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My recall isn't as good as yours, IP... but I know he didn't rattle many chains about the trainer while still on his truck. He was a new driver assigned to an experienced trainer, and he didn't want to come off as a complainer. He need the job, so he sucked it up and put in his miles.

Interestingly though, shortly after being assigned his own truck... and after having asked his FM periodic basic procedural questions, the FM asked him the name of his trainer and former FM. Jack's a quick study, and I think after recognizing this, his FM saw there was a problem with his training.

 

well change of plans looks like i will be going to orientation next week if they will give me another bus ticket ,my grandma was following me to bus station this afternoon and she got t-boned and needless to say i missed my bus so hopefully when i call julie in the morning she will get me set up for orientation next week

 

thanks for the incuurgement pony it makes me feel much better about a co that cares. that whole issue with werner well really made me think about the whole training thing all over again.but with what you all say i think ill be fine lol.as for the 60000 hey im fine with it i see it as alittle more comfort in getting to learn like you said.all i want is to have fun and take care of my wife and 3 boys and make a living.but you guys be safe have a good night and talk to you soon by the way i leave 5/10/10 30 hr bus ride lol sounnds fun hahaha

 

Well, my memory could certainly be wrong on this one, but being that Prime is a really large company any more it's quite possible that a poor outcome could be the case. Lets face it - the company depends on a trainer to carry out the instruction and supervision of a trainee out of sight of their management chain. Quite a bit of the whole deal depends on the character and integrity of the trainer, so you know that a "poor outcome" could occur given the large numbers of trainers and trainees involved. It certainly could be that a trainee is doing his best to implicate a good trainer in something that hasn't happened just to cover the treinee's own improprieties as well. In my opinion Prime does a pretty good job of training overall - and that's to the credit of both the company and the professional drivers doing the training.

I think that any person in the position of a trainee is going to - at some point - realize that they have to "suck it up and put in their miles." My relationship with my trainer wasn't always perfect, and I certainly did the same. OTOH, I got some very valuable experience out of it, and I feel that I was a much better driver at the point that they turned me loose. What this guy describes I certainly feel is a very unusual situation - I don't often hear training horror stories coming out of Prime, certainly not as frequently as I do from some of the other large training companies. Admittedly these "stories" are anecdotal at best, but some (including this one) certainly may be true.

No doubt!

 

Good luck! My experience with Prime has been positive overall - I work with good people, and make good money. BTW, don't even remind me of the pleasures of "being a flea on the grey dog." ARRRGH! That's an experience I'd just as soon avoid any time soon!

 

I think this is the case, IP. He simply got a crappy trainer and needed his job too much to risk making a lot of waves. Talking with other drivers on the road, he's glad he toughed out his training and stayed with Prime. They seem to be well-organized and treat him fairly.

 

Cool, glad to hear it.

Goes back to how do you measure the character of a potential trainer? When you think about it drivers vary all the way from Joe Dirt Ball to some very fine professional individuals - unless the trainee has the courage to provide the feedback, Joe just keeps on giving the rest of us a bad name...

 

Earlier this month, I ran into a guy in the terminal that I considered instructing but didn't because he smoked. His instructor was taking 4 days of hometime in Michigan, and dropped him in Springfield to wait for him to come back (I have a problem with instructors taking hometime with a student, it's 4 weeks, take it before or after, but taking it in the middle of their instruction can really screw things up if they forget a bunch of stuff while you're at home, and have to relearn it). Anyways, he told me a story about how his instructor got mad at the QC, and punched it shattering the screen. He said he was worried that he might get mad at him, but was afraid to go talk to anyone because he didn't want to make waves. Long story short, me and another trainer got him up to talk to one of the heads of the training program and they took him off the truck no problem. If he hadn't gone and told the training heads about what happened, this instructor would have been able to take more students out.

 

sorry to hear about your accident,julie is my recruiter too, and I will be attending orientation on the 5th of May,see you there.

 

Just to mix things up a bit on this thread, I will say that my trainer and I got along great. Was he perfect? No. I would have liked some more backing experience. And he didn't teach me a lot of the miscellaneous things like how to do paperwork as a company driver as he was a lease driver. When I got my own truck, I didn't even realize I couldn't fuel wherever I wanted.

But all in all, I couldn't have asked for better. I still remember the day I was supposed to meet him. My dispatcher brought up his picture on the computer and he looked liked the scariest, meanest lookin' redneck at the company! I was already nervous about sharing a truck with a total stranger for 4 months, but seeing his picture made me even more worried.

Finally we met in person. Dispatcher bought us lunch to talk and get to know each other. The first week or so, while we got along just fine, was still a bit uncomfortable as we still didn't really know each other that well. Can I curse in front of him? Is he crazy religious or not religious at all? What kind of jokes can I make in front of him? So we got along, but we weren't anywhere near friends yet.

Let's just say by the end of the 60,000 mile training period, we were farting in front of each other, every other word was a swear word, making jokes that we'd never tell in front of our mothers, and actually became pretty darn good friends. To this day, I still talk to my trainer on the phone at least once per week, and we keep tabs on each other and have met up on the road a couple times. He keeps buggin' me to team up with him. And it's something I've seriously considered and might do if he lived a bit closer to me (he actually is a redneck from South Carolina.... just turns out he's not so scary ).

Training at Prime for me was a great experience and one I'll never, ever forget. Having the company of somebody when I went in to eat, crossing the entire country in two days, having somebody there to help me when I screwed up, learning something new every single day....it was a great experience and I couldn't have asked for better.

So those of you who are worried about the caliber of training at Prime, remember that those of us who had a great experience usually just aren't as vocal about it on the forums. You're going to be nervous when you first meet your trainer and it'll take a week or 2 to really get acquainted, but your experience could very well be a very positive one like it was for me.