prime recruiting

That is total BS. If you got a ticket its your own fault.

Everytime I have a mechanical issue that might put me out of service, Prime has me get it fixed right away... so if it was a mechanical ticket, thats your fault, you should have been doing your daily inspections.

You speed, you break the law... thats your fault... you pay the ticket.

You fail to scale your load, tandems in the correct position or fail to go back to the shipper to have the load re-worked to make it legal.. thats your fault... you pay the ticket.

Now what kind of ticket did you get that you feel Prime had to pay for?

The only one responsible for running illegal is the driver. If the driver cant do it legal, its his responsibility to say something. Load will be re-scheudled, re-powered, or re-assigned. Prime isnt looking over the driver's shoulder, and is taking a driver on faith that they can do it legally.

My Fleet manager's pet peeves are service failures (late), citations (tickets) out of service (DOT shutdowns). Communicate any problems as early as possible.

Greedy drivers who cross their fingers they dont get caught are the only ones running illegal.

I once got sandbagged by another driver on a repower. Guy drove 600 miles. He was a few pounds overweight on his tandems and 3 holes past the legal limit for TN. None of which was known by dispatch until I got the load and checked it. Prime left the choice to me and in writting said they would cover any over weight tickets. No pressure. I did it. I only had to get it out of TN to make it legal anyway (less than a 100 miles)

The previous driver even told me the scale was right around the corner from the shipper. If he had taken the load back and had it re-worked and communicated to dispatch... dispatch probably would have had the reciever reschedule, thus being able to deliver legally himself, and not stop short to give it to me because he was running out of hours.

The log hour thing is going to be a moot point. Electronic loggin on nearly the entire fleet by the end of the year. Already on my truck. Only exception I hear, right now, is trucks with old Qualcomms, and those are on trucks that have a year or less before they are turned in.

 

I agree with you on the speeding tickets, but I'm talking about late 80's. We didn't have quallcom, GPS, or any other electronics save your CB, weren't required to carry a cellphone and I don't even think there was any checking of fuel tickets. You ran your butt off or they just replaced you with someone who would. And of 5 speeding tickets I'd accumulated, 3 were bogus (2 of those in Kansas). I had enough points on my license to be close to shutdown, so I quit for good.
Things are a completely different world out here now, and it's why I'm looking at getting back on the road. Running legal will be like a vacation compared to the way we used to have to run. You have other horsepucky to put up with, but at least you get to sleep!
BTW, Prime refused to pay my overweights too, even when there were no scales available. They expected us to run around the scales and miles weren't paid for that either. I'm glad to see they cleaned up their act, although I doubt it was out of compassion for the drivers.

 

I dont know we all have different opinions about every company. Prime might be great for me and it might be the worst company for you. Just do a lot of research and see what works out for you.

 

It's a completely different situation these days Red... they quit running FedX as their primary revenue source, and only run you as hard as you want to run. There's no BS penalty for not wanting to run hard - of course you don't make money sitting in the terminal either. Prime's safety rating is quite a bit better than the national average, and better than most large companies.

 

My recruiter is Aly, it took her 2 weeks to approve my aplpication, and another 2 days to get her supervisor to sign off on my background check because I had a minor in posession of alcohol back in 1999. Now I'm just waiting to get my bus ticket, I start class on the 5th of May, if anyone else is going to start training on that day get back to me. Anyone know how its going to be down there?

DrifterII

 

I start training May 5th. My recruiter is Tabitha and Aly. It took them 2 weeks to approve my application and have the supervisor sign off on it because I had a minor in posession of alcahol in 1999. They finally got it signed off today, now I'm waiting on my bus ticket. If anyone is going to be down there starting training on the 5th, get back to me.

 

Bill starts orientation on Monday April 27-if anyone is interested, I will be happy to post his progress.

 

My recruiter is Don, and I am supposed to go to Springfield on the 29th(provided they approve my application.It's been 1 1/2 weeks for me).Hopefully all goes well.

 

Glad to see your back in the show again. Hope ya'll like Prime and that they treat you well.

 

I've been with Prime for two years now... started as a new CDL from Sage Technical. As a company driver I feel I've been treated very well by Prime. I know what it is to be treated well in employment, so I still wouldn't be here if it were any other way.

A bit of advise... Prime's lease deal isn't a bad way to go as long as you know what you're getting into and treat it like a small business - settlement checks aren't paychecks, it's cashflow into a business - there is a big difference. That being said, this is not a good time to start a new business. Drive company and learn this business, and allow the economy to recover enough to support that business before you bite on that one!