Pam,Usa or the FFE group?

Well FFE is a a refrigerated outfit therefor you will spend alot of time hanging out in Grocery warehouses. On the flip side people have to eat.

 

Wish I could help you here, but I too am a female newbee. I have not attended class yet, but have signed up thru a training school. I guess it depends on where you live as to what terminals are out there close to your employer for one year. Remember, we have to go home sometime and most of these carriers prefer someone living in or near the city of their terminals. I have not seen any feedback on P.A.M., USA is based out of Arkansas (my son used to work for them) and I don't know anything about FE.

 

Forgot to tell you that even though I reside in Texas, I have to school in Fort Worth. All the costs are picked up by my future employer, including the 3 week housing. I have to pay for my meals, transportation from home to Ft. Worth and while in Fort Worth, then back home. I do have to come out of pocket for my license fees (about $70.00 and drug/physical tests). the catch, you have to stay with the employer one year. The beginning pay is low. Much lower than Crete (saw this on the forum, but I don't want to drive the East Coast highways), but I don't believe they are hiring us.

 

Food is not recession proof ,because when money is tight people eat far less ...this has the same effect tight spending does on any other freight .

 

Well, my husband was supposed to leave Sunday for USA Trucking. Had the bus ticket and was ready. He got called this morning by USA Trucking that his ticket was cancelled and they were sorry, the company has put a hiring freeze on as of this morning. May not hire again until after April. Just a short update.

 

good luck,iam going pamon monthe 2 of march, or should i say good luck to me?

 

I ran my ace off for this company(PAM), getting to the shipper way early and delivering days early or hours early at least, just to sit and wait. Rarely ever sleeping and running all night/day when i actually had a load, then when I get it there days early, i'd sit for hours or days.. sometimes w/little or no food, schiiting in Walmart bags and pisssssing all over the place because I'm no where near a Restroom. days without a shower because i'm stuck in middle of no where waiting or taking a crappy load to another middle of no where with little miles. Making a killing in layover pay(well not really, only 40$ a day). I'd even call dispatch and give them a heads up I would be there early so they can start finding something else although they acted like I was annoying them since now they have to find a load for me and get off their ace to work.

If I couldn't get it there a day early because they wouldn't take it early, I would almost always sleep backed up to the dock over night and unload first thing in ,morning, again alerting dispatch that i will be empty- again they couldn't careless and acted like they were annoyed.

I NEVER sat around playing w/myself like the guy trying to recruit PAM drivers is saying(CHIP). I would even call dispatch and alert them I would be there early or that i was empty. Did it do any good? Did it make them remember my trk#?, did planners take notice? HELL NO!!!! You're just a number w/these people and nothing else. Most of the time(not always but most) when I would call wanting to know when they would have something(i'd call several times and send messages via qualcomm), They acted like I was bothering them and would say things like, "nothing yet- sit tight" WELL that would turn into hours/night/days...
My biggest regret was just not doing a dedicated run because I think alot of this BS could have been avoided, but the only ones they would offer was chitty ones w/little miles. Is 1800 miles/week enough miles for you for a dedicated run? Well not for me.

BUT looking back, I should have taken the chitt they offered. Afterall, it was more miles then I was getting OTR but one would think you would make more miles just free running and out for weeks/months instead of PAM's chitty dedicated routes- Not the case w/PAM... For a month(4 weeks) I would average about 500miles one week, 950miles another week, 1500miles the next week and then a 2500miles the 4th week- and this was on a GOOD month! AND That's 2500miles one week per month not EVERY week like what the PAM recruiters will BS you. You will usually run one good week per month w/PAM(if that). AND anyone else telling you otherwise is either full of it, a PAM recruiter or a PAM driver trying to recruit new inexperienced drivers- Once hired, PAM will pay you a bonus if you refer new "naive" student drivers(suckas), such as CHIP is clearly doing on his "My Honest, no BS opinion" BS threads. He is all about lining his pockets at your expense..

WAS often told that I got the load there too early and since it wasn't suppose to deliver until next day or couple of days, that I would just have to sit tight since there isn't anything until a day or two sometimes 3 days or more(more layover pay)
Now, I know the economy is bad but it doesn't matter if you are a favorite. I never kissed ace or suked my driver manager off for more miles, rat on fellow drivers or back stab drivers for more miles or an empty trailer(like chip perhaps), but i was safe, on time(days/hours early)respectful and polite. Guess that wasn't good enough.

TRUTH is, in my no BS opinion, PAM has a small handful of favorites(the ones who suk dispatch rod or kiss ace) and the rest of us are up schit creek.. Doesn't matter how safe a driver you are or how early you deliver a load, PAM is ran by a bunch of good ole' boys. If you're black, mexican, arab, chinese, japp, city white(not country boy white) and not a arse kisser, then PAM will definitely F you up and you will be broke most of the time and stuck in MAss or PA for days freezing your ace off waiting for a load just because you got the load delivered too early and now you have to wait since they have nothing for you. Keep in mind that while you sit there and wait you need to Schittt, uurinate, shower, haven't had a decent meal in 2 or 3 days and you are out of Walmart bags/ water bottles. So now you must leave truck and look for a place in the weeds to relieve yourself, fending off insects and whatever else lurks in the woods. You just find out your out of toilet paper but just thankful you can finally schitttt after waiting for several hours.

