Drivers' experiences with PAM Transport Company

Make sure u get informed on Central cause I spoke with a driver yesterday who was with them and told me they paid 30cpm but 8 of those cents was per diem... So Idk bout u but I rather get my money back at the end of the yr instead of getting it upfront n then having the IRS bill me later...

 

Yea i know about the per diem pay, I've been down that road when i was painting years back and you shouldn't have to pay taxes on it because its reimbursment for expenses. My uncle drives for them and i talked to him for about an hour last night. he stays out 8 weeks at a time and gets good loads, likes his dm and is planning to stay with them when his year is up. he is even thinking about leasing a truck if they honor their agreement to start reimbursing him the money they took for school over his 2nd year but i told him what I've been reading about company leases and suggested he wait a couple years and go through a dealership.

 

As I said you can always apply for other jobs while working at PAM and quit and go someplace else. I quit PAM after three months and starting with schneider now. But before I started with PAM I read all these horrible stories online about them but was like "I can't find a job anywhere else so this is my only choice really". When I went to upgrade there were people quitting PAM that said "the $300 a week I made in training was the biggest check I ever got and I have been here 3 months (or six months for some) and so on" other people had been with pam for 6 or 7 years and quitting said it isn't a bad company to start out at in as long as you move onto something else in a year, but not a good company for experienced drivers. So I was pretty nervous about all these people saying they made $150 a week. I went on the road and never had a paycheck smaller than $700 when I worked the whole week, and we weren't even getting good loads. My partner said he was making $1,000 a week with his old partner. The lowest I netted was $400 when I took most of the week off and $600 when working. So I started to ask around, why all these people complaining they aren't making anything. I was told they drive two hours, take a break, drive an hour, take a break etc. always have late loads etc. I saw PAM drivers that couldn't back at all and would just drop a trailer in the middle of the yard for the yard dog to get. What I saw were a lot of bad drivers blaming PAM. True part of it is PAM should invest more in training, but we are all adults here and need take responsibility for ourselves.

C-1 was the worse part. I feel like I barely survived that school as a lot of people don't make it through the school (maybe 10%). The school IS shady. I had a really nice hotel but some of the C-1 schools put people up in rooms with leaking roofs and moldy carpet. The training at C-1 barely exists because there are so many students and so few instructors, trucks etc. The trucks are breaking down constantly But they are just there to teach you enough to pass the CDL exam. Well half the class was sent home the first day for failing the physical but after that only about 90% got their CDL. But most of those people that didn't make it are really slow or older people. Still the vast majority did make it even if it was really hard, boot camp style crash course. Went to orientation, went on the road etc. it really wasn't that bad. They gave us loads, we drove them and I got paid. There wasn't anything shady, or anybody ripping me off. It was just a job, either you like it or you don't. Sometimes we sat for 10 hours waiting on a load. You know what I did. I took a nap or watched a movie. It allowed me to reset my clock if I sat around. You have to do a reset every so often by law anyway.

The main reason I quit PAM was I did not like doing teams. Also I was given a three month temporary liscence. I went home for three days and wasn't able to get it transferred to my home state for reasons I don't understand (weird rules). I put in my time off again and my partner went in and changed it without telling me. So my liscence was about to expire while I was on the road and I wanted to quit doing teams anyway so I took a greyhound home and switched my license over.

PAM will actually pay you I believe its $50 or something the first day you show up. You get $300 that first week. And guess what- you get paid every week. So when I went on the road I thought I would miss a check, because its held back a week. PAM actually paid me another $300 while on the road driving (plus got paid that during training). So I never missed a check. Then when I quit I was still getting paid about two weeks after I quit since the checks are held back. That is some horrible greedy company out to screw the drivers right?

I also heard people saying "PAM makes all kinds of money off us, they get like $2 a mile we drive and pay us .30 cents" or something like that. Dude- that is every company. All businesses work that way. They are there to make a profit.

As well I even got a giant duffel bag for free from PAM, they fed me well in orientation. They paid me to sit around and do nothing for several days during upgrade. I mean seriously if this is a horrible trucking company, I'd love to see the good ones. I'm used to working for slave wages in fast food, warehouses etc. I even went to college and have an associate degree and can't find work with it because of hiring freezes right now.

 

Still sound like a recruiter to me.... Not saying that what ure saying isn't true, just saying that u always seem to try and write all the bad first and then say why you should sign up... Your tactic doesn't work on me sir