ask your questions about prime inc here

So far I haven't found anything that my recruiter lied about. She didn't tell me I had to pay for gear but that could have been an honest mistake. Everyone else I talked to said their recruiter told them they had to. So if your recruiter told you that coming in as a c seat then going to tanker is doable then do it. From my understanding if you change between decisions you only need 15k ish miles with a trainer with that devision. That's why I'm with a flatbed trainer now for 15k. I have enough time if I wanted to go as a reefer driver but didn't want that and I've never ran flatbed so i need the training. So far it's easy to figure out how to load and secure your load. I'm also a fast learner and have trained drivers in the Army so that's a plus.

Speaking of which. If there are any reservist or National Guard guys that wanna drive prime is a good place. I didn't tell them I was in the reserves until I got to SLC( it's not required by law to tell your prospective employer and is HIGHLY recommended that you don't until they have hired you on due to the overwhelming discrimination to vets theses days) they are happy to work around your schedule so you shouldn't have a problem. Just make sure no mater if you go to prime or any other company that you don't go lease. The reason I say this is your monthly drills, annual training, MOS schools, retraining/reclass, promotion schools such as WLC,ALC, exc will get in the way. And you won't be able to make those payments while at training. On the company side they can't use your drill dates against your leave days. So if you go home for a 3day drill you are also eligible BY FEDERAL LAW(USERA) to also take your home time with no penalties. So you oh out for 4 weeks then you have drill that leaves you with a week at the house.

If thre are any reservists that have questions feel free to contact me. I have 7yrs in so I know the system well.

 

what's the average miles for flatbed and reefer?

 

Hi, everyone. Spoke with a Prime recruiter today...finally. She was a real joy to deal with. She informed me since I wasn't officially employed for a year in 2012 -13, she didn't believe she could get me approved for training. Now, since I chose to take that time off voluntarily, and was unaware not being officially employed was akin to sleeping with my sister, now I'm ostracized from the trucking industry? I saw in a previous post another prospective student had the same problem. Same age as me as well. I'm 55, soon to be 56, with a spotless driving record, college education, tons of decent work history, DOD Secret clearance, and I might as well be a pedophile to this recruiter. Wow.

I hope all the commercial trucking companies are not quite so inflexible with their hiring policies. Is this the norm?

 

Unfortunately many companies,not just trucking,are doing that now. Its a catch 22 really

 

Hate to say it but you can look into wester express. But if it's just that you can't verify your work they should be able to work around it. There were a few guys in my orientation that just had to get a few people to write a letter and get it notarized.

 

I think if you can get two people to write a letter stating that you have been unemployed for that long and have it notarized, you should be good, ask your recruiter. I had to have someone vouch for me, so I think it is possible.

 

Dan, Zach, and DLC, thanks for the replies. It really didn't seem like she was interested in any verification. It was the mere fact that I wasn't officially on the roles of the tax sucking government that seemed to twist her panties. I had the feeling she didn't want to be bothered or I had interrupted her 2 pizza lunch or something. Tammy 'cruiter was less than enthusiastic saying she didn't think she could get that approved, bam, end o' story. She didn't exactly come off as uber intelligent. Oh well, shiite happens. I'll deal with it. I'm working part-time gigs, setting my own schedule, so it's not like I'll be heading for the po' house anytime soon. Mortgage and land were paid off back in the halcyon days of the real estate bubble. Sold off land and made some bucks.

Got a job offer to go back into the DoD, but I really don't want to work for the guv'mint anymore, no matter how much they pay. I wanna drive a #### truck. Prime seems like a decent place to start.

 

There are many good starter companies. I started at TransAm and they force leases. But if you hold your own and go company then they are ok. Every company has it's ups and downs. All companies are alike in the aspect they are all out to make money end of story. But many are great with helping their drivers succeed.

I have some issues with my trainer and prime got us a load to switch out tomorrow. Nothing crazy I'm just not the type of guy to falsify my logs (FYI average ticket for falsifying your logs is $8500. I don't have that laying around to waste) prime has worked good to get me on with another guy.

Once you get on with a company and get even 6months like I did then you can start going to another company. If you want a great flatbed company go to maverick they start students fresh out of school at .42+ cpm for their glass devision. You get .46 after your first year there.

 

How is your trainer falisfying logs with elogs??

 

The Qualcomm we have( not sure how the rest of yours work because the one in the truck is old) as long as you don't "approve" (sign your logs) then you can go back to say when you were getting loaded 3 days ago and change that from say 1.5hrs to 10 min. You now have just falsified your log on elog. Not just with that. Not logging fuel, inspections, exc can all be seen as falsifying your logs.
Most of the time dot will see one or 2 things and give you a warning or a ticket for log violations. If you have more then a few good luck walking away without at least a good fine in the thousands. My time in the reserves I have served with many state troopers that look for every little thing to get you on. It's not worth it to me to be dishonest.

No matter how small you think it is In my book "if a person has no integrity then they have nothing at all. You can buy it. You can have all the money in the world. But if you are not a moral and ethical person you really have nothing" - Henry Kravis... stands true!

He told me point blank "as long as your on my truck you're not going to keep approving your logs that way they can be changed to get hours back later." I can care less what he or anyone else dose on their logs but no one will be telling me how to run mine.