Wanting to see about prime team driving with wife

Is prime putting you back through training or bringing you on as experienced?
While I was with them I saw and knew a few couple teams that ran on the company side. The biggest issue they had was putting up with one another LOL. Miles are there, if you go this route let me know before you get a FM and I can tell you who mine was, he was fair and ran my butt off.
Your wife will of course have to go through training of course.
Hope this helps you

 

You can't run until you drop when your governed at 58 mph, but you can run until you fall asleep of boardem.

 

No they will run you legal, and if your FM asks otherwise and you do then its on you if you do it. BUT that said, all it takes is a call to Safety and that puts an end to it. Same for your Logs, they are on the Qualcom so its hard to fudge them and if your FM gets caught doing so, Huge No No.
Team loads are there, you will be running alot of produce during spring and summer and meat and beer during the winter.
For the 1st few months you will be running ALOT in the NE untill your FM gets a feel for you and how you want to run. It helps to ALWAYS talk to you FM, if your not getting enough miles then ask why and whats up with it. He/she could have a very good reason for it.

 

Talk to FullMetalJacket on/in Prime here. He used to run team before he became a trainer also

 

You can't run until you drop when your governed at 58 mph where is your PROOF ( such as you drive for them ) of them being governed at 58 MPH or is it just more coffee counter BS

 

I take it you don't travel the Interstate much ? Only ones I ever see above 58 are O/O's for the company or old Jim Palmer driver's otherwise its moving roadblock time in the construction zone. Last driver I chatted with said He was Governed at 62 but if he ran at 62 and not around 58 the company would call him and tell him to slow it down.

 

Been running company team for last year & 1/2 with my girl...it's gotten a lot crappier lately, think they are taking on way too many new people or something.

Used to run 6000-6500mi average first year or so but lately we have had a lot of crap runs mixed in to the usual coast to coast produce excursions.

Just had 4 34hr resets last month (within 2weeks) waiting on loads (some detention paid but not enough to cover the hassle & time wasted), local deliveries thrown in, solo runs more frequently...messing up our sleeping schedules constantly.

BTW, ALL prime company trucks are governed at 58 on pedel 62 on cruise.
Lease trucks are at 65 on pedal & cruise.

Because of the stupid (OnGuard in freightliners, Bendix Wingman in Peterbilts,Kenworths, & internationals) that reads distance to objects in front of truck & cuts power, applies engine brake, & even service brakes; it is unwise to use cruise at all when in any kind of weather or traffic.

Old versions (pre 2014 trucks in general of which there are few) would let you override the sensors with the acclerator but new versions are much more intrusive, conservative, & default back to 58mph if you touch the pedal.

Very irritating to drive with especially if you have a misalligned sensor reading left, right, or high (have had it all) then it becomes just dangerous besides the fact it reads freeway overpasses as objects from time to time which causes the brakes to slam hard.

Have nearly been rear ended multiple times because of misallignment as well as vehicles cutting in front of bumper since even with the cruise off & foot on pedal, if the computer reads you approaching an object that is too close at a speed differential it will take over regardless.

Being on the cruise to get the higher speed also has a very delayed enguagement so being loaded, you will usually drop 2-4mph depending on truck before it starts acclerating & by the time the turbo spools up, you usually need to drop a gear on any kind of <3%hill.

In addition, even though we can go 62 on cruise, because of the focus on fuel mileage (& bonus for company drivers) & gearing, the optimal mph is usually around 58-60 on newer trucks.
Have driven quite a number of trucks & my thoughts are as follows as far as optimal cruising & mpg potential speeds;

New full size evolutions are at 1300+/-rpms @62mph vs 1360+/-rpms on previous non evolutions - I cruise at 60@1250rpms now vs 58 then

New DEF equipped prostar lightweights are at 1250rpms @62mph & I cruise at that because they are geared so tall they get great mpg anyway & if you cruise below that you die on hills worse than normal, although having twin turbos - they seem to have a better response & accelerator engagement then the cascadias.

Lightweight cascadias are the worst of the bunch since they have worse power output but yet not as tall geared as prostars & don't get the evolution engine & areo upgrades so to get good mileage cruising around 1200-1250rpms @55-58mph is optimal; effeciancy drops drastically after that.

They also just started dinging us for over speeding & following vehicle in front too closely as "critical events" because some tool that couldn't handle himself on a downhill rolled the truck doing near 80mph 3 weeks ago is what my FM told me.

Look for prime brake lights on downhills now too!!! The only time I could have fun in the past & take advantage of the gift of gravity....


Bottom line is, they want us running for maximum fuel effeciency if there is time on the load to do so & the incentive is more CPM which adds up.

If you want to be the slowest & lowest powered over nannied trucks on the road & can live with the usual OTR bravo sierra, you might be "satisfied" but I know I can do better & also could do worse.

LTL or hazmat is on the horizon, would already be at Old Dominion by now if not for having 2 dogs...

 

What's bad about the speed part is I remember when it was PRIME trucks ripping everyone paint off as they blew by at the speed of light. Time have changed alot, guess its just the name of the game now adays.