Couple questions about prime

does anybody know how the freight lanes are in the Southeastern part of Oklahoma around the Arkansas Border i was thinking of starting with Prime in the next couple of weeks and just wanted to know how easy it would be for me with my home time (cause reading all the post here i know they run a lot of freight for Wal Mart and there is a DC in Fort Smith Arkansas) just wondering if they make many runs in that general direction?

 

Ive been to a few customers up there.... off the top of my head... General Mills near Eden Prarie, and Kraft in New Ulm.

Ive picked up at a cold storage outside St. Paul... but I cant remember the name or the specific city.

 

I'm also thinking about Prime, just wondering if anyone knows how often they run through Indianapolis? They said they are hiring for this area but I did not see a terminal in Indy on their website.

 

I40, aka Prime Highway No. 1.

Yeah, we get over that way a lot. There's the DC in Searcy, Tyson's in Russleville and Little Rock, to name a few more. Plus, Springfield is just up the road a piece. Plus all of the places we deliver to in eastern OK.

 

Here a terminal, there a terminal, Ol' Man Werner (Swift, you name the dude) was drowning in overhead - terminal costs, that is!

We don't do terminals. We do have a couple, so we have some places to run orientation, training and dispatch, but that's about it. You want home time, we arrange a load... you go there and deliver it, drop the trailer and go home.

As far as getting to Indy... you could call I70 "Prime Highway No. 2." Been spending a lot of time running through Indy the last few weeks. Lots of places we deliver to down that way as well. Nestle, Kroger, Americold to name a few.

 

How is prime in the northeast. Where is the nearest orientation? I think there is a walmart dc in new hampshire, does prime run to there?

 

Not bad... we deliver to a lot of places up here, and pull a lot of loads out. Haverhill MA is always good for a frozen load out, then there's the potata place up in Easton ME...

I dropped dead cows from Dodge City KS in Bedford PA and Hooksett NH. Deadheaded to Lowville NY for a frozen load to Allentown PA. Went across the highway last night for a frozen load in Fogelsville PA, and am in S. Portland ME tonight. All in the last week. How's that?

Orientation up here would be at our Pittston PA yard in Scranton.

 

Did my app on line today. Going to call timorrow. How long is training? Web site says 60000 miles. Is that team miles? Sounds like it could be a long training period.

Sounds like it will be easy to get home time. I live near the junction of rte 90 and rte 146.

 

so...does prime just deliver to warehouse 2 warehouse or what? how about I-65 & I-24 close to kentucky tenn border?

 

Training... depends. It goes quickly enough. You might want to check out U2's older thread on training. Can't say about the CDL part myself - I got mine at a third-party school. You still do the full 60/80k before you are 100% A-seat qualified, one way or the other. Average about 5000 miles per week. I knew a guy who got it done in 9 or 10 weeks. Took me a bit longer because of holidays, and my trainer was always taking time off.

Now, that being said, there are companies that throw you on the road after a couple of weeks... Prime's apprenticeship takes longer, and that is a VERY good thing. There is a lot more to driving a semi than just putting it in gear and going down the road. A lot of us feel that a newb should be getting more like 6 months of training. I've seen a lot of those folks struggling, and I've seen a lot of dead drivers too. So don't be too quick to say, "Sounds like it could be a long training period," like that's a bad thing. This is a dangerous business, and there's a lot to learn - things that can't be force-fed to someone in a few weeks.

After seeing what goes on out here, I'd say - in my not-so-humble-opinion, that Prime has the best training program going.