My friend obviously you didnt have a clue on how to run as a lease operator with central refrigerated....First of all, you are never considered a Owner Opertor, you are a Lease Driver.
Secondly, you should have researched the program with other drivers, especially lease drivers who have been in their trucks for a year or about to pay their trucks off. If you did that properly you would have made some very good money my friend.
I leased a T-2000 back in 2006 for 12 months and most of the time I was actually clearing $1700 - $2200 a week after expenses. I drove 3500-4200 miles a week. I never said I drove legally, but I got my miles because I did my homework.
That includes changing driver manager till you get one and of course being based out of Salt Lake City. Next, you have to basically get you load to its destination as early as possible so you let your driver manager you mean business and you're a runner.
Now you will get screwed with a load here and there because thats part of trucking. But as a lease driver, you can turn down loads if you dont want it. The secret is to call the planner for that state or area and bypass your driver manager if you arent getting the miles.
I call the planner all the time until I found one great dispatcher in Salt Lake City. Other driver managers didnt like it that I went over them to get my load but the Planner was always willing to give me a good load because they found out I was a runner. When I say runner, lets say you get a 1000 mile run and you basically do that within 24 hours.
Now that illegal, but hey I said you gotta do things to get noticed by the people who gives you freight. All you had to do was say basically, " Im here in Illinois, you got a load going south to florida or west to california, etc etc... I lived in Atlanta and I ran so hard that I got to go home every week through Atlanta when I took a load.
My driver manager worked hard for my loads because he knew I would get the job done. I would drive more miles per week than some teams. One week I drove 5300 miles while using 3 logs. I almost got busted in California but luckily while entering the inspection station, two owner operators passed me and I didnt get pulled in.
On many occassions I would start driving before the sun came up and didnt stop until after the sun went down, not including fueling. I showered at end of day and kept food in my truck...It didnt feel like a job, more like adventure to me.
The issue I had with Central Refrigerated that ticked my nerve and caused me to terminate my lease was when my dispatcher took a leave of absence and I was given a prick. This guy tried to run me in the northwestern part of the country during snow and ice and that was a rule of mine that was noted for all loads. I did not run ice, but would drive in snow only in midwest as far as Minnesota.
I had to wait longer on my loads and constantly argued with him because he was trying to do things differently. Also, my check was incorrect often and I had to call payroll to get it adjusted on a weekly basis....After a year of this, enough was a enough. I decided I wanted to go to another company since I had my year of experience and basically got caught up in the so called "Cycle", where all the companies I applied to basically would lie to me about there running area, loads, etc..
After tryin to work with 3 other companies, I gave up on the trucking industry and went back into corporate america even though I hated being in a cubicle all day...Now Im looking to go back into trucking but Central Refrigerated wont hire me back because I didnt transfer my lease to another driver.....I was so pissed off by the b.s. from the new dispatcher and having to correct my check everyweek that I basically dropped the truck on the yard in Conley, Ga and walked away.
Now Central Refrigerated isnt the best truck company, I will say its a decent truck company to start out on. I compared their lease to other companies and actually it seems to be near the top but the only catch is you have to run 3500+ miles per week and drive like a turtle....60 mph....Driving just 5 mph more can cost you $200 a week in fuel cost.
On a final note, the last reason you were suffering as a lease driver was because you didnt know how to fuel. What I mean is from the day your pay week starts till it ends, you need to know how much fuel you need "NOT" to put in so your check will be larger. Some guys could get $1500+ check but they make the mistake of putting more fuel in than they need pending their work miles that week and the pay ending period.......So hopefully some of this info will help you in the future or any other driver who thinks about leasing with Central Refrigerated.
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