My experience with PAM - C1, and Driver Solutions

Here it the thing OP, if you were in 'finance' why the hell would you finance 6K+ of trucking school without researching in the least, who you are going to owe 6k or two years of your working life too? By the hour that is about the most expensive schooling out there. Their are a dozen ways to get in a truck cheaper, with less overhead, less risk, less fustration, more pay, then teaming in a training company. Appearently you didn't do your research or read your schooling contract in the least like most finance officer recommend, and you were in 'finance.'

While I appreciate your account of things at PAM, the fact is you replace PAM with any number of training companies and it would be the same.

Now, your hopping to USX because the trucks a PAM don't meet your standards. And the trucks are supposed USX? See how well you researched that?




The DOT says their is almost twice as many issues with USX trucks then PAM.

 

I just finished C1 a few week ago and I quit drinking and cigz some time ago but by my 5th week of training this place had me tookin a few....on my second and third state cdl test, mechanical issues (1st...broken mirror 2nd..air brake lockup & engine stalling) in middle of backing skills) with ended both of my attempts...
If it wasnt for me being in a nice hotel and having quality time away from my crazy woman id probably would have made the local news...But it was good practice for possible situations that are a real possibility once i hit the Big Highway...But s##ty equipment should not be the norm for the price we pay togo...But in the end I accomplished my objective...On to the next trick...Personally I would strongly advise to find a school where you can get individual attention and help in any area that you may struggle..C1 basically shows you 1x and throw you out the nest and you better grow some wings and learn how to fly before you hit the pavement...but i saw guys who couldn't spell their name and walk make it out..so to be fair its alot of studing and self motivation...4 to 6 week shotgun course

 

yahushua, ahem.... actually, all that you've written sounds like a typical carrier. This is the reason for turnover averaging over 100%. I have over 2,000,000 accident free miles over 20 years, with 10 carriers. They all suck. They all lie. They all cheat. They all deceive in the recruiting. And the margins are always so thin that profits have to come out of the drivers paychecks... paycheck theft. I am reminded of the song, "Gypsy's, Tramps and Thieves".
As an aside, my first carrier had six of us orientation graduates load up in a mid-size rental car after orientation about 5:00 pm and drive 10 hours to Sacramento, CA where the trucks were. We could not bring all our stuff, or even our bedding because the trunk was only big enough for each man a carry-on size luggage. But were promised our first load would bring us immediately back to home terminal so we could get our stuff. But that didn't happen. And I was kept in California where the towns and stores wont allow a truck to come on the property to do any shopping, so I slept on a bare mattress with no bedding or pillow for about a month until I could earn hometime. Theres a lot more, I could write a book, seriously.
But I have never seen anyone write up an expose' as intelligently as yours, I bow to you. I hope someday you will write a book.... may I suggest a title? How about, "Gypsy's, Tramps and Thieves"

 

current truck payments are $499/wk for 2016 Freightliner Cascadias with electric APU and about $450/mo for insurance (bobtail, full comprehensive and collision w/ $2500 deductible, occupational hazard and $300,000 life)
You also get 11 cpg off cash price at Love's and TA/Petro.

 

I went through c-1 Indianapolis and went to work for pam transport around 2003. Sounds like they haven't changed. In my opinion pam and c-1 (drivers solutions) are in bed together. C-1 hands them driver's, pam starves said drivers so they quit,driver solutions collects 7000 for breach of contract. And probably slides some Pam's way to fill in profit gap of low bid freight. I'm still trying to figure out how a truck driving school in Indiana has a Pennsylvania school cert. ( if I remember correctly)also my contract was printed on sample forms they didnt have the rights to.

 

Good read. Are you still with us express. Are you planning on staying in the industry?

 

i didn't got hired by pam after graduation due to unverify employment. I was ready b4 and still wanna work for pam but they are not intersted in me . Now after 4 months driver sol calling me and harrasing for collecting tution fees 6000. I have not got a trucking job yet due to no exp. How can I pay to driver sol if they couldn't get me a job which they said initially 12 months contract. I am depress .. guys any input.. i want to get attorney

 

If you have a CDL but no experience there are plenty of companies that will put you with a strainer for 5 five weeks until you go solo. Call (Swift) and talk to a recruiter. Swift isn’t a bad starter company.

