My Experience at Pride Transport

I decided to skip the mega-carriers and go straight to a decent company out of CDL school. That was Pride Transport in Salt Lake City.

The orientation and training were uneventful. My experience was pretty much the same as in this post, so I won't waste any time.

One thing that nobody mentioned was the six-month contract I signed before I started training. If I wanted to leave within 6 months of employment, I would have to pay $5000 for the cost of the training. I didn't like that, but I was already in SLC and didn't plan on quitting, so I signed it. I just thought it was a little shifty that nobody told me about it until I had finished orientation and they laid it in front of me.

Also, having talked to other drivers there, nobody had anything bad to say about the company. I think that's rare. Four out of the nine people in my orientation were rehires. Everyone said I made a good decision by starting at Pride.

Also, I learned that the notorious driver-facing cameras only have 10 seconds of memory and act as a black box in case of an accident. That doesn't bother me at all: I would prefer to be able to prove that I have my eyes on the road. I wish they had front-facing dash cams too. Most drivers still didn't like them though and put their visor down to block it.

Training for total newbies is 100 hours or more of driving with a trainer in the passenger seat (Phase 1), then 300 hours or more of team driving with the trainer (Phase 2). Steve the recruiter said that phase 1 usually lasts a month, and phase 2 usually lasts 2 months. But it's up to the trainer's discretion when you leave phase 1 and up to the safety dept's discretion when you graduate from phase 2 (via a road test).

My trainer was calm and easy-to-get along with. He seemed surprised that I knew how to stay in my lane and back up (more or less). So I got promoted after the first 100 hours, which only took a week and a half.
So we were team driving and all was going well. One day we were about to get on the PA Turnpike in New Stanton, but it was closed because of the blizzard (in Jan 2016). Pride sets the routes so we requested a new route via the Qualcomm and waited.



We were still there the next day when policemen came around telling all the parked trucks (now taking up the shoulder and granny lane) to move. As I was driving down the granny lane, not sure where to go at all, I passed a truck (not pictured) who was poorly parked on the shoulder, with his steer tire in my lane. I rode along the left side, but still hit his mirror.

"Did I just hit his mirror?" I asked my trainer.
"Yep."
"Was there any damage?" We were only going about 15mph and our mirror had bent on its hinge.
"Don't know." He smoked his e-cig. "I guess we'll find out."

There were no truck stops so I didn't know what to do. My trainer didn't either. We hadn't gotten a reply to our request for a new route.

"Should I take 60?" I asked.
"You can," he said. "But I won't condone breaking routing. You can never break Pride's routing."
"Then what should I do? There's no place to park!"
"I don't know," he said. "Do what you would do if I weren't here."

So I took a detour and got back on the 'pike as soon as possible. My trainer got a call from the boss man to return to base as soon as possible. Gonna get chewed out I guess. They asked if I hit one mirror or two. My trainer is honest and said one.

The next day, the training department called my trainer. I was asleep, but he said they asked about my character. "We get along just fine," he allegedly told them. How's his driving? "Good," he said. "He's a cautious driver, which is good. I feel comfortable sleeping while he's driving."

The safety dept. called me after I woke up a few hours later.

"Let me ask you one question. Did you have a hit-and-run?"
"But... but... there was no place to stop! The shoulder was all full! The police were waving me on!"
"That doesn't matter. You didn't report it."
"I didn't think there was any damage. We weren't going very fast and our mirror bent."
"No. That's unacceptable. We're terminating your employment."

I still don't see how there could have been any damage, unless the other guy's mirror was held on with string. I remember how they had asked if we hit one mirror or two. I wonder if the other guy got fired too.

Anyways, they left me in Toledo, but at least had the dignity to buy me a greyhound ticket home.

When I got home, I found that it was a lot harder to find a job with a tainted record. Companies who had hired me a month ago were now turning me down. "If you have an accident-related termination," they all said. "You must have at least 3/6 months of safe driving before we will consider you." I explained what happened in detail, but there were no exceptions. The recruiters I talked to even seemed a little sypathetic ("He was parked in your lane? Were you ticketed? Were there any injuries? And they fired you?")

The only companies who've hired me now are PTL and Schneider (I didn't apply to Swift, CRST, or England). And this is with a clean drug/criminal/health/driving record. PTL, here I come!

I think I deserved a lecture about reporting accidents, but not to be fired. I still can't believe that they threw me out like that. I have nothing bad to say about the company: working for them was just dandy. But now I'm in a much worse situation than when I started. Prospective employees beware!

 

Well, it was the "team phase" of training, but my teammate/trainer was awake in the passenger seat. He (as well as the safety dept) had been very explicit that any acident with damage must be reported. I just didn't think there was any; that's why I asked. But I wouldn't blame the trainer. In the same situation as him, not thinking there was any damage, I wouldn't have reported anything.

He has 1 mil safe miles and will never be fired. I would blame the safety department here. I imagine they got a call from an exaggerating driver who wanted a new mirror. I think they relayed that anger to me, and acted reactively. They lost a cautious driver and I got out of their 6-month contract.

I dunno if PTL is a mega but that's where I'm going. If I don't like it, I can always bail in three months (unless they surprise me with a contract).

 

There was a massive traffic jam behind me, and police were motioning to keep it moving. I think if I'd stopped, it would have incurred some legal problems.

In hindsight, yes, it wouldn't have hurt to mention it on the qualcomm. But as a 1-month sprout, I don't think firing was the right reaction.

I couldn't see, because my mirror was bent.

Thanks! I think I will be a very elligible driver in a few months. It's not like I failed a drug test or flipped the truck or got a DUI. But it sucks that 9/10 decent companies are turning me down just for that.