Cryogenic Transportation reviews

And trust me on this.......do not be pressured or persuaded to buy a truck from these people. It would take too long to explain so you have been warned. I don't know the pay anymore. They used to belong to QC and it was % then. Remember! Co. driver only bud. Make that clear and keep it upfront. 

Pay attention to your training and your safety gear. The welding gloves your issued are not good enough and get rid of the steel hammer, needs to be brass.

If you end up liking the work do two years clean and target a major. You will earn way more and be much happier..

Good luck

JMO

I suppose it depends upon which CTI terminal you work for. The training was pretty good but I was not impressed with their pay or attention to HOS rules. They run Qualcomm e-logs which I thought was going to be a good thing... Well that's what I thought. 5 out of my 10 days in training we ran over our 14 hours the other 5 days were 13.5-14 hours. My trainer said when that happens to just call the TM and he'll "adjust" the start time on the Qualcomm the next morning so it looks like we didn't run over hours. He also said that he worked like that all the time to make the "big" money, which by the way was only 60k after 12 years of service. 

My very first day on my own, dispatch sent me to Bellefonte, PA, she told me to pack a bag because it's too far to turn. I asked if she knew I was supposed to be a local driver and of course she said she did know but this was an emergency, the customer was out of product. Aren't they all in this business? So I arrive at the plant Sunday morning at my 6:00 a.m. start time to find a flat drive tire. I call the TM and he says go ahead and load the trailer and he'll get someone to come fix it. Well, 45 minutes later, I'm loaded and waiting at the lab for the load to be beverage tested. I get the testing report from the lab and still haven't heard from road service so I call the TM again.... He still hasn't gotten ahold of anyone, he tells me to sit tight. 45 minutes later he calls back saying he has someone on the way. 45 minutes later I get a call from the tire shop national service provider asking standard questions about tire size, location on the truck, location of the truck, etc.... They say they'll call the shop and send them out.... An hour later I get a call from the actual tire shop telling me the tech is on his way. He finally gets the tire replaced with a trailer super single even though I had told the folks I talked to it was a drive tire and I get rolling at 11:30. I call the TM and let him know I will not have enough hours to get the load delivered without running out of hours before I can get to the motel. He tells me to call when I'm close and we'll go from there. I had an hour left on my 14 (unloading takes an hour or more) and I called the TM and dispatch to let them know I should be stopping, getting my 10 then delivering around 3 a.m..... Nope, that load has to be delivered tonight, do what you have to do. That pretty much decided how long my tenure was going to be at CTI.

After getting "lost" in downtown Bellefonte for about 20 minutes because no-one had directions to the customer and my GPS was running me around in circles because of the length restricted streets in downtown, dispatch was able to track down a Hopkinsville, KY CTI driver who had been to that customer and he talked me in. I got the load delivered with the Qualcomm already warning me of being over hours, I pulled out to head to the hotel up at exit 158 on I-80. I logged out at 15.25 and called the TM. I told him I was going to call the director of operations to get approved to use the 16 hour rule and he stated very clearly that we never call him for that, he'll (the TM) fix my log in the morning. 

I get up the next morning, get a shower, have breakfast, pre-trip, fuel and get on the road. I get just past exit 97 west bound and have to come to a complete stop. I later found out an east bound truck decided it wanted to take out the jersey barrier in the construction where they had the east and west bound lanes running on the same side. I sat there for about 45 minutes before PA finally decided they weren't going to get the wreck cleaned up in a timely fashion so they backed us all back to the 97 to run up through Brockway to PA 28 and back to 80. Did I mention that CTI has a no CB policy? That's right, no hands free cell phones or CB's. So I probably could have saved at least 45 minutes by avoiding the traffic jam in the first place, but oh well. 

When I called the TM about the back up he told me he wanted me to stop at the tire shop on my way back in to get the trailer tire changed off the drive axle and then come on in. I got the tire swapped out and called dispatch and she asked if I wanted to be done for the day, it was 3:30, so I said sure. She sent me the next days load info and I went back to the plant and went home. My trainer called me to ask what I had for the next day and he told me that she gave me a 14 hour plus day, that's "big" money he said. I go in the next day at my 6:00 a.m start time and find my truck isn't even back yet. I called the driver I shared with and he said he was due back in an hour. That was my last day at CTI.....

Both Cryogenic Transport and Jack B Kelly were purchased by the Keenan Advantage Group (KAG), and they now operate under what is the Merchants Gas Group providing common carriage for the producers of cryogenics. Cryogenic Transport has never been part of Quality Carriers (QC).