The adventure begins

I quit posting because I didn't want to bash my "trainer." I still think pretty highly on Prime and from my experience how they treat their drivers that are willing to run, but their I think their training and how they choose and train their trainers has some major issues. Just because someone can drive a truck, doesn't mean they can teach. There are good trainers and some that are simply in it for the extra money they receive for having a trainee in their truck. In my case, my trainer drove on my clock and the only instruction I received was "drive the trailer" with no instruction as to how to go about doing that. He only knew one way to drive with very little explanation. I figured I drove a total of 40 hours in the six weeks I was on the road and did no backing. In fact when we came back to test, I had to tell the team doing the testing, on the day I was scheduled to test that I had not even been on the pad yet; since my trainer went on hometime as soon as we got back to Springfield. I got two half days of straight-line and offset parking (no parallel or alley dock.) before I tested. Without throwing my trainer under the bus, I tried to tell them I wasn't ready, but I was tested anyway. Passed pre-trip, but pointed out on the backing. I requested to go back out with a different trainer which they had allowed a few others to do, but when I went to talk to Stan and Steve the system indicated I had 160 hours of drive time which was more than enough to get the skills down. I have been around long enough to know that raising a stink wouldn't do anything but me look bad, so I was like "what ever." I could have suggested they look at this post where I even posted that I'd been out 2-3 weeks and still hadn't driven yet.

So, I came back to Oregon and had a friend that is a driver show me a couple things that most school teach on the first day that I was never taught such as to avoid turning to early wait until your shoulder is even with where you want to go before you start turning, finding a reference point on the front of the trailer such as the number or a rivet and to slightly correct when that reference point starts to move and that if your backing and you point your steer tires so they line up with the small V on the landing gear it will turn the trailer this angle. After being taught those things and practicing for a day in a yard and a day on the road, I was able to pass my CDL on the first try.

I have since gotten a job in a different area, but still drive some on the weekends for a small outfit for some extra money and keep my skills up.

So I quit posting because I was upset at the time I knew if I had posted it would have either come across as a crybaby who couldn't make it; or it would discourage people from going to Prime for training. Like I said at the beginning, from what I've seen and from talking to other drivers from other companies; Prime is one of the better starter companies. I just think they are trying to replace so many drivers that they don't take the time to adequately train the trainers and they are relying on these ill-prepared trainers to go out and train.

I had not gotten any behind the wheel time before I was with my trainer, we spent an hour or so by the pickle plant and then we were on the road.

I know this is long, so I'll rap it up with a few suggestions for those thinking about going through the training through Prime or any other training company. 1. Have your finances in order, your not going to make any money for at least 6 weeks. 2. Don't take just any trainer even if you've been waiting for a week or more, it's important that you guys click and have a few things in common, but also get an idea of if their teaching style meshes with your learning style. 3. Don't be quiet about getting your driving time (this was my problem), drivers are going to keep driving until you say something; they're not going to say it's your turn.

That's the end of this journey. There might be another at another time, but until then; stay safe and be encouraged.

 

I didn't have the worst in my group. One guy could have written a book of stuff he went through and made the guy promise that he would never attempt to train anyone ever again with Prime or any other company They didn't talk for the last two weeks on the road. This trainer was even sleeping in the bunk while his trainee was on the pad teaching himself how to back. They even ran out of fuel less than 30 miles from the truck stop they had stopped at for the night and since he was a lease op, he had to have prime front the money for the tow and repair costs which resulted in them being down for four days.