PSD/TNT Instructor Info

1. PSD - 1 year
2. TnT - 3 months

Both require a recommendation from your FM. The FM will consider your on time deliveries, MPG, and other driver standards.

 

Alright, I have to ask.

What the hell is Prime's process to upgrade to A seat?

Check ride? Pre trip? Have these people even been inside a truck before?

I really really need to know how the hell these people are getting a CDL, much less allowed to drive on their own.

 

We hook 'em up on Grand Theft Auto, and make sure the score a million!

 

A qualified A seat driver at Prime has a minimum of the following:

1. 100 hours during the CDL instruction, after which they are tested in what I consider one of the hardest places to pass the hands on CDL evaluations.
2. Minimum 30,000 miles with a TnT Trainer, running teams all over the US picking up and delivering freight.
3. Smith Systems class
4. A battery of knowledge tests on a computer that require 100% scores to pass.
5. 2 to 3 days of classes for maintenance, HR, QC operation, Reefer operations, Claims, Safety, and some other small classes.


This is kinda the short version, Longarm. If you read http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...27-new-prime-inc-what-expect-springfield.html you will find this information in much much more detail.

 

That's funny! The last 6 months or so I've put up with some real knuckleheads but, all but one, driving habits haven't been my beef. And the one guy who's driving was ...atrocious to put it kindly; his style was more Granny Theft Auto. That was one slow, frustrating drive until I could get around him. And dangerous. I was waiting for him to hit someone head on. He should probably stick to bicycles, but somehow he passed the test so....

The last 4 or 5 repowers I've done have come to me with issues. Illegal pin settings, illegal axle weights, a few mechanical issues that I've had to fix myself, etc. The last guy asks me what the legal axle weight limits are while handing me a CAT scale showing him 2k over on his drives. Repower before that I notice the trailer tandems are clearly too far back to be legal. I ask what he scaled at and he says, "I don't know. I got on the scale at the shipper and they said I was good to go". I wonder how far that would get him with the DoT man? Trailer was in the 16th hole. And on and on and on.

Thankfully, I've always been able to get those loads legal and be on my way. I've just sucked it up but two drivers in the past week have really got me wondering if Prime really does have a decent training program or if they just grind 'em out like everyone else.

I was sitting at a customer waiting to get loaded. Another Prime gets out of his truck and approaches my truck. He's on the phone and asks me,

"Do you know if anyone in the logs dept. is in today?" and before I could respond, "I need to find out how many hours I have."

.... *blink*

How do you get through all that training and not know even this? His logs were a hot mess and he clearly had zero understanding of the hoops er!.. hours of service regs. I told him to get to a terminal asap for some one on one training.

And yesterday I was at a customer, just hooked an empty. Another driver who had just done the same thing approaches my truck.

"Hey, man. I can't get my trailer brakes to release. I think I might have an airleak". I ask him if he might have hooked his hoses up backwards. It happens. "Naw, man. I don't know what's going on". On the walk over he's going on and on about calling RA or just taking it to Pittston. I wonder how that would've gone? Dragging a trailer with the brakes set. Oh sh**! there goes a tire! When I get to Pittston, they can just put another on after they get these stupid brakes to release! And another! What a POS this trailer is! Thank goodness I'm going above and beyond to get this sucker repaired!

heh. So I walk over and his lines are okay. He assures me his brakes are released. Walk to the rear of the trailer and hear not a peep of an airleak. Pull the pin release button. Trailer isn't aired up. Walk back up and double check his lines to make sure I'm not crosseyed. At this point, as if he read my mind, he gives me the okay to get in his truck. Hop up, release the brakes. Trailer starts airing up, no sign of a leak and he's good to go. I'm a boy wonder mechanic. I didn't even need a fancy diagnostic computer. Them dudes in the trailer shop would be impressed with my prowess. If nothing else I saved the people in RA a silly phone call.

Okay, rant over. I just needed to get that off my chest. I really don't know how these people, even if their trainer sucks and couldn't give a rip less, are getting through the upgrade process. It's astonishing. To you folks who instruct/train and actually do care about putting out safe, responsible drivers; kudos to you.

Speaking of which; is there any incentive for a trainer to actually train a driver? Or do they get the upgrade money as soon as a student goes solo?

 

These guys are only as good as their trainer.

typically the trainee stays on the same fleet board as the trainer. My reputation with my fleet manager is enough to make sure that I train them well.

 

Chuck, the fact that we are on here discussing this is testament to our desire for excellence and how much we care, BUT!!!!! I can't really put it 100% on the trainers. If students don't want to learn or apply the skills taught them, they will just create stories like longarm just told.

