Prime INC.

Thanks for take'n some time to respond. I don't quite understand exactly what you wrote. I got the jest of it. I have talked with over 20 Prime drivers and 99% say their making $1,500 - $2,500.00 a week that's up to $120,000.00 a year are they lying or running illegal or both?

I just spoke with a SNI driver that said he's making $800.00 a week. He is believable. Prime is not believable, and according to you and others Prime is driving people broke. Can you help me understand what's going on here? I'm guessing Prime drivers are fibbing or fudging to try and get the referral fee. What do you think? Looking back on my talks with Prime drivers I have to say, the drivers got to be a big source of Primes recruitment process.
Would you go with a better known name like SNI?

 

All lease companies will have a few good people that people you will run into that will talk up the company.

I bet you for each one making good money there are 100-200 others that is broke.
Why do you not see and talk to the broke people that is because they are too busy trying to dig themselves out of the big hole.

Please
Rember
I
Mortaged
Everything

 

I don't know much about Prime... do they do LTL? $1500 a week seems on the ragged edge of believable - 3000 miles and 50 cents a mile. $2000 a week..... that's a bit of a stretch, unless said driver has been with the company since Jesus was a midshipman. 66 cents a mile (assuming 3000 miles, of course)

Now, if you can average 55mph for 70 hours, you come up with 3850 miles... or, back to about 50 cents a mile (51.9 to be more accurate) - to get $2000 a week.

I'll accept *doable*, but not terribly likely.

Notarps touched on something that deserves to be brought fully into focus. Always, always ALWAYS go over your paystubs with a fine-tooth comb. Have your logs immediately to hand when you do so. Frequently the stubs are ... confusing. Make the time to understand what each and every item is, then make sure everything is correct, and jump on it when you find something out of kilter. (I just sat down yesterday with my stubs - it took me a while, but eventually - just by going through them, the few payroll questions I had were answered to my satisfaction.)

Jump politely, but get on it and get it fixed. Keep records of your calls (in some states, you can even record them without telling the person on the other end). If phone calls don't work, start sending letters - but keep it polite. Work your way up the food chain, if need be. Somewhere along the line you'll either get it fixed, or be told it can't/won't be fixed (in which case, I'd be out of there so fast my sneakers would smoke).

But always, always check those pay stubs.

Companies that do the money shuffle as NoTarps was describing are typically trying to hide money for some reason or other - if it's been paid to a driver, it's not theirs any more.. it's kinda like using the driver as a swiss bank account.

WHY they do it, I have no idea.

It's unlikely to be incompetence - you just can NOT get to be a medium sized company if your accounting division is broken. Sure, something like that could happen once in a while - new personnel, typos, etc. But a steady pattern of bogus transactions as NoTarps describes... that's indicative of policy.

 

I don't really have enough room to write everything that happened. Orientation was mass confusion. They passed out schedules for everyone and half of them did not match. One would say we were to be in a certain room at a certain time (don't be late) you would go there and not everyone was there. So we would compare schedules and we were in the right room at the right time. We were really suppose to be in another room at that time. Everything was yanked up about this orientation. Afterwords we went over to another company to select our trucks (a affiliation of prime not prime) they only had 2 trucks available out of about 25 guys. Both of these were junk freightshakers.(flatbed div) So they tell us we can send you to altus OK we have a bunch of petes there. You will pull primes stacked trailers back at 30 cpm??? Rookie pay. We go there. This is one ate up terminal. Used to be passmore trucking. What a cluster. Plan is get a truck pull stacks back then lease that truck in springfield mo.

No trailers there. They dispatch us to go pick up a loaded trailers to bring to the yard. I go get mine. Tarp it and then I look at the bills. If I bring it to the yard it will be out of route from the delivery point. So I call in to ask about it. They say you can't pull that load. You are not a company driver and have not signed your lease. After a big goose chase they say go ahead and bring it back. I do. Truck had to be put in the shop at altus. I get it out still has the same problem I put it in the shop at springfield. (again they don't fix problem) I go thru the lease ordeal. My FM can't get me a load towards the house. I need to set up truck, get clothes, cooler and such. He said I got a run that will put you by the house pick up a few things and del down south and I will get you a load home for the holiday weekend.
No problem. I sleep down there where I del. Kick the load off send empty call. Nothing. About an hour later the place I del tells me I have to leave. I send a message have to find parking. I get rolling and they send me a load. By the time I found a place to park and read the message and figure out if I can make the run I see I can't make the pick up appt. I send a message can't make PU time. 45 minutes later I get message they have extended it 1 hour. Great; why did you send it to me an hour later? I still have the same problem.
Next load last one. with the holiday coming up. Must call and give load number to verify right plant. I call. They say that load won't be ready till 5 days later after the holiday. I send message to my FM. He said he called them and it was ready. Go pick up before they close. I look at the time. Gotta beat feet over there. I make it on time they say we told you load won't be ready. Prime says we will pay you 180 bucks for no use of truck. I get mad and deadhead home. Not sitting there 5 days waiting on a load.

