Should I go with PAM?

Hey there.. I went through the Indianapolis campus of Driver Solutions almost 3 years ago, and I had all the same questions you did.. so I'm going to answer them the best way that I know how!

1. I'd recommend bringing about $200 to spend on food, depending on your eating habits. If you're one of those guys that wants to eat out every single day you're there, you'll use all of that. I recommend doing some grocery shopping beforehand and bringing soup, spaghetti o's, etc. with you (that cuts down the $$ you'll need). They also give you $200 while you're there to help out with that.

2. PAM lets you bring your truck (just the tractor, you won't have a trailer) on your days off. You won't have to leave it at a dropyard or anything, as long as you have a safe/big place to park it, you're home free! No moving necessary

3. The NJ move wasn't a layoff, it was actually moving one of their subsidiaries' headquarters (Decker Transport) from Parsippany NJ to North Jackson, OH. The only people who lost their jobs were office staff that didn't want to/couldn't move. So didn't affect their drivers much at all

4. You're surrendering the license in your state and receiving a new license in the state you're training in. Once you graduate and you get your CDL from MO, you'll go back home and have a certain time period (I think it's 90 days for most states) to transer the license back to IL. Takes like half an hour max at the BMV and is easy to do. That way, you'll be able to train in MO but then will get your IL license back when you go home.

5. Not too sure about their benefits, I drive for USA Truck and I know that their insurance and the deductibles, coverage, etc. are a lot better than ours. So I'd be willing to get something like that for myself eventually when/if I switch companies.

Good luck to you, and hope you're not too nervous

 

You will find through out this forum several posts I've made singing the praises of starting off my career with PAM Transport. Like you, I lived in IL and got my CDL from a MO school. PAM never made me change my CDL's to IL. I finally did it on my own some two years later, even though I had lived in IL the entire time.

As the previous poster said, they will let you bring the tractor home with you. Also, they never once made any complaints to me about driving the tractor to Wal-Mart to stock up the truck. I also took it camping one time (only 50 miles away) and they never once complained about it or even said anything about it.

PAM is a great place to start off and, if you like it there, I don't see any reason for leaving the company. I left them for the whole "grass is greener over here" BS I bought into from a friend of mine. One thing I've learned, when it comes to the large OTR carriers, they aren't all that different. They all have treated me the same over the years.

PAM's benefits are pretty dog gone good. In fact, I once used their insurance for a standard check up at my doctor and wasn't charged anything. The doctor's office asked me to pay 50% of the bill up front, then about 6 weeks later they sent me that money back stating that the insurance paid for it all.