My honest, no BS, opinion of P.A.M.

PSS HEY YOUR FIRST MONTH OF TRAINING WITH PAM WILL BE OUT OVER THE ROAD... YOU MAY NOT COME HOME TILL THAT TRAINING IS OVER.
just a fyi...

 

They do not take the money out of your paycheck till you become a first seat driver. And when they do start taking the money out, its $45 a week for tuition and another $25 a week for an escrow account (till the escrow acct reaches $400).
Id recommend a cobra25 till you can save up enough money to get a Galaxy979 or something of that equivalent.
As of a few weeks from now, all driver trainers will be required to be OTR, nothing dedicated. Not sure why they are doing that though. And once you are on your own, rather teams or solo, its just pure luck getting a decent dedicated run. I lucked into a 3-2 dedicated run from irving tx to strasburg va running teams. It was really good miles, but very tough. 1265miles each way. But they outsourced to mexico. now stuck on a dedicated route that only is 938 miles each way, and though its a 3-2, it almost always cancels at least one run a week.
Its sad that they got rid of the choctaw name. Choctaw was a really good company before PAM got ahold of it.


And my honest opinion of PAM.... Its like the walmart of trucking companies. They dont pay very well( pay has gotten even worse for new drivers since ive started), a lot of your dispatchers could care less about you, their insurance is far from the best, and you have to put up with a lot of bs. And i should know walmart - worked there for 3 yrs. But as far as getting into trucking for a rookie, you could do far worse, esp if you get involved with a company that forces you into a lease purchase option.

 

PS. God help you if you are based out of or ever have to deal with the company shop in Irving.

 

Thanks, I already knew that. I fully expect to be gone from home for long lengths of time. I'm not saying I will love being away from my family but it's just the sacrifice you make when you get into the OTR business.

I have no idea whether I will drive for PAM for 1 year or 10 years. My goal at this time is to get my CDL and get the OTR experience that is required to get jobs with other companies.

I have a Cobra 19 that I used to have in my pick-up. I figured it would do for short-range use as I plan to do more listening than I do talking.

At this point, I still haven't decided on whether I am going through Central or DS/PAM for several reasons.

1) For a beginner, I would rather drive a manual truck to get the experience. Only a handful of companies are using autoshifts. Central uses 9 speeds.

2) Central pays more than PAM and PAM takes $45/week out of your check for school while Central only takes $25. BUT, Central deducts from your check for lock & kingpin and load locks and who knows what else. Besides the schooling & escrow account - I don't know what PAM deducts if anything.

3)Location: The Central school & terminal is about 75 miles from my home while I would have to take a Greyhound to Arkansas to go to DS/Pam's school.

 

Also, does PAM offer direct deposit?

 

PAM offers what i like to call indirect deposit. In other words you give them a cancelled check like for a normal direct deposit, but instead of them putting it in your bank account, you have to call comdata every friday after 8am ( the time the money gets put on your card), then go thru the comdata menu system to get them to deposit it in your bank account. The money does not usually hit my bank account from my comcard till monday, sometimes tuesday of the following week.

 

Thanks, that kind of sucks but it's better than no direct deposit of any kind...

 

Better than nothin..

 

i am out of the irving yard but i have a decated run to al. 4 or 5 times a week i think i got lucky.
hey ice what is so good about the galaxy 979 ? what kinda range verces say the cobra 29 ltd

 

Do any current or former drivers care to share the deductions that PAM may induce on us unsuspecting drivers?

I know about the $45/week for schooling and $25/week for escrow plus 5% pre-tax but some other companies (over)charge drivers for items such as lock & kingpin and loadlocks, etc. Does PAM do this as well?

Also, I like the fact that per-diem is an option with PAM unlike some other companies.