Going to Prime Inc

Ah trucking school is EASY if u put ur mind to it. Don't get somthing ask... Ive never driven for prime nor will i.. Don't let them suckering you into the Lease crap... Don't even think about doing that! unless u dont want a pay check... then by all means go ahead. And honestly ur gonna be without ur friends alot more then just schooling when u pass you will be out for awhile least 2weeks +.. me i stay out 4weeks at a time to get the best profits then take 5 days off. For far as i heard.. Prime is a starting company pay is crap and so is miles if u dont L/P... they push that on everyone... Dont let them say oh u will own this truck in so and so many years. if there paying for ur schooling your gonna be under a contract means u cant quit...

 

Hello Jeff, would really like to hear how things go for you up there, I submitted my app to them today waiting to hear back. Good luck.

 

I knew someone that drove for Prime. She won a driver of the month award. A couple of weeks later, she forgot to secure her trailer doors and a loaded pallet fell out of the trailer and onto the highway while she drove. She was terminated.

 

If I were you I would ask for a ticket home. My experience at Prime was horrible. My first week was full of disorganized chaos. The schedule was off because it was a holiday. July 4th to be exact. It was paperwork, physical, drug test, smith system class, company policies. I came in with my cdl so I didnt have to take the license test. On that following Saturday or Sunday I got my trainer. He drove for a few hours then handed me the wheel after sitting in the front with me for 30 minutes. He went and got in the bed. I was drive down 6% grades by myself scared as hell catching 75 mph (with the jake on). It would have been nice for him to maybe tell me to downshift before i started going down, but of course he didn't. They tell you, you will be with a trainer for 40,000 miles which is about 3 or 4 months. How the heck do they expect two random people to get along for 3 to 4 months ins a truck and the only common interest in most cases is your gender and whether or not you smoke. Which my first trainer didn't smoke and I did. smh. you if your trainer doesn't live near you, you wont get any home time until you do your upgrade. Your trainer is your boss, if they say you didnt drive (even though your logs shows other wise) you will not get paid. That happened to me. Even after they looked at my logs and saw I had drove they still didnt pay me for a whole week. Do yourself a favor and get out of there. I was one of those people that didnt want to believe it in the beginner, until the stuff started happening to me. I went thru three trainers. Every last one of them was only training for the money and not because they enjoyed doing it. They stuck me behind the wheel and that was it. The first trainer I got off his truck because 1. he didnt smoke and 2. he was drinking beer as we stopped at the truckstops. Out of the 6 days I was with him, I personally saw him drink 4 of those days. One night we stopped at a casino and he came out completely wasted. The second trainer was a complete knob, got mad when I asked question (hello i'm a student) you did sign up to train me. The last day before I got off her truck she threw a cigarette lighter and hit me in the face. She better be glad I didn't cream her. I was actually on the phone with another Prime driver when that happened. So the third trainer by then I was really ready to quit. She actually did teach me stuff by went crying to dispatch because I said my stomach was hurting. She felt like I needed to get off her truck because my stomach hurting was going to make the load late, even though I had just finished my 11 and she had not even started her 11 because we were sitting at the thermo king service center. Hello I still had at least 11 hours to get over my stomach ache. The final straw with her was I pulled into a rest area because I couldn't see the road because of the weather and she flipped and ordered me off her truck. Its was freaking storming and foggy and I was coming up to a downgrade. I would be foolish to take the chance and attempt to go down a 6% grade and I cant see anything in front of me, plus I couldn't use my jakes because it was storming. They told me I would get orientation pay of 500, that didn't happen. They also said I would get 600 a week once with my trainer, not once was my check 600 before taxes taken out. The only reason the trainers are training is because they cant afford to live on their lease without a student driver in their truck. With the student drivers they get loads that pay between 3000-6000 a load, most take 2-3 days but they don't get those loads as solo drivers. Run now and save yourself the headache!

 

First mistake. Never Post your Real Name ONLINE. Ever. Go back into your Orginal posting and edit it. Remove your name.

So you are scared. You are 21. Being scared shows you are thinking. That is good. I remember being scared away from home for the first time. In a place called Saigon. No one seemed to like me. Everyone always yelling and the gun fire made me think I was in New York City.

Trucking is a job that requires you to relax. Everytime something goes wrong, relax.

Springfield is a lovely town. Some of the best Chinese resturants in North America are there. No one knows why. Branson is a short trip south. There is a drive through zoo east about 10 minutes. Meet some folks and rent a car. Being away from home is difficult at first. Until you understand that your truck is your home. Everything will be fine. Listen to my voice. Relax....rock back and forth....shhh....there you go....peaceful dreams.

 

Ha Ha Woosah! And BTW, yes Prime is chaotic and crazy at first, but like all things, if you ride it out and relax and go in with a positive attitude, it will get better. I have been with Prime for almost a year and I love it. I am a company driver and I have a lightweight Cascadia. They are very nice trucks for one person. Prime it a great company with lots of great people. Sure, there are ######## here and there but 98% of the drivers that are still at prime have been here for awhile and have no plans of going anywhere. As for the lease/op, a student who is just getting into trucking has no business leasing a truck. You need to wait till you have been driving for a couple years before you even consider it. I make good money as a company driver, on average I take home 850 to 900 a week on decent weeks, ###### weeks are around 700 or so but there are great weeks where you can bring home over a grand, it's all about how hard you are willing to work, you get what you put in. Prime pays me right everytime, I've only ever had one payroll issue and with a simple phone call and a good attitude it was taken care of in a matter of minutes. If you have any questions and want honest answers, feel free to message me! Best of Luck to all!