Prime vs. Knight for a new student?

"My question is what company should I go with?" - The_IE_909

Only YOU can make this final decision, however you've definitely come to the right place to gain some insight.

Within this forum are company specific active threads hosted by current employees of the companies you are mentioning.

And you can always go directly to the horses mouth.

I've been considering a company based in Oklahoma for my OTR start and I'm registered in North Carolina.

It's been my observation that "home" time is based upon your residential address. Once you've been assigned a truck, you'll pretty much stay OTR until you've put in a request to come home. At that time, you're put into the cue for routing close to your "address".

There are no terminals near my house either, so I would be aiming for a secure place that I can park the truck that meets my company's approval.

I do have some limited experience in the industry and it seems many drivers are allowed to take their trucks home in this fashion.

I suppose each and every company has some resemblance of this.

Regardless, I hope to spend as much time as possible OTR because it's what I want to do. "Home is where the heart is", and for the first couple of years...I plan to have my "home" over the road.

Not having a wife or kids will certainly make this more doable.

I wish you good luck and Godspeed..

 

If I were you I'd go with Prime, as a noob you can earn .42CPM right away in one of their smaller tractors.
Where else can you earn that much right away? nowhere.
Call Knight and ask them if they'll match Prime's pay and see what they say.

 

Prime uses a drop yard in Fontana... for home time you'd drop the trailer there and I'm sure security would insist you park the tractor there too.

 

I have been at Prime for 10+ years, with all companies they have their faults. I started a lease purchase for 2.5 years and saved $10,000 to put down for an Ace Lease, and paid it off in 3 years.
now I'm on the second Ace Lease and not being an idiot and saving for future repairs. I cannot speak about the company side other then you are in a good dedicated freight area.

I live in WA and the closest yard is SLC, when you go home you will have to drop the trailer at a shipper or receiver with a secured lot. Fontana is great for your location.

The last few years my avg take home .46 cpm, that is with $909 lease payment that will be done in 7 months. After that I go up to .72 cpm.

The best advice is run with the freight they dispatch, I have turned down maybe 4 loads in 10 years due to the North East. This is the part of the country I will not go. Another is lots of people are always complaining to their fleet manager about stupid things, this get you nowhere but put at the bottom of the list as a driver that makes this Fleet Manger no money. and the big one is get good fuel mileage, you will not make it as a lease getting bad MPG.

 

Glad ta have you aboard Grimreefer!

 

Thanks, I know how lost I was when I started looking at carriers. LOL

 

Prime & Knight are both OK. Prime may be a little better pay wise in the beginning.

KKW Trucking in Pomona has a CDL training program.
One driver posted they hired him without a CDL and will give him OJT.
Don't know how accurate this is, but you can call and ask.

 

As a previous Prime driver, I have to agree with Ironpony above. They have a drop yard in Fontana so home time shouldn't be an issue. As for us, we live in Texas and Prime doesn't have a yard anywhere near us. They would usually just get us a load to a Walmart about 45 miles away and we would drop our load there and bobtail home. Then reverse the process when it was time to head out again. Not having a yard or terminal near our home was never an issue and you shouldn't have an issue with it either.