At the end of April I was asked to take on a driver with 2.5 years in flatbed and teach him the specialness of reefer driving. After one week I realize that this guy was a steering wheel holder for 5, count them, 5 different lease operators in flatbed and one in reefer that kicked him when the guy went tanker. I sat him down and told him the list of shortcomings that he had, trying not to blame anyone yet, but hinting that the lease drivers took advantage of him. (good assumtion, right?)

Well, we deliver a load from WA state to Savage MD. I took this opportunity to have him plan the trip. After an hour in McDonalds, i go to check on his progress and he is melting down, talking to his momma, and almost crying because he didn't know where he was, didn't know how to read the map, and was overwhelmed at the thought of getting the directions from the QC and following the route on the Atlas. Then, during his shift we hit Indy and this guy has NO CLUE how to get on the 465 to go around the city and gets us off ON CITY STREETS TO GO THROUGH INDIANAPOLIS!!!!! He had no clue how the beltways work around large cities and had a meltdown when I tried to correct him and get us out of a real mess. We continue out to MD and deliver, then get our next load in Florence NJ. I drive us up to Elkton to break until the load is ready (can't arrive early, no overnight parking). This guy melts down AGAIN because he has NEVER driven in the Northeast! All the drivers he was with only ran I40 and south (which explains why they all quit because "PRIME SCREWED THEM OVER") and was literally scared to death just to be close to New Jersey. I told him that I would drive up into NJ and back to Elkton, but he was going to have to drive Baltimore and D.C. This guy calls the FM and demands to be rerouted to Sprimo to get off my truck. I had to right seat him through Baltimore when he started to freak out. After all of this, I realized that this guy DIDN'T WANT TO LEARN. He had already arranged to get on another guys truck, trying to duck learning how to be a driver. I called my FM and turned in my evaluation by email, as well as sitting the guy down in front of Steve Larson.

Well, Mr Larson took the case on, and hopefully is micromanaging this guy's training, but I really think that this guy is going to leave prime and become one of THOSE drivers.

I believe that there are plenty of drivers that were taught the right thing to do, but then disregard what they were taught. I would recommend that Longarm inform his FM, as we all should, of outrageous ignorance of a driver.

 

On axle settings... the same trailer hooked on one of our condos will not necessarily be legal when a company guy in a lightweight hooks onto it. And the same is true the other way around. Now that doesn't discount the fact that a lot of the guys go around with grossly mis-adjusted tandems. The fact is, that I won't accept a repower from a company guy in a lightweight any longer- most of the time the trailer is loaded in a way that I can't get my axles legal in a full-sized Cascadia, even though it's a legal load for the lightweight.

 

Here is my trainer settlement from a few weeks back. I redacted most of the identifiers.

You can see that I collected 100% of the team bonus (5568 - 3500 = 2068 x .10 = $206.80) I only bring this up as someone elsewhere seemed to think the team bonus is shared with the trainee.



My truck is paid .46/mile to run team as a trainer. Plus up to .05 for fuel bonus (I didnt make bonus this particular week) The fuel bonus is shared with the trainee, with 1/4 of the bonus paid.

Just to further explain to those working the numbers from the picture above... the "rate" of $0.29 is my taxable rate per mile. The "travel allowance" is the untaxed amount ($0.05) per mile. .29+.05=.34 is my pay rate as a trainer.

Team bonus is .10/mile for every mile above 3500. (only payable if paperwork is scanned within 48 hours of unload. Same goes for fuel bonus)

Now add in the trainee at .12/mile, and my truck's team rate is .46/mile plus bonuses.

(no state tax as I live in a state with no state income tax)

I left off the rest of the settlement. It comprises of "Reimbursements" (scale tickets, cash tolls, etc) and "Deductions" (healthcare premiums, 401k, dental etc)

 

Thanks for the info. Not sure it will address your concern for trainers "using" students.

 

Thanks for sharing your story. Trucking has always hired from the best-of-the-I-have-no-where-else-to-go crowd. Frequently, these people's second best chance to earn a living is as a Wal Mart cart wrangler. It stands to reason that a few of the lights-on-but-no-one-home will be amongst them.

What I just can't understand, is how people are DQ'd or sent home from orientation for seemingly minor or petty (imo) offenses, yet a guy, in your case, is essentially a student for well over two years and still melts down like a rook being thrown to the wolves for the first time at just the thought of New Jersey? Indianapolis? And he's still in the program? That just blows my mind frankly. He'll never be a successful driver until he can get a grip on his nerves.

I don't know how much weight trainers have in the program but I'm guessing you can check the 'bus ticket home' box? It's one of the many reasons I've declined the offer to train the few times my FM has asked. I don't mind helping a driver out. Not at all. But I don't have the patience to suffer some of these fools in a 24/7 training truck. I'd probably be termed for throwing a student out of the truck...while it's still moving.