My Brother started with Prime Inc.

As everyone knows, I don't post too often but I'm proud to say my oldest brother has started with Prime. He has no experience in trucking whatsoever and it is knowledge I gained from here that I was the one he came to for advice.

I tried to sum up the negatives and the positives and what to look out for and what to expect based on reading these posts. So far he loves it, he starts out on his first three weeks with a trainer tomorrow. He has been very encouraged by the whole process, I think mainly because I was able to share what I have learned about the industry and he has not gone into it with unrealistic expectations.

I won't hear from him for a good while but when I do I will post some of his experiences.

 

BTW - I like your tag lines. Do you eyeball or do you still need the tape measure? [/quote]



Sorry it took so long to reply. I am experienced enough to eyeball, I rarely get it wrong


My brother has been checking in with my mother and it sounds like everything has been going great. His trainer is a 2 million mile safe driver and I'm thankfull for that. Since I'm getting information from a second source (even if it is my mother) I'm sure I'm not getting the full picture. My mom is not the type to BS however so I'm sure she hasn't painted a rosy picture for nothing.


He has been getting a ton of actual driving experience but he wants more backing experience. He is back in Springfield MO doing some more class work and yard work.


The one thing that shocked me was how quick he went out with a trainer. He had never been in a truck in his life and the next thing you know he is OTR with a trainer. I was expecting him to get some yard work and road testing before going out but I guess there is no better training than trial by fire.


More updates soon.

 

No doubt Triplesix. When he told me he was going to become a driver the first thing I told him was not to lease. Like I mentioned before, I don't post often but I read all the posts on here and I might not know much about trucking but I have learned that. I also gave him the advice of not being a job hopper among other tidbits of info I picked up from this site.

 

Well I have an update on my brother.


He went back to Springfield to test. He had zero backing experience. He spent one day practicing backing and took that portion of the test. Out of his group he was the only one to pass that portion. Things looked great.

The next day he went to take the remaining portion and failed. He bumped a curve with the trailer tandem. No big deal, he had two more attempts. The next time they told him he cut off a car and failed him. No other students or the trainer ever saw this mystery car and the trainer protested but to no avail.

Third and final time a straight truck pulled out in front of him in the far right lane, made a left turn cutting off the car next to my brother, that car swerved in front of my brother's truck forcing my brother to come to a fast stop. The tester failed my brother saying he was "almost" in an accident. Once again, the instructor and the other students protestes saying my brother prevented an accident. No dice, they failed him and told him to go back to the terminal and get a bus ticket home.

I questioned how an examiner can tell my brother he won't be working for Prime. Turns out the examiner works for Prime. I think that is a conflict of interest. I read on here many times before about training companies receiving money from the government to train people and never really thought about it much. I mentioned that to my mother who mentioned it to my brother and he said during orientation he was told by the instructor that Prime receives $3500 per student from the government and things started clicking together.

When he was told to go packing, his instructor pitched a fit, he told his bosses at Prime that my brother was one of the best, if not the best, student he had ever had on his truck. The instructor actually booked a load going to Chattanooga so my brother wouldn't have to ride the bus. Turns out that out of 50 students in my brothers group, only 2 passed the CDL exam, one was the wife of a current Prime trucker and the other was a son in law of a Prime trucker.


My brother even asked how he was supposed to pay back the cost of the school and Prime told him not to worry about, they were already payed. Then they told him they would love to have him drive for them, go back to Dalton Georgia, find someone that will let you use a truck to test, get your CDL and come back and we will hire you on the spot.

Sounds pretty darn shady to me. My mother called a Missouri DOT office and ended up getting a call back from a trooper who told her that the whole procedure was wrong. The trooper mentioned a form that my brother was supposed to receive detailing why he was failed and the steps to take afterward, he received nothing from the examiner.


So, that's it in a nutshell. Sounds to me like Prime is bringing people in by the busload, getting paid to train them, and only hiring who they need and basing that on who that particular student is related too.