For Those Heading To Prime For Training...

When you call their number, do not use your recruiter's extension. Use the main switchboard operator to physically transfer the call. The extension seems to depoit a caller right to voice mail, while I have never failed to get through using the operator. Just an FYI.

Doing that will cut hours of time/waiting and some frustration (and worry) from your life.

Other than that, Prime is pretty smooth to deal with. They were up front and honest about everything (I have ropevious experience from the 1990's, so I knew what would be true, omitted, or outright false. I knew which questions to ask,b ut only got to ask one; they answered all the rest on their own. They even added information about which I forgot to ask. It was quite easy to forget I was talking to a recruiter.

If the restof training is that way (mainly), this is gonna be fun!

Did they go into detail about home time for company drivers?? They'll tell you the policy is 1 day home for 7 days worked. But not that days you work over 21 or 28 don't carry over. IE if you stay out 25 days you get 3 days off earned. The extra 4 you had over the 21 don't carry over to the next trip. You lose them.

If anyone else had it different, I'd like to know.

Did they go into detail about home time for company drivers?? They'll tell you the policy is 1 day home for 7 days worked. But not that days you work over 21 or 28 don't carry over. IE if you stay out 25 days you get 3 days off earned. The extra 4 you had over the 21 don't carry over to the next trip. You lose them.

If anyone else had it different, I'd like to know.

I can only state what I know about their (intended) training. Expect to be out and away from "home" the ENTIRE time. You might be fortunate to have a trainer who either live in your general area OR decides he/she will sacrifice their own home time for yours. However, do not count on that. That breed is rare; very rare.

Prime it mainly OTR; expect that lifestyle (nomadic). Old School, really. 3 - 6 weeks out, even after going solo. It also depends on where you live! if you live in traditioanlyl heavy freight areas (ie, major urban areas) AND close enough to their terminals, you will probably get home more often than those who do not; even when you don't wanna. Expect, however to be gone 4 - 6 weeks at ashot most of the time, epecially during high-frieght times of the year. Training? You'll likely be gone the entire time, unless your trainer is a rare type to sacrifice their own home time OR lives close enough to allow you the same hometime.

I do not know about theri regional/local opportunities. All I have dis\covered thus far is: they have those, but it's very VERY rare. I do see, however, they do not have a lot of complaints against them, overall. Even former drivers seem to miss them, even if they are working elsewhere at the time.

I fyou want more hometime (week out, weekends in, or home nightly), then spend the year sucking it up at Prime, then switch to what you NEED to do. Right now, do what you HAVE to do.

Beyond that, I cannot advise or even posit a guess. Perhaps someone else more experienced with Prime's real world operations can chime in.

Mike

Please forgive all my typoes. I somehow got rid of the spell check on this browser. I will take care of that right now. LOL

Did they go into detail about home time for company drivers?? They'll tell you the policy is 1 day home for 7 days worked. But not that days you work over 21 or 28 don't carry over. IE if you stay out 25 days you get 3 days off earned. The extra 4 you had over the 21 don't carry over to the next trip. You lose them.

If anyone else had it different, I'd like to know.

I can only state what I know about their (intended) training. Expect to be out and away from "home" the ENTIRE time. You might be fortunate to have a trainer who either live in your general area OR decides he/she will sacrifice their own home time for yours. However, do not count on that. That breed is rare; very rare.

Prime it mainly OTR; expect that lifestyle (nomadic). Old School, really. 3 - 6 weeks out, even after going solo. It also depends on where you live! if you live in traditioanlyl heavy freight areas (ie, major urban areas) AND close enough to their terminals, you will probably get home more often than those who do not; even when you don't wanna. Expect, however to be gone 4 - 6 weeks at ashot most of the time, epecially during high-frieght times of the year. Training? You'll likely be gone the entire time, unless your trainer is a rare type to sacrifice their own home time OR lives close enough to allow you the same hometime.

I do not know about theri regional/local opportunities. All I have dis\covered thus far is: they have those, but it's very VERY rare. I do see, however, they do not have a lot of complaints against them, overall. Even former drivers seem to miss them, even if they are working elsewhere at the time.

I fyou want more hometime (week out, weekends in, or home nightly), then spend the year sucking it up at Prime, then switch to what you NEED to do. Right now, do what you HAVE to do.

Beyond that, I cannot advise or even posit a guess. Perhaps someone else more experienced with Prime's real world operations can chime in.

