Stevens or Prime?

I wouldn't base your decisions on where you train at. We're talking about a few months of a long career... if you can adjust to the OTR lifestyle. Prime runs a lot of freight in and out of Texas... we pickup down at the Dole terminal in Galveston on a regular basis. Prime's business model doesn't require terminals everywhere. We're dispatched from where we last went empty, to our next destination. Home time works like this: You request home time, the load planners find a load that gets you there. You deliver, drop the trailer at an agreed upon location, and then bobtail home in the tractor. Reverse the process on the way out.

 

Funny you mention it.

I was at a Houston drop yard earlier this week shared by many companies.

Must of been over a dozen Stevens drivers waiting bobtail or parked under trailers. No facilities in the drop yard and truck stops are about a mile away...

That was my clue they had no terminal in Houston

 

We have a few drop yards around the country, but just one terminal. All drivers and trucks are routed through it every ninety days.

 

Thank you for all the information...

 

Stevens may be the only company, rated lower than

prime.

Tough choice.

 

Come on numbers! Swift is worse than everybody. Well... except for every carrier you ever drove for. No wonder you have such a bad attitude!

 

Here is the thing... I am not a recruiter, I do not get paid to steer people towards Stevens. I drive for them.

So I can answer any questions you have, offer insights etc, but I will not sit here and tell you this is then company for you. Only you can decide that. I have never driven for Prime so I can offer no qualified opinion of them. When you ask a question like you did you are going to get answers from many who are only opining about things they heard but never actually experienced. You will also get the answers of "Come to Company A, that is what I did and it is great". These are usually people who, if they are not recruiters are trying to validate a choice they made that they on some .level are still not sure about.

Stevens does not work for everyone. The training is about as good as it gets. You can expect it to be close to 6 months before you hit the regular fleet. We do mostly long haul. The average length of haul company wide is 1500 miles. My average is around 1200. You will stay bout a good 5 weeks at a time before you go home. That is mostly due to the fact we run nationwide. I go across country as a solo driver in a week on two loads.

In am averaging between 800 and 900 a week gross. I am not going to be dining with Trump anytime soon, but I am far from Starving.

I once again yesterday declined an offer to become a trainer. I would make quite a bit more money doing that but money is not what necessarily drives me. If it were I would find a different occupation. I like the peace and solitude OTR offers and I have a bad case of wanderlust always wondering what's around the next bend.

What I am saying is Stevens works for me. Your experience may be similar, or it may be vastly different. As I said earlier I can offer no opinion on Prime.

Good luck with where ever YOU decide is the best fit. I hope you find your experience and pleasant as I have found mine.

 

Thank you Kmac. I've been approved for Stevens and go to Lone Star in Spring for training next Monday. I like Stevens and I don't mind being away for 5 weeks at a time. I'm looking as this as my final career. I don't need trump money either just money to pay the bills back home and for me to eat on the road.

What is your typical day?

The main reason why Prime has come up is the Tanker side as I might want to drive tanker later on as I live in Galveston.

 

Oh boy....typical day... not sure that even exists.

One of the most crucial skills you need to develop especially OTR is proper and effective trip planning. Planning your day so that you can make your delivery on time, safely and still have time for things like showering, laundry, eating etc.

The load will dictate your schedule and you will have to plan around pick up and delivery. Once you know those, you can plan your day, week, however long the run takes.

Typically I wake up an good hour before I plan on driving. I make breakfast, (I do almost all my own cooking in the truck), I will take care of the morning hygiene things and do a quick walk around PTI before I leave. I check the lights, make sure there is air in the tires and check underneath the vehicle for leaks and what not. I also check the temp on the reefer and the fuel level and make suge y 5th wheel is still locked around the kingpin. If all is good this takes about 3 minutes.

Then I drive, how long and how far all depends on the load, and the plan I have put together. After I park, I do a full Post Trip inspection and make sure there is nothing that will hold me up tomorrow.

In the midst of all this I need time to shower, fuel, eat, exercise, and relax. There is no pattern, it is whatever works that particular day. At home I prefer to showed in the morning, out here, morning, afternoon, evening, whenever I can fit it in the day.

You will see when you get out here just how flexible you will need to be and how there really is no such thing as a typical day.

I hope that helps shed some light on it for you.

 

If you love it, it will be the best. If you are just doing it as a job or just for the money, it will chew you up and spit you out and not think twice about it. Its hard but if it were easy it would lose its value.
Good luck to you