Profile For Pamela M.

My husband and I just got our CDL permit today and are planning on going to company paid training at the end of October. We are considering PAM because the training is right here in Lakeland, Florida, but the training school from Driver Solutions seems like a dive. We would appreciate feedback from any of you who work for PAM. How was there training? Are they are good company to work for?

I guess I misunderstood how long it takes to train with Prime, but 3 months is still longer than my husband and I want to wait to team drive.

We were considering PAM and CRST since they both have training schools here in Florida, but we've been leaning toward CRST (We saw PAM's training school through Driver Solutions here in Lakeland and the place looks like a total dive. We also realized that PAM's routes are more limited) CRST is an affordable option with only a 10 month contract, so I think this will be a good option for us.

Great drivers almost universally have great experiences at the major companies, lousy drivers have lousy experiences. It's a performance based industry. If you're a top performer you're going to get great miles, great equipment, better loads, and special favors along the way. If you're a lousy driver you're going to be spending a lot of time sitting around truck stops, you're going to get lousy miles, and you'll almost never get any special favors.

My husband and I couldn't agree more with that statement. We both have a strong work ethic and are committed to excellence, so we're quite confident that we will be successful no matter who we choose.

Thanks for the advice and we are still open to any advice anyone wants to give. We've already passed our DOT physical, are in process of applying for passports, and will be taking the written exams, including tank endorsement, this coming Wednesday (been studying for a few weeks now)

We're very excited for this new adventure/lifestyle!

My husband and I are empty nesters in Florida and want to start a new career as team OTR drivers. It has been a bit overwhelming trying to decide which company to go with. Of course, all the company's websites promise amazing training, pay, etc. However, when we look up reviews for the company, they are 90 to 95 percent negative, claiming pay is/was terrible, lots of sitting around waiting for next assignment, DMs that are horrible, etc. This leads us to conclude that these must be all the whiners and the type of people that wouldn't succeed in any company (for the most part).

So, we are looking for some balanced input. This is obviously a big decision and we want to choose wisely.

The following is our current situation and our career goals: -- We do not have the money to pay for training. -- We can't afford to wait too long to get our first paycheck -- We don't mind having money taken out of our paycheck to pay for the training -- We are committed to staying with the company for the contracted time. -- We want to be able to team drive together as soon as possible, so companies like Prime that require 5 to 6 months of mentoring time are not an option for us. -- We don't mind being on the road for many weeks at a time and we would like to have our home time be at various places throughout the country so we can visit our children, grandchildren, and site see on our days off. -- We don't want to touch our freight AT ALL, so no touch loads are a MUST. Drop and hook is nice, and obviously desirable (who doesn't want that?), but not as important to us. We can sleep or take a walk or something while the truck is being unloaded/loaded. --We really want to make at least 35k each our first year. Is that unrealistic?

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!