Mike

Just want to touch on a few specifics with this post.

It's my understanding that the mid-west and southeast regional divisions are easy to get into, whereas there is a Texas regional that has a short waiting list. These drivers get home more often.

I don't know if getting home before going solo is THAT rare. They seem to always try to get drivers home after their first couple weeks of TNT.

Did they go into detail about home time for company drivers?? They'll tell you the policy is 1 day home for 7 days worked. But not that days you work over 21 or 28 don't carry over. IE if you stay out 25 days you get 3 days off earned. The extra 4 you had over the 21 don't carry over to the next trip. You lose them.

If anyone else had it different, I'd like to know.

I can only state what I know about their (intended) training. Expect to be out and away from "home" the ENTIRE time. You might be fortunate to have a trainer who either live in your general area OR decides he/she will sacrifice their own home time for yours. However, do not count on that. That breed is rare; very rare.

Prime it mainly OTR; expect that lifestyle (nomadic). Old School, really. 3 - 6 weeks out, even after going solo. It also depends on where you live! if you live in traditioanlyl heavy freight areas (ie, major urban areas) AND close enough to their terminals, you will probably get home more often than those who do not; even when you don't wanna. Expect, however to be gone 4 - 6 weeks at ashot most of the time, epecially during high-frieght times of the year. Training? You'll likely be gone the entire time, unless your trainer is a rare type to sacrifice their own home time OR lives close enough to allow you the same hometime.

I do not know about theri regional/local opportunities. All I have dis\covered thus far is: they have those, but it's very VERY rare. I do see, however, they do not have a lot of complaints against them, overall. Even former drivers seem to miss them, even if they are working elsewhere at the time.

I fyou want more hometime (week out, weekends in, or home nightly), then spend the year sucking it up at Prime, then switch to what you NEED to do. Right now, do what you HAVE to do.

Beyond that, I cannot advise or even posit a guess. Perhaps someone else more experienced with Prime's real world operations can chime in.

Mike

Just want to touch on a few specifics with this post.

It's my understanding that the mid-west and southeast regional divisions are easy to get into, whereas there is a Texas regional that has a short waiting list. These drivers get home more often.

I don't know if getting home before going solo is THAT rare. They seem to always try to get drivers home after their first couple weeks of TNT.

Nice! Is that a choice, or do they force home time that soon?

Did they go into detail about home time for company drivers?? They'll tell you the policy is 1 day home for 7 days worked. But not that days you work over 21 or 28 don't carry over. IE if you stay out 25 days you get 3 days off earned. The extra 4 you had over the 21 don't carry over to the next trip. You lose them.

If anyone else had it different, I'd like to know.

I drove for prime, and yes you accrue 1 day for each 7 out. Home time cannot be any longer than 4 days, though did me good once or twice when I need it and got extra. The do accrue, so you can use them whenever, Mine never expired.

As far as training, company policy is no home time until you go solo, and you will go with a load. My Dispatcher was pretty cool, and always got me into town a day or so early, allowing me extra free time. Also, any day you drive any portion of the load, counts as a drive day. So say my home time is scheduled mon-thurs, my dispatcher will try to get me a load delivering Sunday. Sometimes, morning, sometimes evening, but almost always a day early.

As far as getting by home, I wouldn't count on it. I live in Atlanta, Ga but as a rule my dispatcher kept me everywhere but the South East. Now, I've also talked to other driver's that said differently, so maybe it varies by dispatcher.

As far as actually taking home time? that really is entirely up to you, and yes, you can go home every 4 weeks, (minimum time out for Prime). But keep in mind your pay is directly related to your miles, as is your dispatcher's pay. The difference is you Dispatcher might have 45 drivers on his / her board. Now if you take home time every 4 weeks, you might 'slip down' the list of your dispatcher better drivers. I usually took home time every 6-8 weeks. Another thing to consider, is if you take 4 days off every month, thats the equivalent of taking 6-7 weeks off per year. That could make the difference of a 37K annually, or only 30K.

Finally, Prime does not have regional routes, though they did have me on somewhat of a schedule as far as places I went. Indy was popular, Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, Nashville, Michigan, Dallas, Houston, Idaho - Potatoes, California LA and Santa Maria - produce., Utah, New Jersey .... well you get the idea. By the time you finish training and start solo, you will start going .... I remember this place..... And say hello to the Nestle bunny for me.