Complaint Review: Celadon

I will tell you first hand we have many years experience driving truck as a team. We are efficient and deliver on time.

There is a break down somewhere in the thinking at Celadon.

First, to make you think you signed onto a good company, you will get the miles....keyword: first.

We were averaging between 3200-5400miles a week. Then....then came the reality and our tenur there...we started to see how they played the game, we caught on...

You will see the miles drop (not fast), but enough to notice your checks are not enough to cover ALL your bills anymore...and you are paying peter to pay paul.

Then, you notice a drastic cut in miles within the four months you're there.

You WILL DO at least TWO 34 hr restarts in a week, or sometimes three times in one week and have a whooping 800 miles for your paycheck. (Team here now)

You WILL sit on the weekend.

You will NOT get reimbursed for your tolls after awhile, they will tell you that "the customer" does not pay for tolls, yet, your delivery time does NOT allow you to route yourself ANY OTHER WAY...but take the hit, pay the toll for thier load to be delivered at sometimes like in our case $65.00 gone.

It hurt more than you will know since our paychecks were pathetic...And, we were already behind on mortgage payments and here we were paying tolls we could not afford yet had to, no choice.

You will NOT be paid holidays. We were out for Christmas and New Years, hoping to recoup on our lousy miles and pay with that little extra from holiday pay....well?? After looking at our paychecks and noticing : No holiday pay...we asked...and were told "Celadon doesn't pay for holidays"

Well, if that isn't a kick in the pants.

And, if you are broke down....I mean under a load and your truck is broke down...do you know that Celadon does NOT consider this "break down pay" because as they told us...."You were under a load, we don't pay breakdown when you're under a load." Well, gee...isn't that nice...we sat with their equipment and load for four days...no pay...and had to eat...so guess where our lovely no paycheck profits went to?? Yup, eating...out. No truck to use, it was in the shop.

Celadon bought out two companies...in the past three months and sent this massive "fleet message" to all the trucks..with this I quote: "We will have over 300 extra million miles of freight to move with this merger...you will see miles" blah blah blah...all we saw, as we sat with every other driver is this...there is more and more trucks sitting at a terminal than moving freight and there is less and less frieght to move once you are on a run and hoping to be hooked up with another load when they get your PTA/ETA.

YOU WILL SIT.

There is the kiss the hinney people there too, but guess what?? They are sitting too...lol go figure. Bless their hearts. lol It got them nowhere being the "yes man" at this point.

We tried to hold on, but you know? Our bills are not that much, hey, we are truck drivers not home enough to make huge bills, but you do have electric and mortgage ect to pay and when you cannot even pay them and teenagers are making more now at Taco Bell than you driving a truck it's time to do a career change. Can't be loyal to a company that isn't loyal to you. Right?

I am sure you have heard about their "wellness program" and you want to go there for that reason...lol DON'T...it is nothing more than going to a clinic, blood drive, your doctor having them poke your finger and get that blood into a glass vial and then tell you 20 min later what your cholestoral, blood count is....that's it folks, nothing really spectacular.

You WILL have time to exercise because you are sitting moreso than driving...if that is what you want...then, you WILL love it there.

But, most drive truck to make the cash and it's in their blood. Not to sit.
Sitting makes you ancy and makes you stir crazy after a bit.

You can only sleep for so long, go out to eat so much, watch tv for so long ect til you are absolutely going bonkers and wishing you were sitting at home instead at the truck stop with a reefer sitting next to you cranking over every 15 mins.

It's up to you what you do with this information, YOU will have to live with what you decide if you can live on the pay you will make with them that is.
Do you live with your parents by chance?? lol

If no, then...think is all I am saying.

The equipment is nice. The terminals are like most terminals, they don't have cafeteria's. They have a main one if you will, but only open when there is a class going on. And the food? Not so good. Be hungry and you won't notice it much.

We left volunteerly, we were NOT fired. We actually regret that they didn't have the miles to give, or pay holidays, or breakdown, or layover (oh that's another thing, got to sit for 48hrs that is a freebee...then, your clock starts, you have to sit another 24 hrs before you see that grand cough $50 bucks-not really worth the sit was it??) and the tolls? That will kill you after a bit.

They do NOT have ez pass. They only have the pass for the scale house.
Big deal. Rather have ez pass anyday and keep the little money we had in our pockets, not donate. Charity starts at home right??

Well, good luck on your search of a company and make sound judgements, people say things here to help, not to whine.

Take heed with some is all I ask.

Keep it in between the lines and stay safe.

Stevie
Yellville, Arkansas
U.S.A.