FullMetalJacket at Prime

Giant, great to meet you also. Hope all goes well for you here.

JimmyBones, thanks as always. Hope your experience as trainer is going well.

Got to do a pick up & drop of empty, & p/u of live load with another PSD & trainer. Bit more local road driving. Got to see caves. Recieved another trainer call at same time, so we swung over to meet him. Went well, so I now have my own trainer. The wait was well worth it. Couldn't be more excited than now to get rolling.

Yesterday was shifting/downshifting, local driving, and quite a bit of backing maneuvers.

 

Yet Mo Sno in Spring Mo.

Somebody... anybody..... send some heat & sun out here!

 

DogChimp,

That would be sweet, but finally heading out Mon. with trainer.

Today consisted of my trainer checking out my shifting and local driving. Downshifting still a bit off here & there, but coming along. Hard to break 4wheeler clutch habit. But, early yet and just have to get muscle memory down. Still want to hold that clutch down here & there when getting rpms up.

Trailers were occupied for most part, so got my driver ID, was introduced to dispatcher & serveral others. Will get early start tomorrow with trailor and do same so he can see how I've been handling it, then spend good time on backing manuvers on pad.

Glad I was able to hook up with several other trainers at different times & get some wheel time while waiting for mine. While still getting a bit nervous, made me a bit more prepared for trainer before he got me. I'm still big-time greenhorn, just a tad shade less.

My advice if your serious about this (don't even bother if you are not). Work/study hard, be early for everything, talk to eveyone you can & show initiative. If any opportunities come up, don't turn any down. It really is what YOU make of it. Results wlll be directly in proportion to what you put into it.

While probably very unique, just one example. Recieved a call from another PSD at 4:00am one morning waking me up. Told me his trainer was willing to invite me to shadow with them if I wanted, but had go now. I was there in minutes. Very long day till late that night, but turned out to be extremely valuable experience w/long time experienced L/O & some valuable introductions. Really glad he woke me up.

 

In my case, not really.

I spent about a year researching before I took the leap. Talked to a lot of owners, leasers, co. drivers. Hunted down quite a few prime drivers when I zeroed in on Prime.

Threads here pretty comprehensive on class end if time taken to read. I know you've been pretty deligent on that. I had no surprises, except for the license issue I mentioned previous. But luckily, I had it fairly close to here. Could have been a bad situation & reason I posted for others.

I think I saw your coming. It's been all I expected & more. No regrets & feel I made a great choice. Would have been better to have had my CDL rather than just permit coming in, but time & situation made that impossible. Definately no biggie, as kinda need at least year before anywhere else. From what I've seen, think I will probably want to stay for quite some time. Place really has their #### together & treats their people well if your doing your own part.

If it was you I remembered coming, good luck. You made a great decision. Now it's up to you!

 

Yesterday good day of backing manuvers. Starting to feel much better. After that, several hours of local & highway driving.

Gonna take a bit to get used to that downshifting while keeping attentive to everything else. Definately a multi tasking dance. But slowly coming around. Hard to break that ingrained 4wheeler clutch habit. It will be intersting to see how I attempt to drive a 4wheeler when back after extended time out.

Waiting on my instructor to pick me up, find a load, and were off.

 

Bobtailing to Indiana to p/u load.

And,......... we're off!

 

Brand new empty picked up in Lafayette early am. Dropped 50 mi. away.

Waiting on 8hr, then load to north of Houston.