forced hazmat endorsement!?!

I agree 100%. I'm getting mine put back on only for business reason to open door to freight when I can't get a Reefer or Dry load and in Middle of no where. Otherwise I won't haul Hazmat by choice unless rediculous rate I can't pass up. Have to think different now becoming O/O with Authority.

 

Right. So what? They can force a company driver to get hazmat. If not they can let the driver go, or the driver can quit.

there is all this business mentioning hazmat with training and employment contracts. No such thing for a prime company driver... You either do what they ask or move on... Quit or be fired. It's no ploy to get a driver to lease.

The OP says he doesn't want to take food out of his kids mouths, what did he do when he was required to buy all those items Prime required him to buy before they issued his first load when he got his truck? Or all those advances he took at PSD and deducted $25 per month....

Also with Prime bucks he doesn't have to starve his kids. He can use them to stuff his face at the terminal and save his cash for the kids. They don't expire. If he says he never eats at a terminal he is full of it.

Waste hometime? Get an extra day out of it from your FM and it's not a waste. I get them when I have to conduct business. However I don't abuse it and I get what I am supposed to get done. My FM comments all the time how he gives an extra day and then he gets excuses from some of his driver. Those drivers lose the privilege. If you work with him I'm sure that deadline isn't firm if you can prove you are working on it. Ask for an Extra day your next hometime for fingerprints... You have to wait for the background check to take a few weeks. Then get another extra day the next time and take the test.

Or You can apply online, you can study the book online. there are hundreds of places around the country to get your fingerprinting done. My last renewal I got fingerprinted at the medical clinic at the Petro in Rochelle, IL. Once the letter came in I went home and took the test. That's one extra day of hometime.

Listen you can either quit, keep ######## about it, or get it done and get something out of it. That's the reality.

btw those prime co drivers say they get a load no problem and don't need hazmat. You don't know if any load you get was better than the hazmat because you get no choice and they don't say "well here's a load, coulda been better if you had hazmat." They just send you the load you can do.

 

Dude your preaching and speaking to wrong choir. Go suck up to your BOSS cause I don't have to put up with any of that. I work for myself and answer only to ME. Care less what you do or not do. But using that tone in my face you wouldn't get very far. You can take that to the bank. Truck driver wannabe's I tell ya.

 

You don't work for Prime. Good for you.

im just saying to this guy, the OP who is a Prime company driver, it's two choices... Get it, or prepare to leave.

If he wants to stay, the Prime bucks is more than I got from Prime to get my Hazmat, and there is way to get a couple extra days of home time out of it. We're limited to 4 days at a time. Get an extra day, inconvience is a couple hours tops, and the rest of the day is with the wife and kids. Again, IF he wants to stay at Prime.

If he wants to he can draw a line on the sand, prime will just tell him to pack that sand and go

 

Well I understand your point. Still wish you safe and Happy Holidays.

 

I have a feeling this new policy won't stick for long.Does Prime have alot of hazmat freight?Alot of drivers I have spoke with dropped hazmat once they knew all the red tape they now have to go thru every since 911.So what happens to the Prime drivers that aren't eligible for hazmat,does Prime fire them?But you can collect unemployment if they do can't you?

 

Yeah, but the unemployment office will only pay you in PRIME BUCKS.

 

The real reality is that almost 20% of Prime pay is per diem, untaxable income... it doesn't figure into unemployment or Social Security benefit formulas...

so whatever you get from unemployment is already cut by that 20%

 

Play chicken? see who blinks first. The driver's are certainly not going make the decision to pull the policy.

I get a hazmat load every other month.

Red tape? A basic online form, then Fingerprinting, then waiting for a back ground check.... Test has always been a requirement.

Every driver gets fingerprinted when they came to Prime, they got fingerprinted again for the TWIC card requirement, they shouldn't have an objection to having it done one more time.