Pam driver agent

advice....read as much of the forum posts as you can. Pam is not the only company that will allow you to train without paying up front, check out some others. Then go to the company you feel most comfortable with for your situation. In school, pay attention, be on time, and learn.

thats my best advice, I just finished company school a week ago.

 

my advice is...if you dont have moeny to pay up front, and you have anyone to think of (wife, kids) besides yourself, dont waste money by choosing the wrong company. not saying pam is...i have no idea, but do some comparison. with no money you still have 2 easy choices and a more difficult choice...

difficult choice is community college to get cdl. cheaper, but to get government to pay, you have a lot of applying for grant money to do.

2 easy choices are private school that will finance the tuition, or company school. (yes some private schools do finance. c1 in indianapolis is where i went, and they do it..im sure there are many others)

now to compare financially. lets use c1 as an example as i am familiar. c1 charged $4000 when i went there. this included 2 meals a day..dinner on your own dime. 2 weeks as i remember. now all said and done, with finance charges, the cost is around $4500. guaranteed job with one of 3 companies (your choice) after graduating. all 3 paid $100 per month tuition reimbursement. so after 1 year the REAL cost of this route was $3300.

ask pam...and whatever other company school you look into...the following:

how long must you contract with them to get the "free up front" schooling? how much will they take from your pay each week to pay down the tuition? after the contract is up, do you owe any more?

hypothetical numbers. pam says 1 year contract and you pay $30 per week from paycheck during that year, nothing owed after year is up. this deal would mean that the REAL COST of this would be $1560 (30*52)

according to another post on this forum, prime charges NOTHING for their school, if you live up to your 1 year contract. nothing taken out of your pay each week. their pay is quite competitive as well, if the person posting is accurate. only money you pay for the school is a fee of $150 (iirc) upon signing up. if all this is true, then prime is by FAR the best deal ive heard of for company schools. also, since this is my opinion, id stay away from crst, cr england and swift, all of which have policies and past actions proving them to be crooks.

 

I had a call from them a few years back. They basically just wanted to know how soon I could start. If your qualified to drive a truck, have no major criminal, driving or medical issues and are willing to stay out on the road for weeks at a time, you pretty much have your pick of training companies.

I decided to go with a different company so I can't speak for Pam but you should see whats out there before you commit to a company. TTR has a list of companies that hire new drivers.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/jobs4newtruckers/

 

PAM was $45 for 42 weeks, after your year was up you'd get a check for the extra that they took out and didn't pay to Driver Solutions (PAM paid the entire cost of the school, but charged drivers a lower amount). I think it was something like $6000 when I went, and they only made me pay something like 1500. I don't remember.

PAM also took out $25 a week for 16 weeks to get $400 which they kept as escrow, in case you abandonded truck, etc.

 

well, so if noggin is correct you can pay pam $1500 to train you, or pay prime $150 to train you (again, assuming my information is correct). either one is better than reasonable, one is clearly a better financial option only taking into account the cost of school. there are several other factors you will want to take into account though. how much will the company you choose pay after you are trained? what kind of truck? do they have apu or bunk heater in truck? do they allow inverters if no apu? benefits? there are a hundred other questions youll probably want to ask as to the working conditions and pay after you become a 1st seat driver. then you pick what suits you best. there are many decent companies out there, and none that are right for everyone.