Profile For Francia F.

Rainy:

You did 36 hours on the bus? OMG that must have been quite a trip! I'm SOOO glad I flew in cause I heard the bus I would have been on broke down twice and had a 10 hour layover in Dallas or something. I can't imagine that. I know the people that did come in on that bus looked like they'd been through the ringer. They were exhausted and hungry. I felt so bad for them, but I was so grateful to have flown United. I don't think they advertise the fact that they will reimburse you for the price of the bus ticket if you take some other form of transportation to get here. A few people drove their cars (would have been really nice) and they reimbursed them for gas up to the price of the bus ticket. My recruiter told me there really wasn't enough parking for personal vehicles, but the people that did drive in don't seem to have much of a problem.

The catch is you have to wait until you get your CDL to get that money back. It might be that you get reimbursed in TNT but I'm not 100 percent sure on that one. Maybe someone else here at Prime knows? Anyway, those Greyhounds sure have gone down quite a bit. They used to be pretty nice but NO ONE likes "The Hound."

RAMS4LIFE:

Sorry, just saw this! Yes you DO have to bring your social security card, your driver's license or state I.D. and don't forget your birth certificate. It has to be an original, not a copy or laminated. You have to have those three things to process out at the DMV (after you have passed the written tests). You will go up to the second floor, they will punch holes in your state driver's license (which will now be void) and then will issue you a Missouri driver's license and CLP (commercial learner's permit). That will now be your driver's license. After you get your CDL, they will route you through your home state in TNT and I think you have 30 days to transfer your Missouri CDL-A license back to your home state. I could be wrong on that though. Maybe Brett, Old School, G-Town or Rainy could answer that question. Hope this helps you and hopefully will get to meet you here at Prime!

Hi Everyone!

I am now in my third week at Prime in PSD. I have an awesome trainer. He is military, very strict, but he's fair. We have literally been working on backing from 8:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. for the past week. Today was my first day off since then and I sure needed it! Got all my laundry done and am in my room studying Daniel's Pre-Trip here on Trucking Truth. Brett, everyone I've talked to that studied the High Road Training Program here has passed on the first try. I can't tell you what an awesome program that is and how much help it's been to so many people!

Anyway, I've been working on my backing. Can do a straight back and offsets, but still shaky on the alley dock and parallel. I can get it with a lot of pull-ups and the extra pull-ups are only one point, so I may have to do that to pass, but I will try to hit my reference marks so I don't have to. There are supposed to be 150 new students coming in tonight. We are a bit short on trainers so not sure what's going to happen, but I'm sure it will all work out. It always does here at Prime. I'm amazed at the Millennium Building that Mr. Low (the President of Prime) has built for the drivers. It is awesome! Full-size basketball court, salon, massages, movie theater and a fantastic grille.

I am supposed to test out on Tuesday, so y'all wish me luck! I'm trying not to let my nerves get the best of me, but a lot is riding on this and I am studying hard and practicing backing until then. I'll let y'all know what happens.

Thanks for reading and I'll post after I test to let y'all know what happened.

Kim T. got her CDL a few days ago! So happy for you, Kim! I know how hard you worked. I guess you will be leaving for TNT shortly, but just wanted to give her a shout-out and say congrats and be safe!!!

Thanks for the pre-trip info, Rainy!! I actually saw that video and it is a good one. One of the classroom instructors here said, "Okay, who's been watching YouTube pre-trip videos? I raised my hand. He said "STOP! Don't do that anymore!" I think he was mostly talking about the truckers who do the videos not the Driver Solutions one. They even had that one on a video here. It is a very good pre-trip video. Oh, and Daniel B.'s pre-trip is amazing! Identical to the sheet that Prime gives you, but with pictures. Very well done!!

Thanks, Mike!

I see you're from Texas too! Three people in my class are from Houston, as am I. I wasn't surprised though. There are a ton of people here from Texas. Not sure where Deep E. Texas is, LOL, but I assume it's somewhere in east Texas? I was a nervous wreck before I left for Prime but once you get here, you will find that everyone is very helpful and things just kind of roll along. I will say this again, though, Prime's motto is "Early is on time. On time is late" and they really mean that. They just want to make sure you can manage your time well and get everything done all with a good attitude. You will have time to chill out, go eat (but don't go to Appleby's or the Oasis and drink!!!) You will also have time for smoke breaks if you smoke. There are a lot of people here who vape, but I'm still working on quitting cigs (ugh). I'm thinking about going back to patches. Cigarettes on the east coast are anywhere from $11.00 to $14.00 a PACK! That's terrible. Newports here are only $5.40/pk. They are $8.00 in Houston!!

Anyway, hope I've been of some help. If you have any questions, there are plenty of experienced drivers here that can and always are willing to help. I can help with most orientation questions, but since I'm not a driver, I can't give out any driving advice! LOL I hope to be one day soon, though. Oh, another thing, I WAY over-packed. Just bring enough clothes for one week. There are washers/dryers here. It is $1.50 to wash and $1.00 to dry, so not bad. If you are coming soon, bring a jacket cause I hear it's fixing to get cold, but we have been on the training pad starting Saturday all day in the sun and it's been HOT. I'm used to the heat being from Houston, but it's still hot out on the pad all day so hoping for some cooler weather soon. Hope to meet you here at Prime!!

Be safe out there everyone!!

Wow, Daniel! Rainy directed me to your pre-trip inspection here on Trucking Truth. Just wanted to say you did a fantastic job with all the pictures and everything. It is really helping me here at Prime. And not just me! There are a ton of people in my class who are using your pre-trip, so just wanted to say thank you for putting all that together! Prime gives you an app for pre-trip, but it's nowhere near the one you have done, so a HUGE thank you. It is really helping a lot of people!

Thanks or the welcome post, Rainy!!

