Prime: Orientation and Training?

Hey fellas, I am a recent CDL school graduate, have my hazmat, doubles, and tank endorsements. I have been invited to orientation by Prime, USA truck, Trans Am, CRST, Wil-trans and also looking into Crete carrier. I missed my orientation at FFE yesterday...good or bad move?

Base on my accession of the prospects, I think I will be heading to Prime in Pittstown PA for orientation on the 11th of January 2010 if I don't hear from Crete soon. I was wondering if someone could give me a glimpse of what to expect. I am petrified with the length of training. That 60,000 mile requirement . I know it will make all the deference in the world when I get my own truck but it doesn't make any easier now.

I will like to know more about their forced lease/ sub-lease agenda toward new drivers people keep tossing up in these forums. As a mater of fact, a JB hunt driver told me to steer clear of prime because of that.

I am very open to opportunities or at-least I try to create one of those for my self, and I do it at all cost at anytime I can.

Nevertheless, I have no plans to be go beyond the company driver position as far as driving is concerned, maybe a fleet owner when I hit that powerball this year. Can I hear an AMEN!! and a drum roll

Oh OK... I heard it

My long time goal will be to step up to a management/ cooperate position with a good company to master the trade in and out; a strategy I think will help in term of having my own fleet/ company in the future or a more stable income if nothing else. While my short term goal is to get the experience, benefits and pay, the happiness of a stable employment, pretend to be having fun, and looking forwar to Kick some arse. Oh I meant "kiss some butt" (only the trainer and the FMs butts). Even though I am not particularly known to be a butt kissing specialist, I realize I might have to be one for a couple of months.

How is the pay and benefits, How is miles, compared to any of the companies I listed. I know newbies will be shafted so don't worry about me, I will be fine. The least you can do for me is to lend me your leftover jar of Vaseline so I can enjoy my stay or at-least pretend to.

I don't really have a good assessment of prime but this forum has a lot of mind blow-jobbing info about starter companies and moreover, i just cant believe every thing recruiters say.
If someone can adress my concerns, or give me an insight of what to expect; or better yet hock me up with the right employer, I will appreciate it.

 

Look into lonewolfs post about FFE. He has been with them about a year. In my opinion I think create would be the best of what you have listed. Another thing you have to be careful with is scheduling and being a no show for orientation. I have none of drivers that done this and later found out that the co put a bad mark on their DAC and they never even went to orientation.

 

How could they do that when I never signed anything in person stating that you are accepting the position nor have you been officially employed. You are allowed to walk out of orientation right?? They are not allowed to do anything to my DAC cos I am not affiliated with them.

 

I am contemplating Prime as well, also Roehl. I don't have a CDL so that limits my options to begin with. I have done alot of reading on most of the ones that you listed and I think that with a CDL I would probably lean towards Crete as well. I use to drive a truck many years ago and I won't have much difficulty resuming the driving portion just need to spend enough time with a trainer to get use to the particular companies policies, etc. and with my background that extended training period is what is making Prime a tougher decision versus Roehl but for a complete newbie I think their extended training period is a very good route to go.

 

You can walk out and have your DAC dinged. There is some bottom feeders out there. You better read up on dac reports. I have known of a lot of drivers that have had bogus stuff put on dac reports to include accidents that they was never in. You can fight info on your dac, but it is a pain in the butt. You are giving these co's to much respect saying they can't touch your dac. You would be surprised what some of these low life co's will do. Don't forget co's make arrangements for you to be in orientation. Some feel if you don't show esp without notice that you just did not show up for work. Protect your dac. A damaged dac can result in you not getting hired somewhere.

 

You have to remember some of these co's are very vindictive. Some flat out don't care what they put on your dac. You have to be very careful accepting orientation slots. Even if they never have seen you what is to stop them from saying violated co policy. Even if it is not showing up. There is a place on there where it says would you rehire? They might put no or would have to review. Either way it makes you look bad.

 

You are about to enter a cut throat industry. Research co's before you start accepting orientation from them. Look at arrow. You would think that there ought to be a law saying you can't just turn off the drivers fuel card and leave them stranded with no way home. You would think there ought to be a law saying you have to pay a driver for the work he has done. Do you think co's like this care? Evidently not. Arrow just stranded about 1400 some drivers all across America.

