Prime Inc driver thread

Brave to b standing outside your truck while the driver next to you is moving, I have never done that after seeing a guy get hit last year on my 1st run ever for my old company.

 

One way I stay out of the Northeast is I put a home request for SLC every two weeks even I don't take time off.

 

Haven't been in the NE in 2 months.

It seems to cycle for me. I'll get up there and get 2 to 3 loads and then I won't be back for a couple months.

 

I was out of the truck before the other driver was moving. she was quicker then i could get back in the truck and close the door. as soon as i reached for the door thats when the trailer caught it.

thats what i had to do this time. you from hawaii huh? i think i talked to you at the iron skillet in bordentown.

same here. most of the time. but this last time i just could not get out of there. i dont mind coming up here for a week but any more and i start going crazy.

 

I do a lot of NE... doesn't bother me.

 

I'm trying to understand the process I'll be going through.. I have my CDL and should begin training for Prime in March of next year.

How long should I expect my training to take? If I'm reading everything correctly we "train" for 30k miles. Is there a limit to how fast I can hit that mark? Do they force us to go home every couple weeks? I wouldn't mind doing my 30k miles without going home.

Once I'm done with training and on the road, I get my one day of "home time" for every week I'm on the road. Can I choose to stay out for 7 or 8 weeks and take a vacation somewhere for a week?

How long until the wife can ride with me?

Thanks for the help.

 

About 2 months, or so. I'm not totally sure how the system will work for an inexperienced driver with a CDL since they changed the mileage requirement - so it would be great if you'd report back on it.

Mostly it depends on freight. We don't go zooming around the country just lookin' at the scenery! But throw into that holidays, hometime (you're trainer might need some,) maintenance downtime, etc.

No... you don't have to go home at all.

You can take hometime when and where you like. On the company side, they want you to be out a minimum of 3 weeks, but you can only use a maximum of 4 days each time. That being said, you can usually stretch things out a bit - the day you deliver doesn't count (especially if the appointment is 1AM,) set your projected availability time for say Sunday - and you can usually count on not having a load until Monday morning but that's rolling the dice. You also get a week of paid vacation every 125,000 dispatched miles.

On the lease side, you can take as much hometime as you can afford - but the fixed costs don't stop just because you do. Practically speaking, even on the company side, you sacrifice some money when the wheels stop turning, so there is the financial side of things to consider.

It depends on how long it takes you get through training totally, and get upgraded to A-seat.

 

These foreigners Prime is hiring is really starting to annoy me. Three different times I picked up a trailer with problems a driver knew about and dropped the trailer anyways. This all happened this month. And all three times the driver was Simalian. Most recent the driver leaves a trailer with an empty fuel tank and two flat tires. Thank God for the new policy Prime has now. The driver is going to have to pay for the tires and the service call and the time I was shut down waiting to get the tire fixed. And he is being routed into safety also. This will be wrote up as a safety incident. From what I was told he will be paying around $1,500.00. Maybe this will educate the driver not to be so lazy next time. So much for my rant
On dealing with morons. LOL

 

March? You have your CDL now?

I hope you have a job with that CDL... March will be too long of a gap for Prime to accept you if you have your CDL now and no experience between now and then.

Prime will only take INEXPERIANCED CDL school grads within 6 weeks of graduation (maybe 8)

Otherwise they will tell you to go elsewhere for experiance, or have you surrender your CDL and start over in their school.

If you do have experience, just not working now with your CDL, I would check on that too... There is a point they wont take you without recent OTR experience.

 

When I called Prime I was told that I would need a CDL refresher course that was at least 15 hours long, 10 of those in the truck. I've already checked with my school and setup a course date for February.