Prime Training 101, Part 1

Well I’m a little late in getting this started, but I have been busy getting started on this new adventure so I will start with just a basic blurb about arrival on your fabulous Big Dog bus, arrival at the Prime Campus Inn and your eventual completion of the PSD classroom portion of your training.

This is only my experience and each of you will have a different view of things. Some things have been forgotten already and if I missed anything, I apologize. And now that I have read what I have written I realize that maybe it’s a good thing that I forgot some stuff, this blurb goes on for days. Lol. So here we go, and remember this is from MY experience, so the content, scheduling and requirements may change.

Arrival at Springfield Greyhound Bus Terminal

Before you get off the bus in Springfield, you should have already saved the Prime shuttle number into your phone. You should have gotten this number in one of the many emails from your recruiter. If you haven’t, do it now because you will most likely need it later on, although the Prime Campus shuttle schedule is very regular to the basic places that you will NEED to go during your stay at the campus. In case you didn’t make any friends along your LONG trip on the big dog, you will soon find out that a lot of the people that were on your bus will also be attending the Prime training. I actually found out that the guy that got on my bus in Nashville, sat his happy ass down next to me and then fell fast asleep, was going to Prime. Little did I know it at the time.

Anyway, the shuttle will pick you up in front of the bus station. You hump your own bags. Even if you didn’t call the shuttle, someone else probably did.

Your next stop after catching the shuttle will be the Campus Inn in Springfield, Missouri, not far from the Prime Millennium building. The shuttle can only transport about 12 people when you take into consideration that you must carry your bag on the bus as well. The hotel is owned by Prime and caters to the trucking employees whether you are a first day student getting ready to begin your PSD (Prime Student Driver) training for the next 5 days, or in your TNT (Train the Trainer) phase after you come back from obtaining your 75 hours of actual driving after completing your PSD classroom work, or a prospective “Driver Trainer” looking for a PSD and/or TNT student, or maybe your just a driver looking for some rest while you are having repairs done to your truck, this is the place for a lot of us at some point in our Prime driving career.

So once you’re checked in, you get your room assignment and try to unpack, you begin looking around the “campus” trying to find all the places that you will eventually end up looking for again and again until you get the lay of the land. All of the classes are held in the main building of the hotel campus.

Speaking of your room assignment, upon arrival with your group that just got off the bus, the folks at the front desk will probably ask you as a group, if there is anyone you want to be roommates with. Maybe someone you met on the bus and have gotten to know, maybe not. If you don’t tell them at that time, you will be randomly assigned to a room. You may already have a roommate living there, or you may not. I was fortunate to have a really awesome guy already in the room. Someone who was there for “testing out” and he gladly gave me some tips on the routine. But be forewarned, not all information that you receive from other “students” will be completely correct and you will most likely never get an unbiased opinion about the training, facilities or staff. Just take it all with a grain of salt and go with the flow when you get started. And I said “fortunate” in my description of my roommate because he told it like it actually was and there were no surprises. Like starting any new job, you will always run across someone who has seen, said and done it all. This blog is not about that. I am just giving my perspective on the program and a basic outline of what to probably expect. Things change so don’t take this as a 100% full on definitive way that your 5 days will go.