Being A Trainee At Prime Is An Awful Experience.

Indalecio, believe me we're all aware of the fact that training is no bed of roses. In fact, many of us have said that teaming with a trainer can be the toughest part of the entire learning process.

One thing you'll want to do is learn how to communicate your feelings the right way. You're a student in training. You want to be cool about it. Be humble. Calling veteran drivers "toxic" when they say how tough this career is (which you did in a different conversation) and making demands and publicly criticizing people isn't the way to help yourself through this process.

So far you've ruffled the feathers of every veteran you've come across, whether it's in PSD , TNT , or in this forum. You should make it a goal not to do that anymore. You can tell your trainer that you don't think you're a good match and you'd like to request a new one. No big deal. He keeps the heat too high and he doesn't let you take your sweet time exercising. Those are not crimes, and they're certainly not worth making enemies over. Just request a new trainer. No big deal.

Try like crazy to be humble and get along with people, especially as a brand new student driver. If you have what it takes to make it in this career you're going to look back someday and you're going to be the grizzled veteran who's able to look at people and tell right away who is going to make it in this business and who isn't. When you reach that status you'll understand quite well where we're coming from.

View it from his side. He's an owner operator with a truck note and expenses. Stopping for 45 minutes so you can work out is about 50 miles to him. Over the course of 6 days that's 300 miles he'd lose. He doesn't have you in his truck because he cares if you succeed, you're there so he can make more money. Take the time for what it's meant for, practice. Keep in your head that it's temporary and it'll be over soon enough. You have a light at the end of the tunnel, be grateful.

Banks assumes:

He doesn't have you in his truck because he cares if you succeed, you're there so he can make more money.

A trainer's primary job is to train, and they definitely myst have a vested interest in their students success. Their very life and livelihood depends on it. Do you truely believe an under performing student will make their trainer money? Not likely...

If a trainer is in "it" for only the extra money, then eventually apathy and ambivalence will force Prime (in this case) to revoke trainer status.

Banks assumes:

He doesn't have you in his truck because he cares if you succeed, you're there so he can make more money.

A trainer's primary job is to train, and they definitely myst have a vested interest in their students success. Their very life and livelihood depends on it. Do you truely believe an under performing student will make their trainer money? Not likely...

If a trainer is in "it" for only the extra money, then eventually apathy and ambivalence will force Prime (in this case) to revoke trainer status.

That's definitely the idea but not the reality. Run down the horror stories on this site alone. Trainers job is to make sure you know how to properly operate the vehicle, interact with customers and handle your hours. They don't care if you're successful or if you're able to get your workouts in. That's not to say that's all trainers, I've heard of some great ones, but let's not act like all trainers have a huge interest in a trainee's success. They can't wait to get you off the truck like you can't wait to get off yourself.

Banks, your profile says you're a student in training, correct? Actually I don't think you're even in training yet. Do us all a favor and stop talking about the realities of life in this industry. You don't know the first thing about it. I'm already sick of hearing you constantly criticizing everyone as if you've earned that place.

Banks taking G-Town to task:

I've heard of some great ones, but let's not act like all trainers have a huge interest in a trainee's success. They can't wait to get you off the truck like you can't wait to get off yourself.

Really?

Not acting Banks. Did I say they all have a vested interest in a students success? No, not even implied. I said they should and explained why they should and what could happen if they don't.

Thing is, it's rare that drivers write about the good experiences. Very rare. My experience was very good. Bad trainers are not in the majority.

What I said? Take it or leave it,...done debating it.

I apologize if I came off as criticizing anyone or argumentative. That wasn't my intent. I'm trying to convey the perception of somebody doing research and what I'm finding. Primes program is great on the surface but a lot of people seem to be having trouble with it. I've read through Pauls experience, the OP and papa bear. I think of it this way: you need repairs on your truck so you go on Yelp. One shop is advertised as the best, but has a bunch of bad reviews and a small amount of good ones. Would you take your truck there?

Id weigh the reviews. If I read someone expected the shop to replace a transmission for $100, then stomped and cried so.much they got a huge discount off the regular price, then complained the work took too long or the yhe warranty wasny good enough, although he was informed of this earlier....then, no. i wouldnt trust the reviews.

if ypu read the bad reviews of prime, they are almost all drivers who went through training and went right into a lease situation without any knowledge or experience. They then couldnt cut it.

Are there bad trainers? of course. Does every compamy have good and bad qualities? Absolutely.

Is prime perfect? no. But when they are informed of problems, they fix them. If someone doesnt speak up, then who is to blame? Someone on this forum had several accidemts and was given the option of going back into training rather than being terminated. That driver declined, then bashed the company. Many other companies would not have offered, they would have just terminated the driver.

Some people have very different expectatioms of trucking life and training. I love the ones who start wiyh "my family has been in trucking for 3 decades, so i kmow everything". the heck they do

Im a woman. The weaker sex. I got through training, and some pretty bad experiences but i wanted this, knew training was temporary and mad eit happen because i already lnew...what even the OP said, thst prime is a great company that wants its drivers happy.

So what makes me so different from those who fail? What makes Miss Myoshi, Diver Driver, Kanelin, Christian, Icecold, Ernie Turtle, Adam,and so.many others so different. Are we all lying or stupid?

no. we persevered and succeeded .

Id weigh the reviews. If I read someone expected the shop to replace a transmission for $100, then stomped and cried so.much they got a huge discount off the regular price, then complained the work took too long or the yhe warranty wasny good enough, although he was informed of this earlier....then, no. i wouldnt trust the reviews.

if ypu read the bad reviews of prime, they are almost all drivers who went through training and went right into a lease situation without any knowledge or experience. They then couldnt cut it.

Are there bad trainers? of course. Does every compamy have good and bad qualities? Absolutely.

Is prime perfect? no. But when they are informed of problems, they fix them. If someone doesnt speak up, then who is to blame? Someone on this forum had several accidemts and was given the option of going back into training rather than being terminated. That driver declined, then bashed the company. Many other companies would not have offered, they would have just terminated the driver.

Some people have very different expectatioms of trucking life and training. I love the ones who start wiyh "my family has been in trucking for 3 decades, so i kmow everything". the heck they do

Im a woman. The weaker sex. I got through training, and some pretty bad experiences but i wanted this, knew training was temporary and mad eit happen because i already lnew...what even the OP said, thst prime is a great company that wants its drivers happy.

So what makes me so different from those who fail? What makes Miss Myoshi, Diver Driver, Kanelin, Christian, Icecold, Ernie Turtle, Adam,and so.many others so different. Are we all lying or stupid?

no. we persevered and succeeded .

I agree. Your attitude makes all the difference. It doesn't change that there are some bad eggs. I'm taking everything with a grain of salt. I just want to make sure I make the best decision possible. Doesn't matter if I'm paying out of pocket or trading a year for training. Learn from others successes and mistakes.

I apologize if I came off as criticizing anyone or argumentative. That wasn't my intent. I'm trying to convey the perception of somebody doing research and what I'm finding. Primes program is great on the surface but a lot of people seem to be having trouble with it. I've read through Pauls experience, the OP and papa bear. I think of it this way: you need repairs on your truck so you go on Yelp. One shop is advertised as the best, but has a bunch of bad reviews and a small amount of good ones. Would you take your truck there?

A lot of people may be having trouble with Prime’s training, but obviously thousands of drivers didn’t. That’s what I found when researching companies-for every complaint online, there are dozens of drivers working for the same company with no complaints.