Day 1 at Prime

Keep your head up.... It took almost a full week (From that initial Friday) for everyone in our class to get an instructor. I had one by Wed. but didnt leave out until Sat.

practice the pre-trips... I had it down before I even left Springfield. The pad is boring.... waiting/hoping there are only a couple tests, cuz the sooner they are done the sooner we got to move a little around the pad.

Im supposed to be in next week... maybe as early as this weekend. So make sure to update your status, and if you havent left yet, maybe we can meet up.

I have faith you will be on the road soon

 

Thanks for the answer on my terminal question. That is exactly what I was looking for. My definition of a terminal (right or wrong) is a company facility with offices/driver facilities, ect. I was asking because I figured (again might be wrong) it would be easier to get hometime if you lived somewhat close to a terminal. I figure the companies locate terminals along their more steady freight lanes. What do you have to do with your truck with Prime when on hometime? I know some companies make you park at a dealership, terminal or other "secure location" and not your house. I am leaning heavily towards Prime when my time in the Army is complete and this and other Prime threads are very helpful. Thank you all.

 

I will be in Saturday... not sure exactly yet... deinantly morning, but not sure how early.

Got a laundry list of things to take care of on the Truck... One annoying electrical problem that the TA couldnt diagnose... other small things we've put off until I got to the yard.

Ive got my car there and might run up to St. Louis for a Cardinal/Diamondback game.

Taking the trainer course starting Tuesday.

 

Denver's "temporary building" (there are plans for a full-up maintenance shop, drivers lounge and dispatch office) is up and running again - triple-wide with concrete crash barriers for morons who don't know how to back. Showers, restrooms, TV lounge, vending machines, kitchen area with microwave, fridge, etc. They're open most of the time, but the dispatch crew isn't a 24/7 operation, so there are times (especially on weekends and holidays) when the doors are locked. U2 just has crappy timing... see his whinin' about dead bodies at the TA in Paulsboro NJ!

It's not a business park building that's being rented like the Prime Floral facilities... they are overglorified sales offices with a large parking lot - but hey, U2 thinks of them as "terminals" so what the hey! Prime bought the Denver land for development into a "terminal" - a project that was put on hold after the cheaper acquisition of the Salt Lake place (already built and greasy) and all the money they needed to sink into the Pittston PA disaster to remove the junk, rats, triple locked doors and bullet-proof glass - to separate the drivers from the dispatch wusses. The Denver terminal project will probably pick up steam if Wyoming goes through with their highway robbery plan aka tolling I80.

Prime doesn't really do "terminals" the way other trucking companies do it. We have national accounts with TA, Petro and Speedco for on-the-road maintenance, and dispatch is done via a seamless MIS system that shows the same data in all of our dispatch locations. You get empty, you're back in the queue for the next load in your area; hang where you are, or go to the truckstop. The Millenium building is nice, but I prefer to stay away... it's difficult getting a load out of there sometimes due to all of the slackers hanging out waiting for loads.

My "like" for the Denver drop yard is basically due to the fact that I live 10 miles from there. Home time is a load that delivers somewhere within 100 miles of Denver, deadhead to the drop yard to ditch the empty trailer, then a short bobtail to the place I park the tractor for a few days. Reverse the order for heading out. Home time is easy to get... just ask for it with a bit of notice. I like to mention it to my FM a few weeks out - then we get serious about 10 days from needing to be there. They put the request into the MIS system, and it matches the best set of loads to get you there... along with some FM magic. There is no need to be near a terminal - if you are, cool. Otherwise we try to match you with one of our existing drop yards that are scattered about the country. There's only been once in a couple of years that I had trouble making the appointed time... that was due to a scarcity of loads in the region I was in going to Denver.

Mostly what Prime does is finds a place to deal with empty/loaded trailers. Sometimes that's a shipper/receiver where we are authorized to do drop n' hooks... one can leave an empty there. Sometimes its a place with security that we can leave a loaded trailer or pickup an empty - like ThermoKing in Memphis; the drop place in Baton Rouge. If you happen to be near one of the places that has a dispatch office or maintenance facility, well... it's there then. The only "real" terminal Prime has is in Springfield. Personally, I don't consider the place in Pittston to be a "terminal" any more than the place in Salt Lake City. Terminal implies more of a facility than a couch to crash on, a shower, a washer and drier, and assorted vending machines. You can find that at the crummiest Pilot. If you want to "hang" at the terminal... go drive for Weener, er... Werner. When I'm out, I'm running... I have no desire to sit anywhere, especially a terminal.

The above being said, I find the maintenance facilities in Salt Lake and Pittston to be top notch - prefer dealing with them than in Springfield. Don't know about Duke OK... it's kind of off of the beaten path.

Oh... there's a couple of other things that are nice about the Denver facility... you can get into the yard 24/7, they allow you to park your personal vehicle there, and they don't do dead body storage like U2's favorite truckstop in Jersey!

 

awesome man..keep us posted im looking to train with them in november when i turn 21