Talk About Bad Luck. New Prime Driver

Just a tip, you could manage to get a different truck. Talk to that lady in the Succuss Leasing Office and tell her the situation. Tell her that you have to wait a week because the truck isn't ready. More than likely she'll try to trade you trucks. Just be very nice about it and don't make any demands.

Thanks for the tip. I'll be there Monday AM.

Oops, that was the wrong smiley lol

Be honest, but exaggerate slightly. Let her know that you have to pay for the hotel for four days. Let her know you're anxious to get going.

When you walk in the door she's the first girl on your right.

Very cool and professional of you Terry for not bashing Prime.

My first truck was a hot mess when I picked it up and it too went to the shop right away. After it was fixed and I was rolling, everything started falling into place and hasn't stopped yet (minus a few more stints in the shop and eventually a final ride to Volvo heaven).

I'd like to think in my 44 years, I've gained enough wisdom to know this situation is not Primes fault. Nobody at Prime planned this to happen. Things like this will happen at every truck company, it's inevitable. It's how you deal with it that matters. I see this this as a hurdle and learn from. It's a character builder and one things sure about many truckers: they're certainly characters

Exactly

Terry,

I don't wanna sound rude or like an ass, but this is one of many hurdles you'll face... The thing that helps though is your attitude. Keeping it positive will make everything easier..

Thursday I had a trailer door handle snap in half as I closed the door, lucky for me I was able to shut it and tie it down so I could pull my load, the next day (yesterday) I locked my keys in my truck and left my spare in cab as well, not as bad as you I don't think, but had I rolled with a bad attitude, who knows what may have happened.

Keep a positive outlook on anything that may happen. As I said hope this doesn't come off the wrong way..

Terry,

I don't wanna sound rude or like an ass, but this is one of many hurdles you'll face... The thing that helps though is your attitude. Keeping it positive will make everything easier..

Thursday I had a trailer door handle snap in half as I closed the door, lucky for me I was able to shut it and tie it down so I could pull my load, the next day (yesterday) I locked my keys in my truck and left my spare in cab as well, not as bad as you I don't think, but had I rolled with a bad attitude, who knows what may have happened.

Keep a positive outlook on anything that may happen. As I said hope this doesn't come off the wrong way..

Thanks for the reply David. You've made your point very well and I don't take it as rude at all. In my adult life, I've lived most of it as a "glass half empty" kind of guy. Meeting the love of my life 10 years ago and her non stop chipping away at my attitude, I've managed to start seeing the world thru her eyes. And it's so much prettier. I appreciate advice of keeping positive. It's sometimes hard for me to do. I have a particularly hard head =)

Terry I am glad you listened to our advice. Sure everything could have went perfect and you would have thought we were full of it only to have this happen once you decided to lease a truck. As bad as this sounds I am glad this happened at this moment so you could see the hardships all of us face out here on a daily basis. And trust me this will not be your only difficulty. And it does not get easier,it still sucks when it happens, but what will make the difference is the way you will handle it. Sure you handled it great this time but next time you will have a bit of experience under your belt and realize before hand that it can happen at anytime and it will stress you out less.

No where to go but up from here. Safe travels my friend.

Awesome job of keeping a great attitude and rollin' with it Terry! Every single driver in America will experience that kind of stuff at times and a lot of careers end before they really even get off the ground because people often handle these situations poorly.

I gotta say though...that when you read some of the things that drivers go through out there, its no wonder there's a lack of people willing to go into the trucking biz.

Exactly! It's a really tough job, it's high risk, you're away from home all the time, and there are a million things that can go wrong at any time. Those are not your typical workplace conditions. And because drivers are the bottom of the totem poll in almost all circumstances we never really have much of a say in things. We can make suggestions and requests, but ultimately we never have any authority other than to shut the truck down when it isn't safe to drive. When you're constantly being challenged by your job and lifestyle it can wear on you. When you never have enough authority to make things happen the way you'd like them to (like getting a new truck, a better load, a different appointment time, or more home time) - it can also wear on you.

So you really have to have the patience of a monk and think long term. Don't worry about a slow week once in a while. Don't worry about a breakdown or two. Learn to take advantage of every situation and make the best of it. Get a little extra sleep, read a good book, get some laundry and cleaning done, spend some extra time talking to the family back home - anything productive you can think of during the downtime.

Nobody at Prime planned this to happen

Exactly! Whatever you do, don't get all worked up and draw too many conclusions about a situation. Just because you get a few lousy runs in a row doesn't mean you have a horrible dispatcher. Just because your truck breaks down a couple of times doesn't mean you have a lousy truck. And the big one - just because things aren't going well right now doesn't mean you're working for a lousy company. That is the unfortunate conclusion so many people draw when things don't go well.

If given this exact situation I can guarantee you a small percentage of drivers would have quit the company and went all over the Web bashing Prime when in reality this kind of thing is "just trucking" - nothing more. It's an extremely complex business that counts on three main things to operate - people, machinery, and computers. And anyone who has ever worked with people, machinery, and computers knows they all breakdown once in a while. When you combine the incredible complexity of a large corporation with the frail nature of people, machinery, and computers you're going to have big failures sometimes like Terry is dealing with right now. But rest assured, Prime is no happier about this situation than Terry is. This is just lost money all the way around for everyone. No one is making money when this kind of thing happens and in no way is it reasonable to expect a company to avoid this kind of stuff completely. It's just how things go sometimes.

Great job Terry! We'll add this to the list of unfortunate circumstances that the drivers here have shared with us. I know they'll go a long way toward helping new drivers enter the industry with the right attitude and expectations.

Oh...and one more thing to everyone out there....Please come to us when you encounter difficult circumstances and ask us for advice. Don't get in a fight with management, abandon your truck, quit your job, and then come here to ask us what we think. What we'll think is, "You're screwed now!!!!" So before making any major decisions, explain the circumstances to us and let us help. In this case Terry already knew how to handle it. He's working through it now properly. If you're getting ready to get your trucking career underway make sure you expect this sort of thing and remember we're here to help out when you need it.

Thanks for the tip. I'll be there Monday AM.

Hey Terry her name is Kylah 417-521-3170 is the number Ken C.