Thinking Of Going To Trucking School? Central Refrigerated? Will They Hire Me?

So I'm 22 years old, I don't plan on going back to college anytime soon, and I was thinking of becoming a truck driver because it seems like a good career and I'm very interested in it. I have one trucking school in my town, TDA and they have a deal with Central, so I thought I would sign on with them. I meet all of their qualifications except one. They say I need a minimum of 3 years work experience but I only have 1 year and 9 months experience. Is that really enough to disqualify me?

Hi Shawna,

I have been doing a ton of research and have actually had a friend nearly sign with Central but backed out. His reasoning was that he had just finished driving school which he is paying for out of pocket and Central requires all new drivers to attend their school. They charge for it and it ain't cheap! It's unpaid and all the school provides is a motel room. If you don't pass training you don't have a job and you'll still owe tuition. I was curious about a company that charges new hires for training and asked a friend in the refer field. He said that the complexity of their equipment requires extra training (2 weeks). The school costs them to run and they charge to recoup costs. He also said that he does not recommend Refrigerated for anyone just starting out simply because it can get complicated. Better to learn the ropes for a few years first. There are so many great companies to choose from who will test your skill level and pair you with an appropriate trainer for 2 weeks to 2 months and pay you while you learn. Trucking Truth has a list of companies that are new driver friendly, you should talk to all of them and research! My personal top 3 so far: May Trucking, KKW and Estes. Good luck in your new career!

So I'm 22 years old, I don't plan on going back to college anytime soon, and I was thinking of becoming a truck driver because it seems like a good career and I'm very interested in it. I have one trucking school in my town, TDA and they have a deal with Central, so I thought I would sign on with them. I meet all of their qualifications except one. They say I need a minimum of 3 years work experience but I only have 1 year and 9 months experience. Is that really enough to disqualify me?

Hey guy I went to TDA and graduated with them and now I have been driving for Central for 9 months now. I'm your man for this question. But I need to know first. Which branch are you going to?

Hi Shawna,

I have been doing a ton of research and have actually had a friend nearly sign with Central but backed out. His reasoning was that he had just finished driving school which he is paying for out of pocket and Central requires all new drivers to attend their school. They charge for it and it ain't cheap! It's unpaid and all the school provides is a motel room. If you don't pass training you don't have a job and you'll still owe tuition. I was curious about a company that charges new hires for training and asked a friend in the refer field. He said that the complexity of their equipment requires extra training (2 weeks). The school costs them to run and they charge to recoup costs. He also said that he does not recommend Refrigerated for anyone just starting out simply because it can get complicated. Better to learn the ropes for a few years first. There are so many great companies to choose from who will test your skill level and pair you with an appropriate trainer for 2 weeks to 2 months and pay you while you learn. Trucking Truth has a list of companies that are new driver friendly, you should talk to all of them and research! My personal top 3 so far: May Trucking, KKW and Estes. Good luck in your new career!

The full cost for the TDA is 3 grand. But since you're signing the contract you pay only 1,500. Which by the way for trucking school is dirt cheap. You make payments of 57.69$ and it pays out in a year. You seriously don't even notice it. You can easily make 1500 in two weeks of driving. Heck, I've made close to that in a single week. The low price of 1500 is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

It depends on how far you get in training whether or not you will owe anything. If you drop later in the course you will owe something because they've spent countless hours on teaching you when they could have been teaching someone else. This you wasted their time, energy, and money. Fuel for those rigs isn't cheap. And no service is free. This is expected and every company does this. Even those companies you listed.

He's dead wrong about the extra training. Very very wrong. In fact, Central has the SHORTEST training out of any company and they 90% only run reefer. You know how easy it is to operate a reefer? It has 4 buttons. Push on to turn it on and up or down to program a temperature. Select pretrip for it to pretrip itself and gauges to see if its good on fluids. I mean, operating a reefer is kindergarden easy. Centrals training is only 4-5 weeks which is the shortest. Prime's training is about 3 months and they run reefer and dry can. Same equipment, same operations. But they choose to make the training longer because its their choice not because the equipment is complicated.

There really isn't anything complicated about reefer. Set the temperature, check BoLs to verify temperature. Keep it fueled, and wash it or sweep it out after each load. Nothing is extensive or complicated - this isn't tankers.

If you're a rookie no one is going to give you only 2 weeks worth of training.

Now I'm not a golden boy for Central. They have their problems. But I get amazing miles, have a beautiful truck. Their only problem is they push the lease too much. I do believe that you are mislead about the reefer division though and how the training and schools work.

Not trying to get all defensive just letting you know the truth. I've been there done that and have first hand experience with the schools and almost a year with Central.

Hi Shawna,

I have been doing a ton of research and have actually had a friend nearly sign with Central but backed out. His reasoning was that he had just finished driving school which he is paying for out of pocket and Central requires all new drivers to attend their school. They charge for it and it ain't cheap! It's unpaid and all the school provides is a motel room. If you don't pass training you don't have a job and you'll still owe tuition. I was curious about a company that charges new hires for training and asked a friend in the refer field. He said that the complexity of their equipment requires extra training (2 weeks). The school costs them to run and they charge to recoup costs. He also said that he does not recommend Refrigerated for anyone just starting out simply because it can get complicated. Better to learn the ropes for a few years first. There are so many great companies to choose from who will test your skill level and pair you with an appropriate trainer for 2 weeks to 2 months and pay you while you learn. Trucking Truth has a list of companies that are new driver friendly, you should talk to all of them and research! My personal top 3 so far: May Trucking, KKW and Estes. Good luck in your new career!

