Prime Inc Paid CDL Training Salt Lake Training

Gratulations on the upgrade! It's been a pleasure watching you go through TNT. Now the real training begins.

You won't have a trainer over your head. But you also won't have a trainer to fall back on when needed. Just remember to be slow, safe and steady. Good luck and keep us posted!!

Gratulations on the upgrade! It's been a pleasure watching you go through TNT. Now the real training begins.

You won't have a trainer over your head. But you also won't have a trainer to fall back on when needed. Just remember to be slow, safe and steady. Good luck and keep us posted!!

To add to Turtle's advice...don't rush, never allow the chaos of the moment to compromise smart, safe decision making.

Thank you Turtle and GTown. It's weird how your advice is like spot on what my trainer and I spoke about before I got off the truck.

Thanks so much for sharing your journey Eric G. It's much appreciated!

Soooooo my first week solo. Things were pretty interesting. Let's start with Tuesday afternoon I messaged my FM letting them know I was ready to roll. I waited about an hour no word. So I finally called to check the status of well me. Turns out I was not assigned to a fleet manager. Do no one was getting my messages. Wednesday morning my FM calls me, let's me know he is on it and gets me rolling while he works it out.

First load: Salt Lake City -> Grantsvulle, UT -> Twin Falls, ID -> Wilmington, IL. So I go to Grantsvulle to the wal mart dc to pick up a trailer. This is the trailer I'm going to use for my first load. I'm hook up and reDy yo ho during my pretrup I notice the left trailer turn signal on the side of the box dies not operate properly. It signals 4 way and turn, but does not light up for marker lights or all lights. I also thought the trailer inspection sticker was out of date. It said Dec 2016. I thought that was when it expired and not when it was done. So I head back yo the terminal to get a new trailer. That's when I find out I made rookie mistake one with the trailer inspection. But I needed a washout, and the light repaired so no biggie. My route was taking me past the yard anyways. So why go to a TA. I get to the yard and find out the truck I just got assigned needs a upgrade to the collision detection software. No ETA on how long this will take. Mind you I have already accepted a load. Luckily it took about 20 minutes. So after about an hour and a half I'm rolling.

I make it to my shipper in time, it's s drop and hook and I've been here twice in training. Easy Peesy in and out. My 14 was running low so I stopped with about 2 hours left, and called it a night. I had some food to get me to the next payday. Day 2 is just a driving day. I plan my stops and I'm off. Everything is going great... until. I called a Walmart in Cheyenne to see if the allow truck parking. (While on break not driving) I look them up on apple maps using the satellite view. It looks like an easy get in and out. The pic showed a ton of busses parked in their lot that day. I didn't think much of it. So I drive to wal mart. I get there and realize there is no way a truck is parking in here unless they are bobtailing. So I go back to the loading docs and turn around, then drive around the parking lot(not meant for trucks) even says no trucks. However I thought the sign says that but they allow truck parking sooooo. Well I almost get stuck. I had to back up into the gas station attached to the parking lot to make the turn out. I most likely pushed off about 15 wal mart customers. So I abandon this idea and head up to the next TS. BTW my plan was to park overnight so I could go shopping in the morning for cooler and food and some supplies I could not afford before I left.

Day 3. Much the same as 2. A full day of driving. This time I picked a wal mart that I knew had easy truck parking. The only real issue with this day was the start. I learned two different ways to do the air brake check in training. The first was to release both brakes after setting them overnight. Then once the brakes finish moving the air engage the device brake. The second way was at night to only set the tractor brake. Well the first way produced a trailer error message in my Qualcomm. So since this freaked me out. I got with RA and headed to the TA to get the air system checked. All good, user error.

Day 4. So i know this day I'm going to get to my receiver a day early. They allow you to deliver early in excited. Until I read the directions fir the place. On the weekends they don't allow drop and hook between 1630-2230. Just the window in going to arrive. And the hits aren't going to work out fir me to wait it out. So I park 5 miles away and deliver as soon as my 10 is up.

Joliet, IL -> Van Buren Township,MI

Day 5: I had a pre plan fir my next trip. The night before I was trip planning where I needed to go. Washout, what route made since, etc. it was also Father's Day so I made sure to chose places like blue beacon that I knew would be open. I get loaded and roll this is a 290 mile run I can make it in one day. My delivery date is the next day. I arrive well I thought I did. I turned into the wrong place. And almost got stuck again. I did not look at this place in the map. I rushed. Everything I was told not to do I did in terms of slowing down. I made it out backing the truck up do I could turn the truck around the curb. Got to the correct location still a day early but they won't take me until 1 hour before my delivery time. So I drive back to the nearest TS.

Kalamazoo, MI->North Platte, NE

Day 6. I get to my delivery 45 minutes early. Check in then go sit and wait. I check in again 5 minutes before my scheduled time and they give me a door occupied. So I wait again. 3 hours later I'm docked and unloaded and off to the same TS I stayed at the night before. They didn't have s new load fir me yet. I was hoping for a 600-700 mile run that I could deliver early to. Well I got a 900 mile run that I can't delivery early too. And delivery is still 3 days from my pick up day. So I go and pick up. I have been to this location before.

Today: I sit here in a TS 40 miles from NE. I hope I can drop tomorrow a day early.

So my week one totals not as great as Turtles. Only 2000 miles, but a million times more in experiences.

Eric, that was a fantastic write up! I loved how you documented what happened each day, how you tried to do things early, and how you honestly screwed up. I've been reading tons of sparkling success stories where everything the driver does it just perfect. It was awesome to read about someone (you) trying really hard and still things don't always work out... and then how you dealt with it. Or how you admitted to things like rushing and "my bad" but fixed it. Keep the entries coming! They're great! Love the honesty!

I realize this is an older diary and has not had any updates for quite some time but I just wanted to say thank you Eric G. for your comprehensive documentation of your journey. It really helps guys like me get a feel for what we are going to go through. I hope your journey is going well.