Prime: Let's Do This!

Congratulations!

Now, as for the other stuff... We're all nervous in training and we're all afraid of the asphalt boogey man. Stop thinking about it right now and focus on what's in front of you at the moment.

Do well in training, and you'll do well on the road. You've got the right attitude. So just focus on what's on front of you right now and you'll do great out here!

I'm about to head out with my trainer in a few hours. I'm still nervous but not near as bad as I was. We went out on the pad, drove around a bit and then practiced straight back and offset. For as little experience I had I did pretty good after that first couple times. He was patient and helped by asking questions on what I wanted to happen. Hopefully this is a good sign. We are going to be heading Texas and depending on timeframe one of my friends who drives for another company might be able to meet up and have dinner with me, just depends on schedules. I'm super excited to get this going even tho I'll be driving through Houston lol

I'm about to head out with my trainer in a few hours. I'm still nervous but not near as bad as I was. We went out on the pad, drove around a bit and then practiced straight back and offset. For as little experience I had I did pretty good after that first couple times. He was patient and helped by asking questions on what I wanted to happen. Hopefully this is a good sign. We are going to be heading Texas and depending on timeframe one of my friends who drives for another company might be able to meet up and have dinner with me, just depends on schedules. I'm super excited to get this going even tho I'll be driving through Houston lol

This is excellent Bran. The more you put yourself out there, the better you’ll do on your testing. I didn’t get much of any local driving in before testing & suffered the consequences of that. The backing is super easy on the pad once you set up properly & used your reference points at the proper times. Slow & easy, 15 mins is a super long time to get it done. Practice those in cab/air brake & lights speeches. Heck, write them down over & over again if you have to. That’s how I memorized them.

Good luck & be safe out there.

I'm super excited to get this going even tho I'll be driving through Houston lol

Now, now... We must be polite and treat Texans like they are just as good (or normal) as anyone else.

Oh crap! Why do they let me post unsupervised???

Avoid 290

Welp the past two days have been awesome!

I'll start with yesterday (ish). We left out of Springfield late Wednesday night with the instructor driving so I wouldn't have to start late at night with no extra sleep. We drove over to a dog food plant to get an empty, which took an hour, then over to a chicken processing place. Both were smelly and gross, we had to wait forever at the chicken place to get loaded with product. We ended up getting some sleep and heading out from there. By time it got light out I was able to hop in the driver seat and drive for 6 hours. It was crazy and I was a nervous wreck! But after. Little bit I slowly got less nervous. I even got to drive through Dallas, TX, which shot my nerves to Max level. I made it though and my trainer said I did an awesome job, even doing a right hand turn out of a truck stop we took a break at. What was even more cool is a friend of mine that drives for another company was able to stop at same place to have dinner with me ( he is a smelly flatbedder 😉 ). This morning we did two unloads and I was introduced to more of the hurry up and wait if truck driving. The only issue I had driving to receiver was I pressed the brake too hard and the load shifted, causing a few boxes to be damaged and rejected.

Currently I'm sitting in the truck while the trainer is home with family since he lives here. I'm able to just relax and have free run per his words. Tomorrow he is going to drive me around town a bit in a car so I can be a tourist, then we head back north with a load Sunday.

I'm having lots of fun, learning a ton, and becoming more at ease with this plan of mine. My instructor is super patient and calm, which helps a lot.

Safe travels folks! thanks

Sounds like you pretty cool trainer so that is a huge positive. It makes learning a whole lot easier and a lot less stressful. Sounds like things are going well so far and I am enjoying reading your updates. Keep up the good work and ask lots of questions and just become a sponge absorbing every little thing that you can no matter how irrelevant it may seem right now.

Wow! Off to an awesome start! Just a few weeks ago and you weren't even sure what to pack - and now you're rolling a big rig down the road and living the dream!

Congratulations, brother, you've earned it the freedom and the views that are just around every bend in the road... Your road now!

Thanks guys! This adventure is awesome so far, even though it's had ups and downs I'm glad to be here. I know I have lots to learn so I listen and watch. I'm not perfect by any means but I want to do the best I can.

The only "complaint" I have is my trainer is lease, he says that I am my own captain and choose my course but he feels I'd do great at lease. So he is always talking about how "great" leasing is. I just smile and nod. Lease does sound good but I'm going to take the advice of everyone here and stick with going company.

Most trainers are lease ops. Why? Because they need the additional income to offset the ridiculously high price of purchasing Prime's truck for them.

That's really what this comes down to, you know. The megas have figured a way to get the sheeple to pay upwards of 200k for a truck that might cost the mega 150k. Then at the end of the lease, the mega gets the truck back!

Lease ops will always try to convince you that leasing is great! But in reality they are only trying to convince themselves that they weren't duped into a one-sided agreement that favors only the mega.

My trainer at Prime was a lease op also, but had started out nine years previously as a company driver. He himself said that he had it better as company. I didn't need convincing though, as I had predetermined long prior to that to stay company.

You're doing great Bran. Don't drink the Kool-Aid.