New to Prime INC - What to expect (Springfield edition)

Keep on spreading your website here.. Your gonna find yourself a quick exit out the door.

 

I am actively reviewing Prime's info on Trucking Truth and noticed that it said you could get a lightweight truck to get the additional 5cpm. But in reading these posts I get the distinct impression that it is automatically assigned to you. Just trying to get some clarification on this. It looks like I am on track to start CDL training in January.

 

Keep in mind that "Trucking Truth" has little to do with what is objectively the truth. It's mostly a lot of whining IMO.

There's pretty much no choice on this one... you go to the leasing office (they control all truck assignments whether you're an independent contractor or a company employee,) and company guys get assigned what they have. Without direct intervention by the Great Pumpkin, company guys get lightweight tractors. It is what it is.

You can get paid a great rate and drive a lightweight at Prime, or you can go somewhere else and drive a bigger machine- generally for a lot less money. That choice is yours.

 

Thanks for the direct answer, and I'm looking forward to working for Prime!

 

Hello everyone things are going quite well just a lil over 8000 miles so far for my tnt training , everything is going great tho i still got alot to learn my backing is getting better my trainer has been teaching me alot my experience has been awesome prime has been good to me they have a great training program glad i chose them for any newbies thinking about driving a semi i would definitely recommend prime inc well guys back to work for me, be safe drivers.

 

My first post in this thread... Well, it took awhile but I started on page 1 and made it all the way here. First of all, I'd like to thank Silent Eagle for starting this thread and contributing so much information (especially the first few pages). Thanks also to Iron Pony and Easy Steamer and so may others for all the valuable input. I have 15 years of OTR expreince but it was all prior to 2004 . Since 2004 I have been doing contractor work outside the country. That will proabably be ending at the end of this year and I am planning to return to trucking. Unfortunately, I no longer have my CDL and will have to pretty much start out on the ground floor again. I have been doing research now for almost 2 months and until the last few days I had my choices narrowed down to Con-Way Truckload, Knight Transportation, Prime Inc, and Tyson Foods. After reading though this thread, I think that Prime has the strongest hand bar none. I am planning to begin submitting my application in November and hopefully I can arrive in Springfield sometime after January 1 providing I am accepted. I plan on getting my CDL permit w/ all edorsements (minus HAZ-MAT) in Arizona before flying out to Springfield. Hopefully, I'll be able to get through the PSD and TNT phases in short order. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have too much of a problem. I look at it like riding a bike. Once you have done it awhile, you don't forget the basics. I'll probably be a little rusty but it'll come back I'm thinking. The biggest changes will be the HOS changes and E-Logs. I'm a 57 year old kid at heart (married kid that is) with my wife currently in the Philippines. I'm short (thus my handle Mouse given to me by my peers when I was driving convoys in Iraq). I like country music, don't smoke, don't chew, drink occasionally when I'm home on time off (current workplace is a zero tolerance policy 24/7) and my residence is in the Phoenix, AZ metro area. Hopefully, I'll get to see some of you out on the open road next year. Questions in regards to the 2 phases of training (PSD and TNT)... 1. Is it possible to get the same person for both phases or is it split? 2. Can a student "request" a L/O for training? I'm just not sure if I want to do the L/O or not but being with one during the PSD and/or TNT phases could help me decide. Thanks again everyone for the "wealth" of information. I'll be checking on some other threads as well. Mouse

 

Thanks Highway 101, yeah yesterday I was reading a thread that IP started for L/O. He is very well informed and I may be able to have at least most of the $3000. he recommends having when you start up. I'll just have to wait and see. When I drove before (1988 - 2004) most of it was as a solo driver. My Ex-wife and I tried the O/O thing with another carrier (used Prime truck) but it just had so many breakdowns we couldn't keeep rolling. I will say we did prety well (financially speaking) when we were available for dispatch and we didn't run that hard. Maybe 4-5K miles per week. I also had 2 stretches as a trainer with 2 other companies with each stretch about 1.5 years so if I go with Prime (and it's looking like I will-if they'll have me), once I have been with them long enough, I may do the PSD/TNT trainer thang.
I'd really like my wife to join me but she is 60 and she has never driven. Anything. Not even a bicycle. So as you can imagine, I am extremely apprehensive about that. If I could get my son in law (who works in Singapore) to get his Visa to the US, he has indicated he might be willing to join me. That would also be good because Mom and daughter and granddaughter are still living together so all the money would go to the same household and instead of me footing 90% of all expenses, we could split them 50/50. The 2 of us driving as a team could do pretty well I think.

 

Singapore? Yep, been there, done that. Lived downtown, worked in Ang Mo Kio. It'd be a nice day to spend up on Newton Circus!

Don't forget about the couple of years that's really necessary as an apprenticeship. It's knowledge and cash that makes the L/O thing work.

 

Myself, I've never been to Singapore. Almost went though. Back in 76 on my one and only westpac cruise we were headed to Singapore when we wre re-routed to Guam as a hospital ship after they got hit by a super typhoon. (I think the typhoon was Pamela but I'm not sure). My wife is in the Philippines and my son in law (working in Singapore) is also from the Philippines. Funny thing, all the time I spent in PI and then I meet my current wife in Kuwait but she is Filipina. Small world heh? Well, next year we'll probably get to see what she thinks of life in a truck and then go from there. Right now she sees me for about 2.5 weeks every 4 months. If she stays at home (in the US) and I'm driving, it sounds like she'll see me about 4 days a month.