Big company training and big scams associated with them !!!

Hello drivers, newbies, wannabees, and anyone else that wants to put their two cents in on an one stop shop for trainees and bad companies associated with training or just bad practices in general .
No trucking company will be safe if they are bad or questionable they will be discussed on this thread.....
I am sure there will be alot of truckers to put their .02 in and also there will be drivers to defend their company to the death....
Any and all aspects of trucking can and will be appreciated from anyones point of view as long as it remains amicable and intelligent .
I have coined a phrase from missouri," which is an thread starter on this forum " only the newbies sing the praises.....
Once i sat and thought about it..... He was right !
The only ones i see defending the large companies are the newbies and the seasoned veterans are pretty well just trying to keep their mouths shut and do their job in this economic down time and mabey they are ok with what they are doing but its better to have a job then not...
The newbies whom can only hear about trucking when it used to be trucking are oblivious to how trucking should be and used to be....
Let me expound on my last statement......
New drivers that come into the business are filled up with b.s. From their recruiters.... Then they come into orientation and then everything they were told .... Or most of everything they were told..... They are told to forget..... Now you find out the truth about your company .... And btw if you walk out during orientation you can have strikes put on your dac/usis for that and trucking companies can put what ever they want on your dac/usis ..... Some companies take the dac/usis as the bible and some companies are smart enough to know the dac/usis is just over glamorized fluff......
Now that the company has you right where they want you they know that you cant leave and if you did that would be job hopping ... Another frowned down obstacle that you need to stay away from.......
You might find out that you have to pay for your own equipment....like in new prime inc.
You are not going home as much as you thought the recruiter told you..... Like in k&b
you can idle your truck less then 15 % of the time but we run in only idle free states.... As many are finding out now.... Btw most trucking companies do not have apu's .
There is an abundant mass of information that an new driver," newbie" need to know before going to orientation and even to decide on jumping into an truck ... Is it worth it to leave my family for weeks at a time? Etc......
I have seen people talk about leaving 65k jobs to come to trucking..... Are they crazy..... Ok mabey a little stir crazy and need change of scenery but make sure you can go back to your 65k job when done playing trucker .... You will be lucky to clear 42k for your first 3 years.....
Let the fun begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Then there is usa trucking..... with we take care of our drivers .... then you get out on the road and start getting 1100 mile weeks and if you are lucky 2000 mile weeks .... you get 1 day every week accumulated home time and it will take you three weeks to get home but just as soon as your 34 hour restart is up they need the freight to be delivered asap..... hey wheres my third day... oh thats right i dont make enough miles to be home that long i gotta run another 200 mile day!
but the recruiters make it sure sound good though!!!!

 

Originally Posted by ironpony

Prime does require you buy your own miscellaneous equipment, but that won't happen until you are an A-seat and have your own truck. Some folks whine about this, but there is a good reason. If Prime provides this equipment, many of the drivers won't take care of it. Loose an expensive trailer lock often enough, with it coming out of your pocket, and eventually a driver will learn to keep track of it.

Here's the thing that No-tarps didn't say and the whiner-in-chief won't tell you. You can arrange to have the cost of this equipment spread out in payments over a number of weeks. You do have to talk to your FM about this in advance. You definitely want to do this if you're a flatbedder - there's a lot of it, and it's expensive.


POSTED BY NOTARPS4ME

No; they have brain washed you into thinking that most co's do this and it is good practice. (not a lease driver a company driver) Any co that charges you for their equipment to pull their freight with their truck and trailer and then gets you to tell others this is common practice then this is a master co of deception. I don't blame you for thinking this I blame low life co's that bring up a new driver to believe this is normal.

I have worked for different co's since back in the 80's. This is the first jacked up co that I ever encountered this. What happens if you are pulling a flat and you have to do a emergency swap with a driver to get them home for a emergency and it is pouring down raining? Your freight can't get wet. Are you going to pull off all your tarps, chains and binders to swap them out? Of course now you just burned a couple of hours, ruined the freight, have a claim against you or you just gave your equipment that you bought to someone you may never see again and hope his equipment is half as good as yours.

Newbies this is where the little voice in your head should be telling you do I want to be brain washed into thinking this is normal and go tell others newbies this is normal or do I want to work for a co that trusts their drivers to act like grown ups and not pay for something they should not have to pay for. Everyone talks about how well prime is doing. Heck; yeah if I was making money from all the drivers that thought it was normal for a driver to pay for stuff that the co should foot the bill for I would be doing well too...

A decent co would do this. Swap your equipment out with a driver. If you get bad equipment in a swap. Com check you to get what you need or if you are close get you to a yard where you can swap out the material at no cost to the driver....
Now newbies what sounds better??? Work for a a jacked up outfit that will make you pay for stuff and get you to tell others oh this is normal in trucking... or work for someone that won't rip you off and convince you how good you have it>>>>?



POSTED BY NOTARPS4ME
There is a lot of things to consider when looking at trucking. Now I have pulled flats, tankers and boxes. I have never pulled a reefer nor have I ever desired to. I am aware of lumpers, warehouses using you for a portable storage. Insane time frames etc.

What I am well aware of is a lot of companies and how they do business. What problems they have had in the past. History often repeats itself. Look into the history of any co. True some may turn around, but why did the old prime have so many issues? Why did they start calling it the new prime? I am not saying that some do not do well at prime. What I am saying is that the only ones that I have talked to or read about that are talking them up are the ones that started there with no trucking exp and have nothing to compare it too. Where are all of these veteran drivers that are so happy with them?

