My honest, no BS, opinion of P.A.M.

I went through DS it was not bad you get your License nand PAM is not all bad but there are down falls Trucks they are short on oops toronado sinen got to go

 

I haven't posted on this thread in a while but I've been seeing PAM trucks everywhere and I was wondering if freight has picked up and if you guys are getting more miles?

I still want to drive but when my son was born I went to work doing electrical contracting out of town. The pay sucks but I have been able to spend most weekends at home. My heart is in trucking though and I hope to start school as soon as this job is over or at tax time, whichever comes first. I heard PAM is offering a $1,200 sign-on bonus right now so hopefully I can get in there before they stop doing that.

I want to stay out for 3 weeks at a time once I go first seat and I live conveniently to 75 & 85 in North Georgia so I don't think miles or home time will be an issue.

 

Chip, you used to be so upbeat about PAM. What happened?

P.A.M. Transportation Services said has a profit of $1.3 million in the first quarter, compared with a $2.4 million loss a year ago. Per-share it earned 13 cents, compared with a 25-cent loss a year ago, the truckload carrier said Tuesday. Revenue rose to $85.2 million from $68.5 million, while logistics revenue rose to $11.1 million from $9.1 million, the company said. The carrier improved many performance indicators during the quarter, President Daniel Cushman said. This includes equipment utilization, empty miles and rate per mile. "We are very pleased by our return to profitability for each month of the second quarter," Cushman said. P.A.M. is ranked No. 62 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.

I don't know if that means squat to anybody but I found it when I Googled PAM. The article was posted on 7/26/10.

 

I can't speak for Chip, but in my own short experience running solo for PAM, I have not gotten anywhere near the miles that thay said I would adverage. 2400 to 2800 a week means 2400 to 2800 every week. Not every third or fourth week with 1200 to 1600 mile weeks in between.
Also, if you go to a shop to get something fixed, count on staying there for up to a week and making a measelly 40 bucks a day. (25 a day at Tontitown.)
The only good thing about driving for PAM is you get valuable experience so that you can get a better driving job down the line and start paying your delinquent debts that you couldn't pay while you were with PAM. Of course, if you have already filed for bankruptcy, or had your house foreclosed, or still live at home with mom, PAM could be your ticket.
Even if I decide at some point to stay with PAM, I wouldn't train others to go through the same bull.
I have heard it gets better after you've been with them a while. Right now they want me to run team. Not on a dedicated route, but in the system. The same system that can't seem to run me 2400 mile on a regular basis. I can imagine splitting 1500 miles with another driver. NO THANKS.
Whatever you decide, good luck.

 

Thanks Nomad. It's a shame how PAM is treating their drivers nowadays. If I weren't a father, I wouldn't mind the short miles as bad and I would probably stay out for months at a time. Nevertheless, 1,400 miles / week at $0.25/mile for this newbie isn't going to go very far after Uncle Sam & PAM make their deductions.

 

They audit all logs , dont kid your self I have seen more guys get told about there slopy logs and het probation for them but they are easy to do been pulling FedEx Doubles for awile and It seem PAM is getting better with the drivers

 

I worked for PAM for 3 years and I have to say that they are the worst company to work for. They stiff you on the logs and try to force you to run over hours. They tell you to fake logs to get the run done. If you get hurt the find a way to get out of it. They don't care about you as long as the load makes it on time. When your FMLA runs out they force you to take a drug test and go back to work and don't care if the problem was fixed or not. You and your doctor can tell them you are on meds and they still force you to test or fire you for failer to test. They will do any thing to fire you after the first year or 2. They want to keep the newbies on so they can keep driver pay down. This is a no BS statement and its my experince. I now have to fight to clean my DAC and get back to work. It dose not matter that I have a clean driveing and crimanal records and thet I have Tand X endorsments and that I have my TWIC card. All that metters is what PAM put on my DAC.

 

This post is exactly why I take negative posts (about any company) with a grain of salt. Obviously this driver has quit or been fired - he didn't say - but he is mad at PAM and has to clean up his DAC - also never mentions what it it - but of course we are led to believe it is all PAM's fault and driver was 100% innocent - but we will never know because most negative posts are one-sided and only half-truth.

 

I don't know for sure how much of what safety and logging have #####ed at me about is actually on my DAC.

I can't really be mad at PAM for my last couple days. I think it was union at two places and one fork lift op at the third. But I have wasted better than 12 hours combined at an unload, a load and another unload.

I will NOT do anything wrong to get their load delivered. I will fudge the logbook a little bit, but that is usually showing a 30 min or hour stop I didn't really make to gain that time at the end.

Today I had 7.75 hours to give and if I use them all I have 6.75 tomorrow before the 10's come online on friday.

Looks like they are gonna leave me at this Pilot until at least tomorrow.

I'd love to work somewhere where the miles and pay are better. But I did have two incidents that are gonna bite me in the butt.

I am going to try HARD to get a dedicated route with one end in Houston if such a thing exists. I don't want to learn winter driving in a rig if I can help it.