Getting in to trucking. Prime orientation

I was thinking about Hot pink hello kitty theme for my truck

 

If your up in the air about leasing vs company I'll tell you this. You can make more in the lease game if you are willing to stay out 5 weeks or more at a time and then only going home for 3 or 4 days. If you cant handle that then go company. The charges for the truck and everything will come to about 1400/week not including fuel and any extra #### that pops up you have to cover.

 

Are their trucks equipped with navigation?

 

The trucks all have Qualcomms which have built in trucker GPSs. They work fine and have customers programmed in so they will take you to the proper entrance more accurately than a normal truck GPS. That said you'll still want to do trip planning.

 

You are way better off providing your own navigation with your brain and critical thinking. Buy a Motor Carrier's Atlas to start off, the big laminated one. It has everything in it including all states and the associated revelant resources for you.

Just remember. Parkway are not trucks. Stay off parkways. You wont make it. (Low bridges)

Your first year or two is very dangerous for what you don't yet know or experience. Take it slow and DO NOT... whatever you do allow DISPATCH to BULLY you into doing a run against your ELD HOS. Half of my former employers can be safely considered bullies in their dispatch offices. I don't put up with that. Ever.

 

So I have observed that not everyone who attends Prime Inc orientation and become new students aren’t sent out with a Trainer for their PSD training phase. Instead, they will get trained in the company’s terminal. They probably drive around the city streets and freeway. Do practice at the simulator. Is this called the in-house training? Does Prime inc choose who will they send out with a trainer and who will get trained in house? Just curious?
I understand that some people might not get along with the trainer and just request to get trained in house.
I’d still prefer to get trained with a trainer as long as I know in my heart that his/her training me good. It’s different being trained over the road.—my take.

 

I did in house training and trust me it's no big deal. You will get plenty of road time when you do the TNT phase. In house will consist of driving around town, maybe even to Joplin and back. You'll spend the bulk of your time on the pad learning to backup. You actually have an advantage because you're learning where the test will actually take place. You also dont have to waste time getting back to the terminal and can do your test the day your eligible. Once you pass they will hook you up with a TNT trainer who youll be with for a long ####ing time.

 

I see, for my case, being over the road, I don’t have many opportunities to practice the “backing up” skill. I’m lacking that skill right now. Things haven’t gone 100% the the way I’ve expected.

 

It sounds like youll need some time on the pad before you take your cdl test. It will only take a couple hours for a day or two if your trainer is any good. You'll get the bulk of your training in TnT docking at various shippers/receivers. If you have a trainer that will not let you dock, you need to get off the truck immediately and find someone who will.

 

$1400/wk including fuel? That seems about half of what Id expect one of those lease purchase deals to be