PAM Driver - Ask me anything.

Tuesday morning we spent some time on route planning and seeing some choice images of folks that let GPS units tell them where to drive thier big rigs. Then we heard from the fuel management guy who outlined ways to be as efficient as possible and what the benefits of those efforts are, to the company and to ourselves. I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised to hear about the driver incentives for keeping their metrics in the green. I'm not a Harley type of guy but I dang sure won't turn it down if I won the annual drawing of which I can earn entries for just by being in the top 40% of my peers. We spent a while on HM232 and the dangers of phones/texting while driving, then later the Smith System and more general safety.


Tomorrow myself and the other refresh driver in my class will do a road test, while the rest of the class splits into 2 groups, one doing range work and the other getting some classroom time on equipment. Thursday the 2 groups will swap.


So far, I'm not at all regretting my choice. P.A.M is a training company than is growing and from what I can see, someone totally new to professional driving will get a good start here. They are giving folks the information they need to get started in this field and if the OTR training is up to the same standard these folks should have no excuse for failure. But you know the story about horses and water.


I just wanted to mention than the 2 week OTR training is a minimum and not a hard and fast rule. Any trainer/mentor that wants to spend more time with a student can and will do so. But, if the trainer/mentor doesn't think his student is capable of upgrading after 6 weeks, then its "thanks for trying and good luck".

Also, I think I read something somewhere (maybe it was this thread) about P.A.M. caring about safety only in as much as they'll fire you if you screw up. I'd like to comment about that a bit. Firstly, I genuinely believe that any trucking company cares about the safety of their employees, by necessity. Unsafe practices can bankrupt a trucking company or at least get them in hot water with the government regulatory agencies which will cost them money as their problems will be made freely available to their customers. However I understand where comments like this come from. Many a driver has at one time or another had some 22 year old third shift dispatcher ask a driver to do something unsafe or blatantly illegal. Drivers I think sometimes take these requests and make incorrect assumptions about them. Assumptions like: this is the normal way things are done. I would love to see evidence of a P.A.M driver who when asked to do something unsafe or illegal replied "sure I'll do it, just have someone from Safety send me the request over the Qualcom" and actually got such a request from that department.

 

Starting with pam after going through training. Been off the road for about 4 years. Can't get a straight
answer about the cdl school. Going to Indianapolis on my dime and then sit there for 3 weeks while others get their cdl. I'm fine with that but then they say I go home and then pam calls me for orientation. Some people have waited weeks before getting in. I'm not saying I know everything about driving but 3 weeks is a bit much without knowing when I will be in orientation. Could you ask some people in class if they came right from school? If they did go home how long did it take? Thanks

 

Has anyone gone through the training in Indianapolis? If you have what do the guys that came with a cdl do? Did you go directly to orientation from the school? If not was that by choice and how long did you have to wait? Just worried driver solutions is trying to get me there to have me sign papers and then I owe them money. Then after training they try and get me in with pam. Don't need my cdl and there are a bunch of companies out there. Not paying 6 grand to sit in a hotel for 3 weeks in Indianapolis and drive a truck around a parking lot a few hours a day. Any info will be helpful thanks

 

I spoke to a couple of drivers in my class, and I think many of my classmates that came from a TDS had to wait a week or two before coming to AR for orientation. I did hear that a couple of guys had CDLs and had to go to a TDS and basically just hung out and did nothing. If you have your CDL and at least some experience I'd call Lavonna. Her number and email are here.

Wednesday I did the road test which really wasn't a test at all. I spent most of the day on the range with my 1/2 of the class. The range consists of 3 "lanes" of a straight backing exercise, a serpentine and a 45 backing exercise. To be honest I really didn't see much teaching from my range instructor. He'd tell folks "turn this way or that" or "get under it" but really didn't explain the whys or go into the mechanics of what happens to the alignment of the tractor and trailer when you turn your steers while backing. Also, what they call a 45 is not a 45 and what they are teaching will be of little use at many of the customer locations you see out on the road. The training trucks were fairly new and in good shape.

 

Thanks for the info. Think I'm going to go with another company. Have left lavona a couple of messages and have not heard anything back. If I only do a refresher they would have to pay me more because my past driving would count. Don't think it has anything to do with safety but money. Drove local NYC with jb hunt for 6 months and did 2 years otr without a single ticket or accident. Don't think driving around a parking lot for an extra week is going to do anything. Understand a week of training then 2 with otr trainer but 3 weeks around a parking lot is BS.

 

Ya think .175 is bad? Try .10 that's not a typo. Won't say with who till i get few more months And move on.

 

I'm going to guess CRST.

 

It's Sunday, I am in a motel (Super 8 in Little Rock where I will spend today and tomorrow and meet my trainer tomorrow afternoon. So far I have had a good experience with P.A.M. Even the bus ride from Springdale to Little Rock was very tolerable. If this company will keep me rolling and not cheat me out of any pay I expect I will stay a while.

 

This might be a silly question, but What is the smoking policy in PAM Trucks? I am leaving for school in 2 weeks and thought I should ask.

 

They allow it. And you'll likely be teamed up with a trainer that smokes.