My Prime Orientation / PSD Experience

Ms. Anne, thanks for the feedback on shopping and MRE suggestions.

Most welcome, good sir! I'm still following~!!!

Awesome how you have the pre trip nailed. That's the HARDEST part .... to me, anyway! I still practice when Tom brings his rig home. Twenty years of practicing on & off and I'm still not proficient.

Super loving your diary. This community thanks you immensely.

~ Anne ~

Day 8 - 02/07/22

Up at 07:00, had my last free breakfast and then sat down to test my overnight pre-trip retention.

Spent 1.25 hrs running through it, no real issues. Yea, my memory ain’t gone yet!

The trick today will be doing it on a real truck with a bunch of people around.

Arrived at the Plaza early ~09:30. The pad is active today. Nice and sunny, will reach 45F in afternoon. I should have brought a small tube of sunscreen because I tend to burn easily.

There are 8 practice pads here set up for various purposes. This is an impressive operation.

Anyway, back to running through pre-trip until my class roll call at 13:00.

Day 8 continues

Just a quick post. I’m going through my pre-trip script in my head. There are a couple of guys standing nearby talking rather loud.

The one doing all the talking is going on about his drive to AR yesterday and how city driving is really nerve wracking. Then he goes into what he does and doesn’t have down yet on ore-trip.

Yikes! I’ve got to get in my zone and tune out these distractions.

Reminds me of a Kevin Costner movie “For Love of the Game”. He’s an aging baseball pitcher in his last career game throwing a no hitter in Yankee Stadium no less in front of a hostile crowd.

To tune out the noise he starts every pitch with the line “Clear the mechanism” and the noise goes away so he can focus on the pitch.

I need to clear my mechanism!

BTW, Kevin Costner, Bruce Willis and I are the same age! They’re both better looking and a heck of a lot wealthier than I am, but who said that life was “Equitable”?

BTW, Kevin Costner, Bruce Willis and I are the same age! They’re both better looking and a heck of a lot wealthier than I am, but who said that life was “Equitable”?

So ?!?!? Looks are from within. They lost 'their' appeal anyway!! I respect YOU .. MORE!

~ Anne ~

ps: There's THIS: She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy!!! :) *We do exist!*

Day 8 - wrap up

Class was scheduled to start at 13:00. The roll call was started at 12:49-12:57. A couple people were not there. One guy I had been talking to some. He doesn’t seem the type to be late. Oh well.

Pre-Trip class from 13:00-16:43. We went trough the entire 10-pages script today. Cleared up a couple of points for me. Not much else to say.

Dee would throw us a few practical tips for when we become drivers. Most I’ve seen before here on TT posts. Still good reminders.

I ended up with 6.67 hrs of Pre-trip training today between class time plus my self-study.

A few bits of information: > We will test using our Trainer’s truck. Will get to pre-trip it before driving trips to become familiar with it. Good to be familiar with how the truck handles for Backing & Driving tests. > Testing attempts allowed: Pre-Trip & Backing at Prime’s discretion. Driving is 3 times max per MO-DOT. > Prime has ~9,500+ drivers of which 2/3 are lease/owners vs 1/3 Company drivers. Micro-fleets are becoming popular with the L/O crowd.

The plan for tomorrow is that our class starts at 13:00 again. The classes from prior weeks start at 08:00, unless they have a Trainer. Then the schedule is determined by your trainer.

We will be divided into two groups with one doing hands-on pre-trip and the other getting to try backing. I hope to be in the pre-trip group.

Day 9 - 02/08/22

Up at 07:00. A beautiful sunny day. High temp about 55F.

Tested my self on pre-trip for about an hour. All good.

Caught shuttle to the Plaza, arrived at 09:30. At 10:00 went out to the pre-trip pad and practiced PTI on various trucks and trailers for 2 hours. Coached a guy that asked me for help. This was good for me, too.

After roll call for our 13:00 class time, we all went out to continue PTI for 3.5 hours. I managed to get grease on my new work gloves and safety vest. I think a touched a greasy slack adjuster then touched my vest. I know that I avoided the greasy skid plate.

Today was the first FUN day here. Looking forward to tomorrow. Plan to go early again to practice a couple hours before roll call.

My feet are tired after 3.5 hours on my feet without a break. Time to rest my old bones.

Day 9 photos

There are three Prime PSD Driver Trainers who have YouTube channels that you can check out if coming to Prime soon.

“Truckin’ Along With Kearsey”, “Twizted Big D” and “Prime Time Fitz”.

“Twizted Big D” puts out multiple videos per week and provides current updates on the training program. He put one up this week about “The over-thinking student”. His point was that college guys come out here and they over think everything when backing. He says to calm down, listen to your trainer, and you will get this. I get his point.

Day 9 wrap up

Twizted Big D and Prime Time Fitz did a video together a week or two ago talking students. The driver trainers are watching the new students doing PTI to see who has the right attitude to potentially become their students.

Fitz said that he looks for people who are getting greasy touching stuff.

I had that in the back of my mind today and was touching a lot of parts. I wanted the trainers to see that I have a good go-getter attitude about this.

A final note, I met a guy this morning who was testing today. He has only been here since Jan 17, so about 2.5 weeks. He must be a fast learner.

Correction - Jan 17 is 3.5 weeks. That is right in line with the Kearsey’s estimate for the fast students.