Prime and life on the road

I ask for no referrals. I only post the truth as I see it as a company driver. Personally, I'm doing well - miles down 16% over last year, money a little better than last year. None of it from referalls.

 

Ironpony I noticed you only responded when I hurt your feelings not to the real issues of the other two post you know the rip off fuel surcharge that they base after our discount and the 800 extra trucks.

 

A more detailed response is furthur down.

 

U2Exit,
Are you by chance a trainer? I will be starting orientation on Wednesday, and I am curious. Do you know how long between orientation and when I will get a trainer? Thanx

 

You didn't "hurt my feelings" - you did make an unwarranted accusation that is baseless in fact.

And you're right - I didn't respond to the other posts, because some of us actually have a job to do and don't just sit around the truckstop all day responding to posts in this forum.

If Robert Low put 800 extra trucks on in the expectation of more business through the acquisition of Great Wide, then I don't know about that. I do recall the "big announcement" that didn't happen. I don't see 800 idled trucks on any of Prime's properties, so it'd be nice to know how you come about that little piece of information. Since you imply that hordes of lease ops are quitting every day (something I haven't heard anywhere else) it would make sense that they're hiring drivers right and left to service their current business.

Prime bases its fuel surcharge at a mileage point of 6 mpg - must be nice! I have to make 6.5 - too bad you don't live and die by the same rules. The fuel surcharge is based on the average price that the fleet pays for fuel the previous week. Prime is a large company and has much better fuel prices than small companies or the average shmoe based on their contracts with the large truckstop chains. Divide that average price by 6 and you have the fsc rate. Since the fleet average cost for fuel is less than the national average you see why Prime has a lower fsc rate. You can't make money off of 6 mpg? I do better than 7 in my truck.

Sounds like you just can't hack the program Vulcan. Maybe you ought to go drive for Swift. I hear they hire anyone.

 

I can't speak for U2, but the wait is generally short. You should have a trainer by the beginning of the following week, unless they have a major shortage of trainers.

 

Thats a lie... or at the very least a mis-representation of what I have said.

I HAVE given more thought to teaming... I was called out (at the site that has to remain nameless here) to this fact and I presented my previous posts from as far back as Nov. in my intrest in teaming. Primary concern being that I really didnt want to be in a position of trusting someone "right off the bat" with winter driving while I was asleep.

A few other reasons for a renewed intrest being that produce season out of California is presenting drivers with more miles. Iincreased hometime (other than the 4 day max) might be possible if the team member runs solo for a load or two while the other is at home.

I will get to paperless here in a moment, but I have stated that this paperless thing is WAY easier for a team. You cant go wrong with it as a team. If your drive clock is up, then your co-driver takes over. Only thing you have to worry about is running out each drivers 70 clock.

My only real complaint here is miles... I want more, Im not running what I was running last year. The economy is to blame, and there isnt much I can do but pickup and deliver as quickly as the shippers and recievers let me, so that I have a place in line among the empty drivers in my area.

I have been totally forethcoming with the miles I am running.

Now the paperless log thing. I have been evaluating and reporting my experiances on another blog/forum. There are alot of other Prime Drivers who are fearfull and intrested in my info. Not much in the way of complaining.

Due to my mediocre miles, I do feel I havent put the system through it full paces. These are not and I have no real complaints. Here are a few areas that will change the way we do business with it.

1. Trip planning... if you are pushing your drive time envelope, you can no longer fudge 15 min here or there. If you are held up by traffic, construction, detours, full truck stops and you plan to arrive at that 11th hour, you are in violation if you get there at 11:01 drive time.

2. Shippers and Recievers. Especially the ones with no extended parking areas. If you are held up and your 14 has run out or you need to complete and 8-10 and they are kicking you out... you need to find a spot withing 6/10 of a mile or the system will automatically shift you to your drive clock.

Before paperless logs, I pretty much logged legal. Maybe fudge 15 min to get to that next truck stop or make up for traffic. Cant do that anymore. If a reciever or shipper held me up and there was a Truck Stop nearby, I would move there. Cant do that anymore. (almost, I was able to do it 2 weeks ago because it was less than 6/10 of a mile)

What I can do is log less than 15 min fueling... Let DOT try and dispute my driving in and out of a fuel island with only on duty status between arrival and departure drive times... its automatic, only the computer can put me on the drive line.

There are some tricks, nothing major, or groundbreaking... Nothing that will save you more than a minute or two.

I will state... So far, this system is NOT costing me money. Im not even running out my 70 each week, so I dont see how that is possisble. The only thing that is preventing me from making more money each week is the potential for more miles. There are duty hours being left on the books that could keep these wheels turning.

Here is my overall avg miles per week for the first 16 weeks of the year
(week 1 being my best week as other drivers were taking new year holidays) Equation for each week total being... That weeks milage + total milage of previous weeks divided by that number of weeks.

Also I have taken approx. 11 home days. I think I counted 12 on the road restarts since Jan. 1 (didnt count restarts resulting from hometime)

3,057.0
2,512.5
2,093.7
2,110.5
2,061.4
1,970.5
1,954.4
2,020.3
1,980.8
2,064.0
2,047.5
2,094.3
2,024.1
2,032.3
1,956.8
1,915.4
​

 

I am not a trainer. I have been asked... The problem I have with training is that in a relative short amount of time I will have to trust someone with either 4-5 weeks of Prime supervised instruction or a Truck driving school experiance behind the wheel while I am sleeping.

I can tell you I have become a lot more receptive to the idea now that winter is over. I can see myself supervising a week or so in the passenger before trusting to go into a team mode. Winter time would have been a whole different ball game.

As to the trainer question... I hear there is a list of trainers wanting a trainee. Should be little or no wait. If a wait is involved I imagine it being a day or less while your trainer is in transit to the terminal.