 

I had been off work for 12 years, but driven before 7.5 years, old company would not take me back. So Driver Solutions was a good choice and Pam. I went to a Days Inn Ft. Worth, month before Covid-19 started, wasn't the Ritz but no worse than motel 6.

Attended 4 weeks of trucking school which if I was beginning student, I be worried, they really don't teach you enough, they prepare you to pass the exam and that's it. Most of the instructors should not been instructors, lack of patience. I already knew it be 4 weeks so I took full 10 days to memorize pre-trip, then off to backing passed that in a day, got to driving part, since I passed backing so fast, I didn't drive for a week watching other learn how to drive an automatic. Then my turn and rush to get me to exam cause school be shutting down due to Covid-19. I passed exam.

I took extra week off and mentor from Pam picked me up few miles from home. Mentor realized I had many more years of driving than him, It was a very fun experience of 2 weeks. I did need help on the electronics and GPS, but I had a good time.

Went to orientation at Irving terminal, now I understand orientation is now online, mine was 2.5 days of packed of information. Time to get my truck, I requested a Peterbilt and that's want I got with 124k miles on it. I took pics of scratches and bent parts and sent to cell number given. Inside wasn't bad at all, got a load and took off.

As with all new beginnings, there are bumps in the road, but I been here 6 months and the company is growing on me, my DM knows I will delivery on time and I get good miles. And yes, I had read all the stories about Pam as well, but life is all different with positive outlook, plus I had prior experience. I am a solo driver and most likely will become a mentor as I was in prior time a driver. Trucking is about picking up and delivering on time, many people can't seem to understand this is most different kind of life. Do the year and then think about your future, but Pam gets me home within a day of when I ask for it. And they will pay for 2/3rds of what I owe c1 after a year. Pay is much greater as team and it is not .20 split.

All the trucks I have seen is very good shape, breakdown within couple hours gets tires fixed, truck left at Peterbilt on off time was convenient.

 

It's not only a problem with fraud from C-1 trucking, the local judges are in on it too. They are actually killing people with their inadequate training and fraud.

2012 the economy crashed and I couldn't find a job anywhere- not even McDonalds would take me. I filled out applications all day. Finally C-1 trucking would take me. I went to their school in Indianapolis even though I was in Florida. Seems they put their school in a state where the local government is most favorable to letting them scam people. The Florida schools wouldn't take any more people- they had too many. I figured it's probably a scam because everyone is unemployed at the time why would they take me? But I felt I had no choice, I needed a job.

So they tell me that I will learn to drive a truck in two weeks. This was on the phone. I said that doesn't seem like enough time. They said most of their students are fine with two weeks but I can stay up to five weeks if I need it. Well that comforted me and because of this I went.

First week was all class room stuff. Second week was in the trucks. Only they didn't have enough trucks for all the students. It was December and five degrees out every morning in Indianapolis. That's not an exageration it was literally five degrees and warmed up to like 17 during the day. I just stood in the parking lot watching the trucks. They wouldn't let me go inside and be warm. I couldn't stay at the dingy motel they provided (which we pay for later). Because of DOT requirements I had to be in school, but since they didn't have any equipment that just meant standing in a parking lot for 10 hours.

I did a little over an hour of backing in two days. I told them I needed more training, they pushed me out anyway. Then three days of road driving. Mostly just slept in the back of the truck or sat there with other students watching someone else drive. I got maybe a little more than two hours driving on the road. They only had like three trucks running and about 100 students so you wait two days to drive a truck for an hour.

Then they told us all we have to take the CDL test. I said I wasn't ready and that I was told on the phone that I could take up to five weeks if I needed. They told me point blank that they do whatever they want and the law doesn't apply to them. Point blank: we commit fraud and there is nothing you can do about it.

I don't want to blame the instructors. They were cool. The instructors told me it was a scam and that nobody can learn to drive a truck in two weeks, but they need a job too. It's all coming down from the higher ups to just shove people through the school and to violate their own agreement. There were a few students that they let stay for five weeks, but not many. I guess whoever they felt the most sorry for.