 

There are. Doesn't neccessarily mean they will be inforced, but the federal laws are in place.

 

Per notarps comments, probably a bad thing. I'd expect something to be put on your DAC because of it. Don't know if Prime does that. Be up-front with your Prime recruiter about this - if FFE tries to screw you, there may be something that your recruiter can do to smooth this out at Prime.

Training pay at Prime is some of the best in the industry. Don't sweat the 60k requirement. If you really LOOK through the posts on this site, one of the things that comes through strongly is the general complaint about NOT ENOUGH TRAINING. This is a difficult and dangerous job - the more training you get, the better a driver you will be. The CDL mills and bottom feeder companies will try to put you out on the road solo after only a couple of weeks. You are a danger to yourself and others with only that much training.

HUH??? What the F are you writing about??? This is complete BS. There is no such thing as "a forced lease" at Prime. Its also a violation of the lease (if you should choose to do so) to sub-lease a tractor.

I'm a company driver in the reefer division. I've been with the company 3 years this summer, and NO ONE has ever tried to dissuade me from driving on the company side. No one has ever tried to force a lease on me.

And exactly what would a JB Hunt driver know about how Prime works? Read the forums on JB Hunt... that's a good place to end a driving career according to what's been posted here.

The following is from memory... I haven't included all the details, and there may be some unintentional mistakes. If U2 or one of the other drivers would check this out, I'd be grateful.

Prime starts trainees at a guaranteed $500 or $600 per week depending on where you step into the program at. Once you're classified as a B-seat, the training pay is at the $600 per week level, or 12.5cpm for 5000-miles per week and over. That's training pay after you have a CDL... you're not an employee until you have one. Meals, room and board are covered while you're at orientation and training in Springfield or Pittston.

Again, depending on where you step into the program you drive solo as a company driver for 30 or 34-cpm to start. There's a fairly rapid jump to 36-cpm. Average miles have been in the 2500 to 2800 miles per week level. There is no charge to the driver to shield part of your compensation from taxation through per diem. There is also a fuel bonus for company drivers for turning in over 6.75 mpg... that's a minumum that must be maintained week-over-week. I believe (I could be wrong about this) that company teams split 52-cpm... 5000 to 7000 miles per week is reasonable from what I'm told. What does that boil down to? As a company solo I made $47k last year... miles are down a bit this year because of the recession, but when everything is said and done, it looks like I'm at just under that $46.5k this year.

I feel that Prime has treated me very well... my background is professional, so I'm used to being treated fairly well by employers. I have a great FM, who keeps me rolling as much or as little as I like. Home time has never been a problem, he does very well at getting me a load to the house whenever I desire it. On the company side, you accrue 1 home day per week out: You can take 4 days consecutively, and the minumum period between home time requests is three weeks. If you have a family emergency, the company will do its best to route you home immediately. This is no BS.

As far as recruiters are concerned, lets be real. Their job is to sell the company. As long as you don't read what you want to hear into what they tell you, you should be okay. My recruiter was very straight with me, and didn't oversell the situation. Your mileage may very here depending on who you get.

Overall, I've been satisfied with my experience at Prime. The equipment is good, anytime I've had a maintenance issue it's been dealt with. That's important. Even when things were very bad in the industry last year and during the beginning of this year, I didn't spend much time sitting in the truckstops waiting for a load. I can't say that about Crete, Trans AM, CRST and especially USA Truck - I can't say this from experience, but from what I heard in the truckstops, those guys were getting screwed royally. CRST and Trans AM are teams only. USA Truck to the best of my knowledge is bottom of the barrel... they may disagree with me on that.

Good luck with your career. Right now, all companies can be very picky about who they hire (well... maybe not Swift!) so in my opinion, you should try to get on wherever you can, get your training, and develop a good job history. 1 or 2 years at the same company will establish a track record, and you can go from there. Good luck.

 

And the trucking industry has an exemption from the federal wage-hour laws.