at some point. There were extremely tough times for us. Times we felt we didnt belong of felt we just wanted to quit. But what did we say/how did we respond?

We responded by telling ourselves that we can do it. We responded by telling ourselves that we WILL do it. That its just an obstacle we have to overcome. That we are tougher than this and we were here to succeed not fail.

But what did the poster do? He quit and ran with his tail between his legs and then wrote an essay about what the company did wrong and never mentioned or even thought about what he could have done wrong.

There's probably a million people who will say that Central Ref is a terrible company to work for. Glassdoor and RipOff Report certainly do! But I'm thriving here. I drove 13000 miles in 30 days which is incredible. I get home on time. I get good loads.

The driver is what makes the company he works for a good or bad experience. If you're going to be trustworthy and dependable with a great attitude and always be professional you will succeed. If you're just going to quit without giving a company a chance and then blaming them when you have never even drove a truck then you're going to fail. You'll never be happy and you'll never find a good company because pretty soon every company in your book will suck.

That much I do get, I've spent plenty of time reading this site to know it will be tough.

I would like to know one simple question. Except for the hotel, what did you find out new from what I posted on here in several posts already?

A lot of what you ran into I talked about in my posts about Quality Driving and Celadon.

However. There are a few half truths. First of all. The DL. You don't turn in you DL from your home state till after you pass the IN DL test. That way you won't have 2 DLs. That is against the law.

You will find complainers no matter what. This is not easy. Nerves get frayed. Tempers get short. And who gets the blame every time? The school.

I finally passed my CDL test today. It has been three + hard weeks. Some nights of little sleep due to worry.

If your first experience here with Quality Driving has made you this mad, you might want to rethink your career choic.

It is far from a bed of roses.

Keep it safe out there. Joe S

Congratulations Joe!

What's the next step for you?

I DO NOT WISH TO PUSH IT OFF AS ANY THING OTHER THAN WHAT HAPPENED TO US

It's odd, because it doesn't seem like anything actually happened to you. You said you showed up and there was no hotel room ready, you talked to a bunch of people, and you left. Were you even there for two days? It doesn't sound like you ever even got a hotel room and you left. So I don't think you have any actual experiences to share, just a bunch of complaints you've passed on from other people you met there.

Yes we was their Sunday all day and Monday morning till 12 pm we couldn't leave till we went to class and talked to Scott the training director. I know it was hard to read sorry I left spaces in the draft but the forum pushed it all up together.

I would like to know one simple question. Except for the hotel, what did you find out new from what I posted on here in several posts already?

A lot of what you ran into I talked about in my posts about Quality Driving and Celadon.

However. There are a few half truths. First of all. The DL. You don't turn in you DL from your home state till after you pass the IN DL test. That way you won't have 2 DLs. That is against the law.

You will find complainers no matter what. This is not easy. Nerves get frayed. Tempers get short. And who gets the blame every time? The school.

I finally passed my CDL test today. It has been three + hard weeks. Some nights of little sleep due to worry.

If your first experience here with Quality Driving has made you this mad, you might want to rethink your career choic.

It is far from a bed of roses.

Keep it safe out there. Joe S

The guy that went with us to Scotts office told us up front you have to give up your DL first off. We talked to a state patrol officer who stated we had to give up our DL to even take the test so we took his word sitting at a Pilot truck stop.

We went with the mind to do this and knowing their would be some stuff we didn't like. So Joe S Mad was from the whole deal we didn't care for any endorsements and told non required nothing about getting a DL. Both of those was a killer if we had know the truth about we wouldn't have went.

My co driver cant get hazmat any way he's a drug felon so it was stupid of them to let him come.

We cant get out of state DL's because Ga will cut off our food stamps heating and Medicaid and we would have to pay back this months benefits. To top off being thrown out of their apartments.

If we had even entered the training we would be unable to go to any other place. Swift and pam even as well as central told us we was damaged goods if we went to any testing for Celadon.

I may have placed this on the wrong section of forum but we didn't run with our tails between our legs as Daniel B claims. And by his statement no I'm not the perfect student I have held a CDL permit before and have worked for America trucking Scales trucking and Sargent's trucking and several others from driver in training to mechanic.

I know what to expect and to lay down and play the beaten dog in the corner is not needed other places don't need to lie to get you to the door. We had factors that we had to look at befor we went home. My co driver and my family the extra time before we had any money to pay bills and the fact co driver was a convicted drug felon and couldn't do the hazmat that alone was the send him home we ben told over and over he cant get them . We was happy they took 2 weeks to except him as a felon with drug conviction.

Said it was our EXP but good luck getting a trainer if you do their is a group with cdls at the quality inn on shadeland ave that has their cdls and would love to know who pushed you to the front of the pack to get one they are 6 to 12 weeks in and no trainers.

In motel waiting for Monday class at Central Ref in ATL seen the class and talked to the people their not the first lie been told yet. 1 week hear then to salt lake Utah and 1 week to get cdl and the rest of the 4 to 6 weeks is in a truck with trainer. 375 first 2 weeks after arrival and goes up to 475 around week 6. start pay is .38 with fuel idle and others making it around .44 if you get both.

Still trucking on my mind

Yes we was their Sunday all day and Monday morning till 12 pm we couldn't leave till we went to class and talked to Scott the training director. I know it was hard to read sorry I left spaces in the draft but the forum pushed it all up together.

side note @ Brett - I've noticed the same thing too. Extra carriage returns are automatically stripped upon submission of a forum post

Talked to another recruiter, and asked some specific questions, got the following replies:

* FEMALES are having trouble finding trainers, MALES are not, right now * 240k miles TEAM-ACCUMULATED miles * HAZMAT , Double/Triple, and Tanker Endorsements REQUIRED * They DO help with the Indiana DL

So, mixed in with some complete BS was some truth, but regardless, some of these questions should've been asked in the first place.

They had 2 trucks to train from that's no bull and the quality inn was full of guys with CDL's in hand and no trainers in sight getting 8 hrs a week then being put out so another student can get time. We ask all the questions before we went and your first day in class before he gives you the class rules he will ask you if you got your 2 pieces of paper and tell the whole group we will not help you get your DL you have to do it on your own and they will take you on Tue or day 2 to get them. If you fail they do not take you back to the DMV to get try again till next Tue. I promise you 1 night to study it is almost impossible innless your laws are the same or very close to them.

I just put this all up so others and Ask the good questions but I only complain when its needed. If they would tell you that we have a problem with trucks and trainers and the 9 week to finish their course is only a guess and that its top range for most is 12 weeks + and you cant get a pay check till that far out. Would you give up a paying Job or stop looking for another place to train No I don't think so, you would keep looking wouldn't you?

I think you've been misinformed about the starting pay sir. Sounds like you'll be team driving.

Team driver starting pay is .34cpm and that's split. There's an idle bonus but its usually at 100$ MAX. Mostly around 85$. I've never gotten a fuel bonus and my truck gets great mpg I don't really know what's up with that. There's also detention pay and a quarterly safety bonus. Which is a few hundred if you do the safety videos and safety meeting and stay accident free.

side note @ Brett - I've noticed the same thing too. Extra carriage returns are automatically stripped upon submission of a forum post

When you hit "enter" (carriage return) once it gets ignored. When you hit it twice to start a new paragraph (leaving an empty line in between) it converts it to paragraph tags. If you hit "return" more than twice before typing again (leaving more than one empty line) it ignores the extra empty lines and converts it to paragraph tags.

So if you want to make a list of things on separate lines, leave an empty line between each item like:

pancakes

eggs

candy