Gator's Prime Experience

You stay w/ the truck or Prime puts you in a hotel if that isn't possible. Unless your trainer is a lease/op, then it's on him to get you a hotel. Hubby had 2 occasions where the truck was down for a week. Once in Detroit, and once in OKC. Detroit, oh well, kinda far. The OKC sucked because it's 2 hours from here, and well, we were dead broke and I couldn't get down there to even see him.

If you leave the truck to go home, you are no longer available for dispatch and therefore your guarantee is not there, and you will get paid .12/mile for the pay period. (Or whatever the cpm is now). And if it straddles cut-off, 2 weeks will be paid at straight miles not guarantee. Just something for you to think about.

 

Thanks Gator. In discussion with my trainer, he asked me where I was going to stay while he stopped into his home and I mentioned that I heard trainees before just staying in the truck parked in the trainers driveway and he said that was illegal. I didn't want to push it, so conversation went another direction.

 

Why is that illegal? I did that exact thing with my trainer once.

 

Could be a city ordinance thing. It's not illegal on the federal/state level. Depending which suburb of Phoenix, they could have pretty strict ordinances. Heck - he might not even be allowed on his street with his bobtail.


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Well as I figured, it had nothing to do with some city Ordinance. My Trainer explained to me that it was illegal from Prime's perspective. He advised me he was told by Prime that students are to never to stay on the truck while on home time. They are to either be invited into their home or a Hotel room is to be taken out. Of course he mentioned nothing about it being at his cost, so we'll have to see how that is handled when it comes up.

 

it totally comes out of his pocket. Now I'm not sure if he gets reimbursed as a LO Instructor. Company Driver instructors do get reimbursed.

There is no mechanism for you to get reimbursed, you are not an employee, there is no paycheck. If he says you have to pay, tell him you need to speak to the fleet manager about this or simply call your FM.

DO NOT pay for any room, talk to your Fleet Manager.

if this instructor starts telling you it's your expense and discourages you from calling the FM, then if be suspicious of this guys methods and motives as an instructor.

you are not the one choosing to interrupt your instruction for this guy to take hometime, you should not have to accept the expenditure to accommodate your instructor.

 

Thanks Chuck, I'll keep that in mind. Have a glance over at my travel log...there's some notes you might find interesting I just made.

 

We briefly discussed it yesterday on the road. He welcomed me to stay at his home for 3 days or he said he would discuss with his FM about how I would stay in a Hotel. I haven't decided which way I will go. My Instructors behavior is a little annoying as I'm getting tired of being preached to 18 hours a day, so my initial thought is to not stay at his residence but take up a Hotel. I'm also recognizing that part of the tension I'm feeling is just the fact that I'm with someone 24/7 who I normally wouldn't even hang out with part time as a friend. So, I'm trying to keep things in perspective in that regards.