I get home get a good paying run to CO. Unload,then a decent run out. Then a crappy run, but I need to get truck moving. Was a wide load that they did not tell me about. Had to bobtail 60 miles to buy flags and od signs. I find out from wife at this point that she has only gotten 500 bucks in that 4 weeks. That ate up run that they were robbing me on by paying me rookie pay of 30 cpm was only 26 cpm. This is one ate up outfit!!! They billed me twice for all my tarps and chains, etc. Suppose to take it out at 75 bucks a week. They took it out lump sum twice! I found out if you are a company driver for them in the flatbed div you still have to buy all the equipment!!! They are ate up. Sorry for the long post I left out a lot. Just wanted to skim the finer points...... BEWARE!!!!

 

I hope you kept all YOUR chains, boomers, and other skate board stuff. That can add up in a big hurry. Prime had a big setup at the GATS show in Dls a few weeks ago. They were recruiting their azzes off. Guess I know why now.

 

Something doesn't seem right with Prime. The things that really bother me are:

• Their drivers claim to make $2,500.00 a week, that's $120,000 a year.
• Prime drivers get paid if they are used as a referral by a new guy, if they sign up 20 guys they get one years free lease payments. (This is probably why they talk up Prime so much and they do).
• The driver CDL is a 100 hrs on the road, but there is no limit to how long you will stay out. They do say it will be a couple weeks. It can be longer. This can lead to using a guy as a cheap team driver.
• The training program is 60,000-80,000 miles. If you want to go L/O you have to do the 80,000 miles. (this outfit is primarily trying to get people to go L/O. L/O gets paid 72%). At 6,000 miles a week, if you get it, would be 10 weeks or 2 1/2 mos for the 60,000 miles and 80,000 would be 13.333 weeks 3 mos 1 wk.
• In a truck with someone controlling what you do for mos at a time. Eating and cleaning up when they want. The worst is the eating problem. What will you do? Eat crap food. There's probably not enough room for decent food on board for both drivers. (This is the worst problem because it has a drastic effect on your health).
• And a question still remains, when will a new guy drive. At night or during the day. My reading suggests that new guys my be being used as night drivers. This would be wrong. new guys should do the day driving until they get some expirence. Then the driving night and day driving might me spread out evenly.
• A so called trainee doing his 60-80k miles gets $600.00, a week but probably will drive 2,000-3,000 miles. How much does a team driver get paid?

60,000 to 80,000 miles in a truck with another guy called a trainer, seems to me to be nothing more than a way for Prime to get team drivers, and cheap team drivers to boot.

My guess is that a driver, team driving, will have mostly crap food available to eat. If you have to be out 4-6 weeks and more, most of your time will be exposed to poor food. This leads to poor health, over weight, heart disease, etc. A person might eat OK food at a truck stop I have the T/A menu. But to eat a decent meals twice a would cost about $20.00 a day or more.

 

What you put in your mouth is up to you. Many drivers do hit the buffets and all you can eat catfish places every day. But you can make do with small fridge or cooler just fine. Even Wal mart sells organic and fresh stuff now days. There is no excuse anymore for a sustained diet of garbage unless one chooses it. The guy I drive with eat crap all week and is a pear belly. I work with him on weekends and he likes grabbing a banana or apple that I have brought along. I just get 2 of every thing now. He's a great guy and in his 60's. Trying to get him to make a few good choices so he will be around longer. And you can save a ton of money not hitting every buffet and What a Burger you pass. I still have a burger or 2 every week, but lots more chicken and fruits and veggies. It better work. If I have heart attack I'm going to be chapped that I missed all those chicken fries and pork chops.

 

Sounds familiar, actually.

I have a medium sized cooler (just fits in the closet of my 379). At the start of the run,it has a couple big sub sammiches, about 4 pounds of grapes, and a jar of Strawberry Jam. The sandwiches and grapes last about 4 days - then I go a couple days on PBJ unless I can get to a grocery store that lets me stock up again.

I eat crap too - most notably Hostess Fruit Pies.. I'm a sucker for their lemon pies.

No soda
No Coffee
I drink lemonade or water

Truth of the matter is, though - it's not so much what you eat; it's what you do with it. When you stop for the day, get out of the truck and walk a mile or two. Ride a bike... get some exercise. If you exercise in accordance with your food intake, you'll lose weight, your blood pressure will go down, your cholesterol will balance properly... etc.

Of course, if you don't exercise you shouldn't eat as though you do.

In the past 3 months, I've lost 30 pounds and at least 2 inches from my waist. I have a ways to go, though.

 

Thanks for them food stories guy's. Sounds like there's hope on the road after all.

And thanks notraps for the elaboration, wow. I'm guessing they blamed you for the problems.

 

Lurch,

That's awesome!