There were a couple of guys who picked it up really fast and aced it. Naturals. Especially people who their whole family are truck drivers and they are already familiar with this, or maybe they drove a truck years ago. Two weeks worked for maybe 5% of the class. Everyone else was like wtf.

We got 5 tries on the CDL test. Fail it five times and go home with no CDL and a $5,000 bill from the school. And if you refuse to take the test on your second week, they also send you home. I passed on my third try. Not sure how considering I had basically no training. I guess the two hours on the road really helped. I couldn't back at all but somehow passed. They told me that I would learn how to drive a truck when I went out with my trainer- that their job was just to get me a CDL. That's not what they told me on the phone.

I went out with a trainer for Pam. Pam told me if I didn't like my trainer that I could request a new one and that I could stay out for longer than two weeks if I needed it. This guy didn't train me on anything. I almost wrecked trying to get my truck in gear on the highway and I'm crying for help and he's just laughing at me. He would sleep in the back while I drove all night, then when I slept he would drive. When I arrived somewhere and needed to back, he took the wheel and backed it for me and said we didn't have time for that. He was getting paid for my miles and his and I got $300 a week- $250 after taxes.

Later Pam was sued for violating minimal wage laws since $300 for 60 hours a week is well below minimal wage. I was in the suit and won- but I never got my money. When I called the lawyer they never answered the phone or returned my calls. The lawyer kept my piece of the settlement. It was only like $1,000 or something after it was split up every which way though.

Anyway, after two weeks of team driving with this guy he told me I'm ready. I told Pam I need to go out longer with another trainer. They told me no I don't. I'm ready and set me up with a team mate. Then we team drove. Almost got killed due to not knowing basic things like the wind will blow you off a highway, or to shift gear going down a mountain. I couldn't back a truck up.

Survival of the fittest is their strategy. They don't make money delivering loads. They make money charging people to go to their truck driving school, and secondly scamming people with truck leases. That's their business model- they make more money off the drivers than actually delivering loads. And because of this business model they drove load prices down so low that it's hard to make a living driving anymore. My grandpa made big money driving in the 1970s and 80s. I added it up and just straight drive time- not counting all the other work I'm doing or that I'm bouncing around in the back trying to sleep when I'm off the clock- I averaged about $12 an hour for every hour I drove. And I was one of the more successful ones because I had a team mate that had previously trucked and knew what he was doing.

Many people simply didn't know what they were doing, so took all day to back up a truck, also the Driver manager screws people by t-calling loads after you spent all day picking them up in Laredo. Then they would be late with loads and have to wait a couple days to get a new one. These people were making $150 a week or $300 a week then $50 taken out for the school. Almost all of them quit Pam before their one year contract was up. Several people died in trucking accidents. Read that again- the poorly trained students died from this!

I quit after about three months. 7 years later they sued me and garnishing my wages. I am in Florida and the suit is in Indiana small claims court. So I sent them all sorts of documents- complaints filed with the better business beruea etc. all kinds of people telling the same story I am- C-1 did not fullfill their end of the contract- they did not train me. they would not let me stay for the period of time they promised, and therefore I shouldn't have to pay if they didn't render service. The only thing I should pay for is two weeks in the dingy motel which they over charged me for.

The court sent the evidence back and said they didn't want it. They also didn't want to listen to anything I had to say. Every judgement is in favor of C-1. They don't even listen to you. I'm not sure how a court can ignore evidence but I guess they do what they want. If I was rich I could challenge it and take it to a higher court but I don't have the resources.

I went to truck driving school again at Tampa truck driving. Similar run down trucks, too many people etc. but I actually got some training. Hoping to get back in trucking. If I have to work a full time job and live homeless I might as well live in a semi, because America has become a third world country like that now.

Pam is an ok starter company. The pay is low, but basically every starter company has low pay. Some of them are a bit higher than pam but its not really a big difference. Pam gives bonuses and stuff. The issue is more in the fact that you aren't being trained to do the job. Pam did have new trucks and let us idle at night because normally we were team driving anyway. I'm sure pam gets some kind of kick back from C-1 though otherwise why would they use a school that churns out untrained employees?

Yes all those "three week" truck driving schools are bad, but C-1 is the worst of the worst.