Others I have seen have been on this recruit drivers scheme to boost their pay checks. Even if you go into prime as a lease they are quick to try to get you to train. Prime is banking on new people. Go to their main building and look at all the things tied in together. Their tax guy that they try to get you to go with. You do have a choice on who you use, but they have figured out an angle on everything. It is a lot easier to go with what they have in play and by the way things are set up you need to roll out of there as soon as possible.

They say prime does not lease trucks, but a separate co success leasing does. Now where do you thing S/L is? You got it right in primes bldg. There is so much kick back going on there that they have even got it down where they convince new drivers that YOU should pay for this stuff as a company driver.

With all this being said I listen to new guys, but do not put much stock into what they are saying as they have nothing to compare with. They get the pep talks pumped up in the meetings where you eat a meal there at prime and listen to the videos and then a couple will speak on their great program they have there. Most of these are people who have been told to live in that truck for months at a time.

I am not saying that all of primes posters are full of it. U2 is probably the most forth coming poster I have read on here. He is relatively new to trucking and prime was his first start in trucking. He has stated that being home is not an issue, nor does he have a lot of bills, but even he has said if he had a family to support it would be tough.

Any co that gets you into to thinking that you need to stay out for months, pay for stuff that the co should provide and then talk up the co to new people that have no background in trucking this is where the old hands and new drivers will clash. The old hands know this is bunk and the newly trained drivers have this programmed into them that this is common in trucking. __________________


THANK YOU NOTARPS .... THESE POSTS CAME FROM AND I AM GIVING CREDIT TO THE THREAD.......PRIME THE FACTS

 

Post 4 is in no way to bash prime inc.... Or new prime inc ..... But to show the mindset of large companies on the whole and the way the large companies want their new drivers to think that these practices are the norm and are acceptable by the masses....
Truckers .... I have never been asked to buy any equipment for any truck that i have drove. If it was my fault that i did ruin something i would bring it up to my dispatcher and guess what they would send me an comm check for the amount to replace it ..... No charge back to me at all....
Equipment does get worn due to use and companies do realize that.....
But it seems though SOME companies want to pass the buck to the driver....
I could understand if an driver took off and left said equipment at shipper or receiver .... That driver needs to replace it.... Ok i am good with that ...
But you should never have to pay upfront any equipment that you are issued....
It is common practice to sign for it to be accountable for said equipment and when turning back in your truck and equipment if not accounted for you are responsible for the lost equipment. That is the way it should be!!!!

 

credit to>>>>http://www.jbhunt.com

NOW THE REAL SKINNY ON THIS COMPANY IS THEY WILL TREAT YOU GREAT AS AN TRAINEE AND ONCE THAT YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN THEY WILL RUN YOU FOR ABOUT AN WEEK ..... THE SECOND WEEK YOU WILL RUN LESS.... THEN IT WILL PICK UP ON THE THIRD WEEK.... AND WHEN I MEAN RUN I MEAN 2200-2400 MILES THEN DROP YOU TO 1200 MILES PER WEEK......
THEY DO THIS TO AVERAGE THE PAY OUT PER MONTH AND GENERALLY HAVE DRIVERS OK WITH IT CAUSE THEY KNOW THEY WILL HAVE AN OK WEEK THE NEXT WEEK....
SCHNEIDER DOES THEIR OTR GUYS THE SAME WAY......
UNLESS YOU LUCK OUT AND GET AN DEDICATED RUN ......
JB HUNT AND SCHNEIDER IS JUST NOT WORTH ANYTHING AND I CAN NOT FORGET THAT BOTH COMPANIES ARE DAC/USIS HAPPY AND WILL TRY AND DESTROY YOUR CAREER IF YOU DO ANY WRONG IN THEIR EYES....... DRIVERS BEWARE !!!

 

these are just a few points on jb hunt why not to ever seek employment with them...... I have known a few of these guys and i have known a few that went to orientation just to be told to go home . That we made an mistake by taking you into orientation.

 

As for schneider they have closed down their training facilities and are only hiring experienced drivers as of now....
They basically have the same miles as jb hunt and very high health insurance rates as jb hunt the only diffrence is do you want an yellow truck or an orange....
If you are lucky enough to get into an dedicated account with them and live locally to the account it might be an ok deal....
I was given the chance a few years ago to do just that..... My company had 4 drivers and the company got cheap and did not want the liability any more with company owned vehicles and drivers so they contracted to schneider....
I was making 17.93 per hour and everything over 8 hours was x1.5.....
Schneider came in one afternoon to an driver meeting and we were told in 1 month time we were going to be unemployed unless we went and joined schneider..... All four of us walked out on them when they said we would be getting mileage pay !!!!
The company ended up paying us 2700 dollars extra to stay til the end of the month so the new drivers could come in and take over ... For me i stayed and got my 2700 dollar bonus check....then i was asked if i could stay around for two weeks and train the new drivers at regular wages .... I told them to kick rocks and bailed....with my 2700.00 check in hand !

 

CR England....... Which is an christian company.... I believe mormon owned.....
And you better have that mind set to stay there .... They will get into your buisness and constantly harass you ......
Orientation is an nightmare, the hotel/motels they use are ridiculous .... It has been said that they are lice infested .... But i think that is an over statement but you never know.....
What i do know is you will have to sleep with atleast one other potential driver in your room and i have heard in S.L.C. utah they have dorm rooms..... Yeah sign me up for that .
The training is an joke ..... trainer will sit up one or two times with ya and then he/ she will be in the bunk until you shake them out of it.... Home time you might as well forget about it while an trainee....
Pay for an trainee is quite low for trucking standards as well......
Do not consider their FLEECE program at all. You will never get any where and make money with them.
All in all i would say stay away !