PAM Transport

Here we go. I want any and all new drivers thinking about signing up through Driver Solutions to read this post and consider it before taking a job with this company.

First off, C1 Trucking School was a joke. I could have gotten more experience schooling myself. I was at Fort Wayne. All the instructors were pretty nice, but the only goal there was to provide you with just enough skill to pass the CDL test. That's it. I have no idea HOW $6,000 worth of tuition money could be worth the tiny amount of training you actually receive. Or the hotel they hole you up in. I've heard most guys say it's the worst place they've ever stayed in, but if you're not a complete puss it's tolerable. The hot water in the shower kinda works, and i would definitely take your own bedding. Other than that, it's not the freakin Ritz Carlton by any means.

I Started at C1 and after the first week of paperwork, i was done and had my CDL the Friday of the next week. The school was a breeze to me, but some people take a lot longer to get through it. Most people struggle with the maneuvers, which are not at all difficult. My main gripe about the school is that they don't show you how to back up other than straight line and an alley dock maneuver, so when you get out with your trainer with your selected company, you're starting fresh learning the backing you actually need to know.

Now, here comes the fun part. Road training with your company trainer. You're going to be lucky if you get a good trainer. I had 2 trainers. The first was an awesome dude, with lots of knowledge and was incredibly easy to get along with. He was impressed with my driving, even with no prior experience, so he was happy that i wasn't tearing up his truck. We ran teams for two weeks. You don't have to run teams, but he asked if i would like to, since i was signed up to run teams, so i could get used to it. Plus, he said he would make extra money, but if i wasn't comfortable with it, i didn't have to. I said yes, and we ran for over 7,000 miles both weeks, smoothly and without incident. He even took time to show me how to back, which he was really good at explaining the maneuvers and best of all, patient with you. He even hooked me up with a new map, and clipboard since i was pretty broke while in training.

And the second trainer. The first trainer was scheduled to go home for Christmas, so i got a ride back home and got Christmas and New Years at home which was pretty nice. Right after New Years i went out with a different trainer...this guy was a real winner. First of all, he was just a flat out douche. There was no smoking in his truck, which i don't have a problem with, but when we did take a quick break i had to walk far away from the truck because he was so anal about smoke even coming close to getting into his truck...whatever, i dealt with it. But here are my big issues with this guy. We got our load assignments via Qualcomm, and he immediately read them, wrote down the specifics, and then deleted them, I thought that was kind of weird, and he claimed the qualcomm didn't have enough memory to hold more than a few messages...which was a lie because my first trainer never deleted his, they just kind of deleted themselves as we got more messages. This was his way of lying about when the loads were due so we had to run hard (the harder we ran, the more miles we racked up, the bigger his paycheck) so we never "had time" to stop and shower, or get a good meal. I caught on to his little game after the fourth day, and stopped to get a shower, i felt nasty. When i stopped, he got in my face yelling that we had to keep moving, little did he know, i had found the number and called dispatch to find out when the load was really due, and found that we had about a 12 hour window before the load was due to the consignee. I told him this, and he got super pissed and we almost threw down right there in the truck. While i went in and showered, he didn't...for someone who didn't want smoke stinking up his truck, he didn't mind the stench of his festering orifices clouding up the truck. Needless to say the rest of the two weeks riding with him were very unpleasant, as he didn't shower once.

I finally got done and dropped off back at the PAM terminal. The upgrade test was a bit of a joke. There was a road test on a simple route, and then all i had to do was straight line back a trailer, with no test on the pre-trip inspection at all, which i didn't mind, but just shows they don't really care about your skills to give you the keys to a 40 ton death machine. Then came my truck. An 07' Freightlemon with 500K on it, and sheer filth inside from the previous driver (the hotel in Fort Wayne was a palace compared to this). I Cleaned the crap out of the inside of that truck and after 4 hours finally had it decently livable. I got a load that night going to New Jersey. I hear love/hate stuff about Jersey, but what the hell, go big or go home, right? I get the load, and get rolling. I get to Jersey, and the driver supplied directions on the qualcomm were totally wrong, and got me way off track...anyone that has been to Jersey knows, it's not typically an easy task to find somewhere to turn a rig around, especially when you're on back roads. After all that fun, i got a load heading to Texas. After getting down there, i started noticing a horrible urine odor in the truck, it was cold in Ohio where i got my truck, so apparently it wasn't noticeable in the cold. It was noticeable now. Stick your face about 4 inches from a urinal and you'll figure out what my truck smelled like, no exaggeration either. After finally finding where some nasty S.O.B had spilled their pee jug in the bottom of one of the storage compartments, i called PAM to tell them about the cesspool they gave me to live in, i was told to suck it up, and start scrubbing. No biggie, i did, but i made sure i was paid for it, and reimbursed for the $25 worth of cleaning supplies it took to sanatize and de-stench that truck.

Now for the other fun parts, i'll try to keep this part short and just describe my experience as a whole. My truck was not well maintained at all. Since i got it this last January, it broke down and i was stuck waiting at a shop 26 separate times, i have the logs to prove it. The truck usually had something stupid wrong with it and was fixed in a few hours,but by then i typically had to give up my load and get it repowered, so i got no layover pay for the lost time. I always got a load right before my 24 hour layover pay kicked in, but it was usually very few miles, and didn't deliver for a few days, so i got stuck sitting on loads for days, only getting the crappy layover pay PAM offers.

Since my truck has literally been broke down more than it has been on the road, i have made jack for money, and i am WAYYYY behind on most of my bills. I finally got teamed up with another driver, and the truck we have is broke down as i write this. Upon asking for another truck they assigned us to 2 other trucks that are just horribly disgusting inside, and have more miles than this one. I'm researching ways out of this Driver solutions contract, and already have offers from four other companies.

If you're considering getting into this industry, i suggest you find someone else to go through...or hell, you might get lucky and have a great experience, who knows.

 

Also wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences with P.A.M and if they might have an idea of how to get out of this wonderful contract???