My own experience with PTL

I know that a lot of people look for information on companies when trying to decide where to apply, and I have gained a lot of valuable info from Truckers Report. So I thought I'd try to contribute by telling a little about my own experience with PTL in the hopes that someone will be able to get something from it.

First, a little background on myself - mainly because many people seem to be trying to get back into the industry after being out of it for a while. I got my CDL at CRE back in 2009 and drove for them for approx. 8 months. I left driving due to family issues. While I kept my CDL, I didn't drive commercially after that, so what little "experience" I had went out the window.

This past July, I decided to put my CDL back to work and applied to probably 10 companies (Swift, Stevens, Western Express, Super Service, Maverick, Melton, Millis, Roehl and a few others.) Most of those either wouldn't hire me due to a lack of recent experience or they wanted me to go through a 3rd-party refresher before they'd talk further with me.

(By the way, I got a copy of my DAC and CRE had listed on 4 months of driving experience, which put me under the required 6 months of some companies.)

PTL is the only one that tried to help me out. The recruiter spent a good bit of time in contacting (multiple times) CRE to verify that I had attended their CDL school and completed their training program. I don't have a certificate from the school and CRE is no help in verifying what they have in their computer system about me. Anyway, I still had a copy of the email I received from CRE when they gave me a date to begin the school and also still had a few other small pieces of documentation that I was there, such as the safety training card, etc. The PTL recruiter took these to her supervisor (since PTL does require at least 6 months OTR experience in the past 5 years) and got me approved for orientation. So I see this as the recruiting department having actually made an effort and taken a realistic approach to get me here, since CRE wouldn't verify anything other than the 4 months they had reported on my DAC.

I came Murray, KY, for orientation in the latter half of July, and was still very skeptical after my experience at CRE years ago and also because of the negativity posted about so many of these companies, including PTL.

I will state now that one of the things I had read is that PTL will make you sign a contract saying that you'll owe them $1,500 if you quit within the first year - this is true, with the exception of a few details. I will also say that it's the only complaint I have about PTL up to this point.

Here are the details of the $1,500: PTL has 3 ways of bringing you into their company. One way is for currently experienced drivers, who will come to orientation for 2-1/2 days, then be assigned their own truck and start driving solo. The second is the refresher driver, who will attend the same orientation, then be teamed with another refresher driver for 40K miles before being assigned their own solo truck. The third is the training driver (which was my case since I had such limited experience from 4 years ago). Training drivers go through the orientation, then are assigned to a trainer for 6K miles, then upgrade to the 40K refresher phase, then are finally solo qualified and assigned their own truck. It is only these training drivers that are required to sign the $1,500 agreement.

The agreement states that you agree to drive at least 100,000 miles with them after being solo-qualified. If you quit before completing the 100K miles, you will owe them $1,500 for their training program. In talking with many current and previous drivers for PTL over the past weeks, I've been consistently told that they rarely pursue payment of the $1500 from drivers who move on to other opportunities, and I haven't yet found a previous driver for PTL who had their last check withheld to cover that amount. But be aware that they will have your signature on an agreement, so it's very possible for them to come after it if they choose.

The only thing that turned this into a complaint for me is that nothing was said about it by PTL until the end of the second day of orientation when they asked those of us in the training program to sign it. Had the recruiter simply told me about it during the recruiting process, I would have agreed to it and not had any problem with it. I just don't like that it was never mentioned until the day before I was to be assigned a trainer and had already made the trip to Murray and spent two days here. It seems sneaky and that makes me think of CRE and others like them.

But I will also remind you that that is the only complaint I have so far - everything else that PTL told me from the beginning until now has held true and they've even managed to impress me on a few unexpected points, which I'll mention in a minute.

The Phase 1 training (6K miles) consists of you driving with a trainer. The trainer does not drive unless the load is at risk for being late or unless a situation (inner-city driving, for example) exists that the student is not prepared for. But, basically, the student does everything and the trainer rides on-duty for guidance and to teach the macros and things like that.

At the end of my first week, in Houston, my trainer disappeared on a Friday night at a truck stop. At around 2100, he got a phone call, got out of the truck and walked inside (I assumed for privacy on the call). The next morning, I woke up and he hadn't been back to truck. I figured he had gone for a motel room. A couple hours later, we got a dispatch. I tried calling him several times, left a voice mail and didn't hear from him. QC message came asking us to respond (I was trying to give him time to get back and really didn't want to say anything about it to PTL, still assuming he had just gotten a room somewhere and not wanting to get the guy in trouble.) I finally had to call his FM and let him know that I had no idea where my trainer was. After a few more hours and several unanswered calls, I called the 3 nearest hospitals. None had a record of anyone with his name. That afternoon, PTL had me take the truck to a nearby drop yard and leave it there. Another driver came to pick me up soon after (about 2 hours) and I finished my phase one with him.