I never got to see the rooms at the Oasis but thanks for the pics. NICE! I did go to eat at Fire N Ice and had some fried calamari. It was soo good. I went with a couple of drivers who were drinking so I made sure the bartender knew I was NOT drinking and had a coke. I am in PSD so I'm not allowed to drink. No big deal. The Oasis is a beautiful hotel (at least the lobby and fountains!) I actually bypassed the "hound" and flew in. It was a direct flight on United from Houston straight to Springfield. It was like $400.00 so Prime will reimburse me the difference (the bus is about $200.00) It was so worth it. The "hound" would have taken me about 18 hours to get here. The flight took only 1 hour and 10 minutes, so you can't beat that! I stayed at the Fairfield Inn and Suites Saturday night which I think is comparable to the Oasis. Anyway, now, I'm in the old part of Campus Inn (with no carpet or microwave) LOL but it's free so I'm not complaining. Jeez, we lost more people this week. I hate to see anyone go home. Just hope I can pass the pre-trip and CDL test!! There is so much to learn. Already found several people here who are using the High Road Training for pre-trip. Brett, I can't tell you thanks enough for that program! It is truly the most awesome CDL training program out there!

Well, got to get to simulator class for more alley dock backing. (No blindside yet).

Be safe out there, everyone, and thanks for the warm welcome, Rainy!!! Hope to see you here at Prime sometime!!

Hi Everyone!

Well, made it through my first week at Prime. I am now officially a "Primate." LOL I thought I would post a little bit about my experience this week. There were 80 people in my class (a relatively small class compared to the 240 that are due in tomorrow night!!! WOW) I am at Campus Inn. If the Campus Inn is booked, you will go to either the Oasis (NICE!!) or the Lamplighter (ok, but nowhere near as nice as the Oasis!!)

Let me start off by saying, DO NOT lie on your application! They are like the FBI here. They check ALL your previous jobs and verify your references. If you have an outstanding ticket or warrant, get it paid before you come!! You get a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call Monday through Friday and are expected in class by 7:00 a.m. GET TO CLASS BY 10 TILL 7!!! At Prime, early is on time, on time is late! DO NOT BE LATE to anything or they will send you home! You have to accomplish four things in your first week. Not necessarily in this order, but you have until Friday to pass the written CDL permit exam. You can go to the DMV starting on Tuesday and they give you two tries a day to pass. Example, if you pass combination, air brakes and tanker, you just need to keep taking general knowledge until you pass it. Thanks to Brett's High Road Training Program, I passed all four on the first try!!! I even made 100 on tanker! Monday is the drug test, physical (consisting of a hearing test, eye test and blood pressure). The cutoff is 140/90. I had a 140/70. Right on the cutoff. I just squeaked by!! Phew! They will let you come back the next day if it's too high and do your blood pressure again. Next, you see the doctor. He tests your reflexes, then you pull his fingers and push against his palms. Then he had me touch my toes, squat and walk two steps. The whole thing lasted about five minutes. They send the drug tests off to a lab, but, be warned, they have a dipstick test that they do onsite right then and there. DO NOT COME HERE DIRTY. Three people got sent home and their drug tests hadn't even been sent to the lab. They tell you not to flush the toilet. Not sure why, but they did. I think they test that water for fake pee?? Anyway, if you even think you might test positive, don't come to Prime. The DOT now does a 12-panel vs. the old 5-panel drug test. Google that. They test for EVERYTHING!!! On Monday, you will be given 30 computer-based training videos. You watch the videos and take a little test after. THESE MUST BE DONE BY WEDNESDAY. The computer room is open until 11:00 p.m. so you can go do them in there after dinner. I brought my laptop and did them in my room. Then you will have simulator lab. You will drive down a freeway, through town (make sure to read your signs and follow the truck routes). After two days on the sim, you will test (using the freeway one). You have to pass this to move on. I passed with an 80 (went over the white line three times and followed too closely (really was 7 seconds instead of 9 seconds, but still too close). You also get to back the truck into a dock on the simulator but this is not part of the test. The first time I tried to back, my tandems kept going too far to the left. You turn towards the problem, everyone says. The next time I did the backing, I got that sucker inside of the cones and bumped the dock (that's what you are supposed to do. LOL) Mr. Low (owner and CEO of Prime) paid multi-millions of dollars for these simulators and they are really cool! I don't think any other company has them. Anyway, this whole week is to see how you manage your time and your attitude. One lady got sent home for cussing out the cafeteria lady!! All the staff is really nice here, and I can't imagine doing that, but she did! The way they look at it, if you can't get to class on time, you can't be depended on to deliver a load on time! Makes sense to me. If you treat the staff with disrespect, you most likely will treat shippers and receivers the same way. If you complete the physical, drug test, written CDL exams and simulator, you will get a purple badge. That is the coveted badge that allows you to go to the Millennium Building. You cannot go over there without it. Got to go yesterday and it was every bit as awesome as I heard it was. The food here at the Campus Inn is good, but the food at the Millennium is even better (they will grill your steak in front of you.) YUMMMY!

A few no-nos: don't lie on your app, don't cuss out any staff member, don't drink while in either PSD or TNT, and last, but not least, DON'T BE LATE TO CLASS!! Oh, and they tell you that if you are here to meet the love of your life, Prime is not the place! LOL Gotta go, I'm tired. It's been a long week but it went fast and the best is yet to come! Thanks for listening. Hope it helps somebody coming to Prime!!!

Thanks for the welcome, Old School!

I'm not usually one for putting my private stuff out there, but I was just trying to prove a point. I will post more on my journey as I go through it. I've seen so many diaries on here and it really has helped me prepare to be a "Primate." LOL

Anyway, take care and be safe out there!

Francia (pronounced "Fransha")