Prime: Orientation and Training?

I was talking to one of the more experiance guys at prime and he was telling about a run they call "the cheese run" you go from FL to Ca and then to WI? Have anyone heard of this run? I may be wrong on the states but i know for sure that you goto WI

 

Ive never heard of it, that doesnt mean its not true.

There is the "french fry" or "curly fries" run... Northern Maine to US Cold Storage in Bethlehem, PA...

At Prime if you deliver a load in Northern Mass, or lower Maine... chances are your headed up to Easton, ME for the fries. I-95 North.. just before the Canadian border turn left on US 1 and go north another 50 miles.

It seems everytime I go to G.Mills in Murfreesboro TN it delivers in Kalamazoo MI... Cargill in Hazelton PA is either Walmart DC in Washington Ct House or Wintersville OH.

I have one I like, Ive done it 3 times... always the same and a very light load... cross dock drop and hook from Walmart DC in Laurens, SC to St. Joseph MO

 

The guy I was talking to said if you get into the cheese run you'll get around 4000 miles that week. Thats as a solo. There is no huge wait at shippers and receivers because its usually a drop and hook.

 

Ahem... and you believe this?

 

lol good luck on that unless u are team

 

my cdl instructor has the new paperless log and they are NOT throwing as many miles as they can at him or me... we average 2500 a week...we have mostly been in the upper midwest region..paperless log is nice it has a line 5 on is for off duty driving time.. when u are bobtailing that does NOt go aganst your 11 driving hours clock..

and justin30 u will be at prime longer then 1 week .. do u have a cdl licence or permit yet? the classes are 3 weeks behind getting trainers and instructors assigned... and the hotel is full that there assiging people over across the street at the oasis hotel cause they ran out of room...

 

I was told by a recruiter that PRIME owns the place across the street just for this reason, wether or not its true i dunno but why would she say it? Well,thats not a good statement, i mean why would they say alot of things,lol. But i was told they own all the lodging facilitys there and across the street.

 

Its a bit confusing but... yes, Prime owns at least 2 hotels... Mr. Low even owns a Casino in Mississippi.

The Campus Inn is the primary one... It houses the classrooms, some training offices, and a cafeteria. it has rooms of varying degrees of comfort... When there for training, typically you will share a room with the basic 2 beds, bathroom, TV. There are some nicer single rooms, some with better TVs and even mini fridges... on the singles I think they try and hold out with them for paying drivers, and fill them with students/orientation drivers as needed. By no means is it a "palace" but not a bad place.

Next Door is/was the Oasis. (As far as I know we still own it but a Ramada franchise to make it easier for regular folks to find and book a room there) It is has a convention hall, a restaurant, and bar. In the past students and paying drivers have been assigned rooms there only as the Campus Inn fills up.

The Oasis/Ramada is used for overflow, but unlike the Campus Inn its business model is that of any typical hotel... normal everyday guests.

As far as owning the motel across the street, I havent heard that we own that one, unless you are mistaken and thinking of the motel next door...

the two are seperated by a privacy plastic fence with a couple open access walkways... we have the Christmas party at the Convention hall and booking rooms in either one were pretty easy.

BTW- dont bother visiting the Fire and Ice Bar at the Oasis if your training or in orientation, they dont tolerate drinking under this probationary period.

Within a 8 minute walking radius there is over half a dozen restraunts, a wal-mart, and a couple gas station convience stores.

A shuttle runs between Prime and the Campus Inn... other than that, officially its only for Prime business... like if you need to go to Freightliner, Greyhound, Airport, Thermo King, DMV... sometimes if its slow, you can get them to take you someplace out of route like K-mart(usually not very far out of route) but in these rare instances dont count on them waiting or coming back for you... Forget about the movies or the mall they are practically on the other side of town.

 

Your opinion. You know the old saw about opinions and the nether regions. Speaking as someone who has been on the road for some time, I'm not looking forward to it. There are situations that will not help your bottom liine built into the problem, and I'm not convinced our "crack" sales department really has their stuff in one sock when it comes to dealing with the electronic system. In addition, it will certainly cause problems with shippers/receivers who do not have any legal parking within 6/10 of mile from the dock door.

That's true as long as you are not "under load." If you are bobtailing with no responsibility for a load, then yeah, it goes down as "personal drive time." Get in an accident, get pulled over by DOT on the way to pickup an empty while under dispatch - guess what? If you're under dispatch, its line 3.

 

Ironpony is right there is no way Paperless logs can be financially beneficial to the driver.