The full cost for the TDA is 3 grand. But since you're signing the contract you pay only 1,500. Which by the way for trucking school is dirt cheap. You make payments of 57.69$ and it pays out in a year. You seriously don't even notice it. You can easily make 1500 in two weeks of driving. Heck, I've made close to that in a single week. The low price of 1500 is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

It depends on how far you get in training whether or not you will owe anything. If you drop later in the course you will owe something because they've spent countless hours on teaching you when they could have been teaching someone else. This you wasted their time, energy, and money. Fuel for those rigs isn't cheap. And no service is free. This is expected and every company does this. Even those companies you listed.

He's dead wrong about the extra training. Very very wrong. In fact, Central has the SHORTEST training out of any company and they 90% only run reefer. You know how easy it is to operate a reefer? It has 4 buttons. Push on to turn it on and up or down to program a temperature. Select pretrip for it to pretrip itself and gauges to see if its good on fluids. I mean, operating a reefer is kindergarden easy. Centrals training is only 4-5 weeks which is the shortest. Prime's training is about 3 months and they run reefer and dry can. Same equipment, same operations. But they choose to make the training longer because its their choice not because the equipment is complicated.

There really isn't anything complicated about reefer. Set the temperature, check BoLs to verify temperature. Keep it fueled, and wash it or sweep it out after each load. Nothing is extensive or complicated - this isn't tankers.

If you're a rookie no one is going to give you only 2 weeks worth of training.

Now I'm not a golden boy for Central. They have their problems. But I get amazing miles, have a beautiful truck. Their only problem is they push the lease too much. I do believe that you are mislead about the reefer division though and how the training and schools work.

Not trying to get all defensive just letting you know the truth. I've been there done that and have first hand experience with the schools and almost a year with Central.

Thanks for setting me straight Daniel!

Hi Shawna,

I have been doing a ton of research and have actually had a friend nearly sign with Central but backed out. His reasoning was that he had just finished driving school which he is paying for out of pocket and Central requires all new drivers to attend their school. They charge for it and it ain't cheap! It's unpaid and all the school provides is a motel room. If you don't pass training you don't have a job and you'll still owe tuition. I was curious about a company that charges new hires for training and asked a friend in the refer field. He said that the complexity of their equipment requires extra training (2 weeks). The school costs them to run and they charge to recoup costs. He also said that he does not recommend Refrigerated for anyone just starting out simply because it can get complicated. Better to learn the ropes for a few years first. There are so many great companies to choose from who will test your skill level and pair you with an appropriate trainer for 2 weeks to 2 months and pay you while you learn. Trucking Truth has a list of companies that are new driver friendly, you should talk to all of them and research! My personal top 3 so far: May Trucking, KKW and Estes. Good luck in your new career!

The full cost for the TDA is 3 grand. But since you're signing the contract you pay only 1,500. Which by the way for trucking school is dirt cheap. You make payments of 57.69$ and it pays out in a year. You seriously don't even notice it. You can easily make 1500 in two weeks of driving. Heck, I've made close to that in a single week. The low price of 1500 is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

It depends on how far you get in training whether or not you will owe anything. If you drop later in the course you will owe something because they've spent countless hours on teaching you when they could have been teaching someone else. This you wasted their time, energy, and money. Fuel for those rigs isn't cheap. And no service is free. This is expected and every company does this. Even those companies you listed.

He's dead wrong about the extra training. Very very wrong. In fact, Central has the SHORTEST training out of any company and they 90% only run reefer. You know how easy it is to operate a reefer? It has 4 buttons. Push on to turn it on and up or down to program a temperature. Select pretrip for it to pretrip itself and gauges to see if its good on fluids. I mean, operating a reefer is kindergarden easy. Centrals training is only 4-5 weeks which is the shortest. Prime's training is about 3 months and they run reefer and dry can. Same equipment, same operations. But they choose to make the training longer because its their choice not because the equipment is complicated.

There really isn't anything complicated about reefer. Set the temperature, check BoLs to verify temperature. Keep it fueled, and wash it or sweep it out after each load. Nothing is extensive or complicated - this isn't tankers.

If you're a rookie no one is going to give you only 2 weeks worth of training.

Now I'm not a golden boy for Central. They have their problems. But I get amazing miles, have a beautiful truck. Their only problem is they push the lease too much. I do believe that you are mislead about the reefer division though and how the training and schools work.

Not trying to get all defensive just letting you know the truth. I've been there done that and have first hand experience with the schools and almost a year with Central.

Thanks for setting me straight Daniel!

No problem. There's a lot of bad information out there. Reefer can be an annoyance because its just another thing you have to manage and worry about but it's definitely not complicated. If it breaks then contact the company they'll tell you where to go for repairs. And I've never had a reefer malfunction on me. They keep them in top shape and do constant maintenance and checks on them to avoid them breaking. I've never even had a reefer be low on fluids before.

Now if Shawna can just reply :) I need to know which branch of TDA you're going to. Modesto, Yuba City, Sac?

Prime's training is about 3 months and they run reefer and dry can.

Actually, Prime runs everything BUT dry van , unless you count non-refrigerated freight in a reefer...

I make the trip to conley ga the 15th to start training with central.