By the way, the first trainer is fine. He called me on Sunday morning and asked, "Hey, Dave, did ya move the truck or something?" Anyway, turns out his girlfriend had driven to Houston and they decided to "just chill together." He mentioned that maybe he should call he should his FM, I verified that that might be a good idea. He said he was going to ask PTL if he could meet up with me and get me back on his truck, and I told him I didn't really care what truck I was on, I just wanted to get the necessary 6K miles and move on.

Yesterday morning (Saturday, 9/07), I arrived back in Murray, having completed 5,995 paid miles (took a total of 17 days, including yesterday.) One of the training department guys came in to give me my final driving/backing test and upgraded me. This is one of the things that impressed me about PTL - I was the only one to arrive back in Murray for upgrade, and the guy came in on a Saturday to do it. In fact he was waiting for me when I got there, so ten minutes after parking my trainers truck, I began the driving test. I can't speak for most other companies, but CRE wouldn't have done that, especially for only one driver.

The other thing that impressed me is that they were pretty quick to get me on another truck in Houston after my first trainer disappeared. After they found out my trainer was missing, I didn't even sit more than 10 hours before I was on another truck. (They also had tried unsuccessfully to call the guy on his cell, and had checked local hospitals just as I had. Until that Sunday, no one was able to find out anything about him - but they did try.)

One thing I'll say about the training miles is that I ran early on all of my loads. Most of them, I ran a day early delivering and picked 2 of them up (pre-loaded trailers) a day early. I would imagine they give trainees a larger time-frame on loads for obvious reasons. So I probably sat more than I had to since I was always early, but during the second week the loads came closer together. So I suspect they watch your performance in the first week and then adjust to you on the second week. Too, there was Labor Day weekend and a missing trainer during my phase 1, so I'm not terribly disappointed with the time it took to complete it. Obviously, PTL isn't here for my convenience but I feel comfortable that they've worked with me in getting the phase 1 time completed in a reasonable amount of time.

So in summary, the unmentioned (until the last minute) $1,500 agreement was a major disappointment for me, more in principle than anything. But everything else to this point leads me to believe that both PTL and myself have made a good choice. And what I've gathered so far from other PTL drivers (chronic complainers not included) is that the drivers, overall, are happy at PTL and get what they want. The ones who just want a paycheck get a paycheck. The ones who really want to run are getting an average of 2,800 to 3,200 miles per week.

Anyway, for those who are looking on recent info on PTL, I hope this helps. I should begin my phase 2 tomorrow (Monday). I try to stay busy when on the road and I don't pay for truck stop wifi, and I have T-Mobile whose "Nationwide 4G" is nowhere near being nationwide (I'd like to know what nation they're talking about when they say "nationwide.") So I haven't been getting on the forums here very often, but I do update my facebook with small snippets and trips. So If anyone has any questions or just wants to follow along, you can send me a pm here or friend me at https://www.facebook.com/TheBestDavidEdwards.

Hope everybody has a good rest-of-the-weekend.

 

I guess that depends on what your personal definition of "making money" is, based on what you personally need to make to meet your own goals.

I made probably as much in phase one training as what I would have made at most other places during training, but it is just training pay. Some companies pay a set amount per week during training, usually ranging (I think) $350 to $450 per week. (I know Stevens pays more per week, but it's a longer training period before you begin making solo pay.)

PTL pays $0.15/mile, so I grossed $899.25 for the 17 days (remembering that on the 17th day I only drove about 2 hours before arriving back in Murray and upgrading.) Plus, there was the $150 orientation pay and they reimbursed me for having driven up here rather than taking the bus. No, that's not making much money, but, again, it is just "training pay," and for me to think I'm just gonna walk off the street start making a grand a week or more from the beginning is unrealistic.

Phase 2 also pays $0.15/mile, but you're payed off total truck miles with 2 drivers, versus me having done all the driving during phase 1. Phase 2 typically takes 2 months to complete the 40K miles, so if you do the math on that, you should gross around $750/week. Obviously, it will vary depending on the total miles per week, but that's an average.

After going solo, they start new drivers out at $0.33/mile ($0.34/mile if you have HazMat endorsement.) Figuring an average of 2800 to 3200 miles per week, that would put a weekly gross at $924 to $1056.

You'll have to decide for yourself whether that constitutes "making money." For me, it's just ok - but it's not bad considering I'm basically an inexperienced driver and can't realistically expect anyone to just hand me pots of gold before I've even started paying my dues. Driving will never be a get-rich-quick (and probably not even a get-rich-at-all) kind of thing, but I'm looking at building a career with stability.

So it's a decent way to start as far as I'm concerned. It beats the hell out of CR England, I'll tell ya that!

 

If you have to go with CRE, then go and make them serve your purpose. But if you have a choice between the two, go with PTL, hands down. Good luck.

 

Just checked my "other" inbox and found 3 mssgs. Replied to each, so if you sent me a message, you might want to also check your "other" inbox. Normally, I access FB on my phone so I never even see an option for "other" on my messages. Too, we're running constantly and I have the night shift - so there are days that I don't even get on FB.

Gotta say, though, that every time I send an arrival call at a receiver, I instantly get my next preplan. Can't complain about that.