Prime in the NE

Firm but fair..........

 

I'd "google" (don't ya just hate that someone decided that's a word?) "MO DMV" and look for a link to the state office. You should find something there, or at least a way to contact them. If I had to guess, they'll tell you that they aren't in the printing biz...

You'll need the $150 to cover the cost of your DOT physical and the CDL permit. Other than that, room and board is supplied by Prime while you're in Springfield during training. The extra cash will come in handy if you exceed the dollar amount they allot for each meal at the cafeteria, and it's nice to have something available for yourself. There is a convenience store and a WalMart within walking distance of the Campus Inn. If you're careful with your money, it may be enough. Try not to spend at truckstops... everything is priced at twice what it costs elsewhere.

You'll see that this is good practice for when you get on the road - living as cheaply as possible. See the long answer below...

Good question! Prime (and I assume most if not all trucking companies) provide drivers with a way to deal with expenses going down the road. Its not cheap moving freight, and someone always has their hands in a drivers pockets for the privilege of doing your job. We purchase fuel through a COMDATA card that acts like both a debit card for a personal account, and a credit card for fuel purchases - two accounts on one card.

The debit side is funded through your payroll once your employed. By default your entire paycheck will be sent to it. You can have direct deposit, etc. I leave $100 on the card for expenses, and the rest goes to my checking account. Safe enough, yes? I try to stick to the $100 for myself each week.

On the "credit" side, you swipe the card for authorized fuel purchases and "additives" (oil, etc) as a company driver. L/O's do the same except they authorize their own purchases. Recognizing that there are other expenses on the road that only work well if a driver has cash in hand - tolls and scale tickets are the primary ones - the company provides you with an "advance ballance" that you can access when purchasing fuel for example. That's cash. Unless you can account for that via receipts tied to a purchase order that you submit for reimbursement, it comes out of your settlement each week.

A lot of drivers will take that cash advance, and use it for themselves. It comes out of your paycheck. What's worse, the miles tend to erase your memory of things after a week. Come Thursday when your settlement is available, a guy will mac33 the ballance and say, "WTF???!!! Where did my money go??" Mac33 is a computer-generated, sattelite delivered summary with no detail - like each and every advance; you need the full settlement (that's in the mail at home) or have that emailed to you to "know" what you did. The money went to the truckstop, restaurant, slot machine, etc that you don't remember spending that advance on. And you'll also note all the loosers who then say, "Prime screwed me!!!" Yeah, right. They need to look in the mirror for the cause of that little BOHICA-job.

I really try to stick to that $100, and only use an advance if I know I have a job-related expense coming up. I also really try to keep those advances small - $40 for example. If I pay a lumper some large dollars it comes as an advance, but that gets applied directly to the expense, and is reimbursed in my settlements.

That's how folks "prespend" their paychecks. Its a bad habit to get into, and will keep you perpetually poor.

No problem!

 

Here is a link to the MO CDL manual:

http://dor.mo.gov/forms/Commerical_Driver_License.pdf

If you don't want to print it you can just access online. My DMV said that they do not supply printed copies of the CDL manual. The only way to get it is online. It may be the same at the MO DMV.



Looks like IP posted while I was creating my post.

 

The other half went and got a manual from our state a few weeks before leaving for Prime. Once he got there, a MO manual was given to him. He says that they are basically the same, but the MO manual did a better job of going into detail.

 

You can take the PDF to Fedex/Kinkos and they will print it for less than 10.00, or so they say online.

 

Company drivers tolls are paid by Prime as long as it's part of the routing you're sent when you get dispatched. Lease drivers are reimbursed 28% of all of their tolls.