AND to say you love going to NYC because of the 100$$ is nuts. You must be crazy-nuts or on drugs to want to risk your perfect driving record driving there, then trying to find a place to park waiting for another load(not a lot of parking options in NYC and cannot idle, so if it's cold you freeze for hours and you cannot leave NYC to find a place to park)... then being stuck in traffic for rest of day trying to get out of NYC... Which after the day is over, that 100$ doesn't seem like alot when you have been in NYC for 18 hours waiting around all day and fighting traffic.. Especially when you could have just been running a load for the day on the open road with decent miles and making much more. It's simple, not rocket science.
I'm no math wiz but I think that averages out to about 5$ an hour for your day in NYC- Helll, McDonalds workers will make more than that. So PAM can take their 100$ NYC bonus and shove it up their arsehole, just keep me running.

PAM loves to run you there(NYC)and yes you can refuse but once you do PAM blacklists you... Have heard this from other PAM drivers that have refused NYC and this is why I never refused NYC loads. Did it help me? didn't seem too because they keep running me there and New Jersey or back and forth up and down I-95 for months starving, filthy-dirty, broke, shcitting in grocery bags or on side of highways, feeling like a homeless person.
AND most of the docks in NYC are too small for a 18 wheeler to back into safely... several times I had to back to dock, blocking off half of the busy street(that was the only way they would load/unload me), stopping up the heavy,irate NYC traffic, getting flipped off by NYC yankees, rude cabbies and getting told to go "F" myself... and then sitting there blocking off half of the street while schitty, bad "Yankee" attitude warehouse workers take there time unloading/loading me, again getting flipped off, finger pointing and threats from cars passing by because street is all backed up. It can get pretty intense and dangerous but hey an extra 100$- REALLY? for all that schittt I just went through and wasting pretty much the whole day in NYC? SERIOUSLY?? 100$$???

SEVERAL PAM drivers have gotten into actual fist fights in NYC and of course fired promptly. PAM will not have your back(you are always in the wrong), especially since they hire from trucking school farms and start a new driver out w/much less pay- which saves them money. A win-win situation for PAM... You are easily replaced for whatever reason and forgotten. If you're looking for a Loyal company, PAM isn't the one. PAM only cares about PAM, saving money and could careless about you the driver that has a family to support. Hear me now and believe me later.
So yeah, you can keep that extra 100$ or give all the NYC runs to "CHIP" since he loves it so much and give me a decent load w/miles.
PAM really just needs to hire some shuttle drivers(in smaller trucks) that live in NYC to shuttle loads to and from a New Jersey PAM yard... but that will never happen. $$


A guy on here that goes by, "TREX" explained it best and why PAM loves bringing in new drivers and firing/layiing off drivers making top pay...

He(Trex) says, "PAM is parsing $500 and not a $1000 sign-on bonus.
Pam makes it easy to get started as a student driver but for every incentive on the front-end they have a device to quickly get it back. For example in addition to $45 being extracted from your pay for 44 weeks towards the students school tuition obligation of $1,495 (lodging included), $25 is also extracted and put aside into an escrow account (that they officiate) for 16 weeks when you go solo until the balance reaches $400. All this money that they control the newbie pays taxes on including any interest that may accrue. If you default they will keep this money that the newbie driver has already put in and paid taxes on. The PAM plan equates to losing $300 per month of net income for the first 4 months and $200 per month there-after. This loss of net income brings down the stated $.28 per mile as a solo driver to approx $.24, and only if the driver can log at least 400 miles per day (I've seen many complaints from others that state they don't get enough miles). Also noteworthy is the fact that once the student gets on the road for a non-stop period of 4-6 weeks with a company trainer, the daily income will be only $42.86 from which food and possibly occasional lodging will be utilized. I resent marketeers that prey on the unaware. In contrast companies like SWIFT (although their reputation is far from stellar) don't play such games (they don't take pay away and reimburse $125 per month for the CDL schooling loan) and present a more acurate view of things to come."

A win-win situation for PAM... AND if this isn't "shady" or misleading enough for you then you have your head up your ace so be prepared for chitty paychecks. Many weeks starting out, For a weekly paycheck I would receive 12$, 8$, 40$, 150$ and even negative paychecks- YES I would owe PAM money for a week.. BUT don't take my word for it.


Also when you call dispatch and they tell you something always get them(dispatch) to confirm it on the Qualcomm because if you do not, you will be considered a Liar and the person you talked to has no memory of the conversation you had with him/her the next day or days. For example, on a load going home I called my driver manager and asked if it was cool that if i got home a day early if i could go home and he said, "yes, no problem just be safe". Well when I get home, I send a drop call, drop my trailer and bobtail home... ALL of a sudden my Qualcomm goes crazy w/messages wanting to know why am I going home a day early when I requested the next day? and that I need to take a load two states away but i should be back tomorrow on my time off request. WTF????? I called and asked what was going on and was basically treated like a liar... and that no one said i could go home a day early. This is of course after my driver manager went home for the day(5 pm) and i was talking to whatever night dispatch idiot at 6:30pm.

I do agree with him(CHIP) about one thing, it is better having automatics in rush hour traffic. BUT it's kinda hard finding a "real" trucking job from a real company because they basically laugh at you when you tell them you worked for "PAM" and not use to shifting.

BASICALLY, REAL Truckers manually shift!

Hope this helps! but by all means go work for PAM and see for yourself! You can tell them I referred you!