My Pride Transport thread as a newbie

I only found two threads about Pride online so I figured I'd post my own about my experiences, the good, bad, and the ugly as a brand new (sorta) student.

My background, I worked under a year for Central. My plan was to stick it out with them for a year and then come to Pride but I found out they take brand new rookies with their CLASS A with no prior experience.

Orientation was 3 days (more like 2.5), I flew in to SLC, they reimbursed me my first day of orientation for flight and luggage fees. Another guy I met drove in from Idaho and they reimbursed him for his gas (obviously you need to provide receipts.

In our class there were 7 of us total, 3 are students, 2 actually worked for Pride before and they both had nothing but good things to say about this company which made me feel at ease.

Day 1, went to the clinic did drug test and DOT physical, everyone will have to do this no matter how recent your last DOT card. Then went over company pay, safety and few minor other things.

Day 2, went over Driver Tek (their version of qualcomm), A LOT better than the old pos qualcomm I've dealt with, much more simpler and high tech. Fuel guy came in, shop director came in, I really like how they're transparent about how the company runs and they go into great detail about it (not just what we drivers need to know but they disclose a lot more than they need to imho).

Day 3, HR ladies came in gave the insurance speil, toured the facility, met Jeff and Jay England (ceo, and president) as well as everyone else (finance, hr, sales etc). As others posted on their threads, I was impressed how Jeff took time to talk to each and everyone one of us, never met any of the higher ups my entire time at Central. They literally have an open door policy.

The experienced drivers got their truck assignments and are off, I'm waiting at the motel for my trainer so I'll update once I get rolling.

The company itself isn't a megacarrier which drew me to them, I believe they have 407 tractors, they post all the drivers photos on their wall, I think they only have 4 students currently on the road hence why I decided to post my experiences from that angle since I don't think anyone else has.

Student pay breaks down to $350 a week for the first month, then $700 a moth for the last 2 months (I know, crazy huh 3 months of training).

Other relevant info, I'm staying at the sleep Inn, you get a room to yourself, comes with fridge and microwave, also the motel gives you breakfast, company provides a decent lunch everyday for orientation, dinner you're on your own.

And no I'm not a recruiter lol, they only have two, Jo and Diane, two very nice ladies who actually answered the phone every single time I've called.

forgot to add, orientation is not paid, well for students I guess it is since our training is started, students get paid every wednesday. Company payroll is everyday m-f which means if you turn in your bills by 10AM, they pay you the next day

 

Meh, hate all you want, I'm just glad I found a co. that seems to be a lot lesser of the evils, all the drivers I spoke with seemed more than content, freight line always goes thru where I live so I'll get ample hometime, I can't complain.

 

Thanks, Central wasn't a bad starter company, they treated me fairly, obviously the pay sucked but we all have to put in our dues right.

 

lol sorry, you're right. It's 350 a week for the first month then $700 a week for the next two months

 

It's 10 cents per mile per diem. Ex: run 1k miles, at .34, you get .10 x 1,000 (miles) which is a $100. then you get .24 x 1000 which is $240. that $240 is taxable so assuming you're in a 15% tax bracket it's 240x .15 which equals 36

so 240-36(what you're losing in taxes)+100 = 304 (take home pay) as opposed to the non per diem 340x.15=51 340-51= 289. Now I'm not arguing per diem is good by any means, just trying to explain it.