My Time At PRIME.

Hello all. I'm back again, I posted in the forum earlier with questions about the equipment in the trucks, and my condition of having sickle cell and driving, and having home-time in different areas other than your home location. Thanks for all the replies on the information. I meant to reply with a thanks but have been quite busy since then. I have been considering a career in trucking for sometime now but for some reason just have never gone through with it. I have a decent job working at Fed-Ex as an operations manager but for various reasons I'm no longer happy working there so I've decided to pursue a career in trucking and this is how it's gone so far. I've done research on several different company-sponsored programs and have put in several different applications and I decided to go with Prime Inc. for several reasons. There program is free and the only out of pocket expense is 150.00 which turned out only to be 132.50. 100.00 non-refundable due at the time of your interview and 32.50 for your permit. They have several different divisions Reefer , Flatbed, and Tanker. So if I get bored with one I have another division to earn more knowledge and experience and if freight gets slow in one area I could switch to get more miles in another. I tend to get bored easily if I'm not challenged or get into the same ole thing day in and day out which was my predicament at my previous job. They have one of the highest paying cpm starting out which I also thought was a nice incentive. I talked with a recruiter and my class started May 21. I had everything pretty much packed and ready to go on the Sunday I'm supposed to leave on the "hound" bound for Springfield, MO. but things didn't go as planned. We had a bad storm come through Atlanta that weekend and it was really bad that Sunday morning, the power went out around 9am but I figured no biggie my bus wasn't scheduled to leave until 7:30 pm arriving in Springfield Mon. afternoon around 1pm. I had everything already squared away and ready to go but Because of the bad storm we had trees and power lines down everywhere and my ride couldn't get to me to pick me up so we had one heck of a time trying to get to the bus station. I get to the bus station around 7:40 and what do you know I MISSED my bus. I didn't panic I simply talked to the women behind the counter and told her my situation and told her I absolutely had to be in Springfield by 7 am Tues. morning and she rerouted my ticket and had me leaving on another bus later that night arriving in Springfield around 1030 that night. Whew,Crisis solved. When I arrived in Springfield there were about 10 other guys and 1 female there that had got off the bus for Prime and we called for the shuttle. We got to the hotel the "Campus INN" and the clerk got all of our names and asked if we were smokers or non-smokers and then he preceded to give us our room assignments along with a yellow book that we had to fill out for orientation the next morning. The book has paperwork such as a paper application, which is longer than the online application, work history, they want you to go back at least 5 years 10 if you can, release forms, emergency contacts, personal references and background check information. Orientation started bright and early at 7:00 and DO NOT BE LATE. They go over the information in the yellow packet, then a nurse comes in and gives you paperwork to fill out for physical. Then security comes in and have you fill out paperwork for an FBI background check and they fingerprint you. They also give you a schedule of what your going to be doing for the rest of the week and its divided up into to sections, the ones with their CDL permit already and the ones without. After that you take your yellow packet to the office where you will have an interview and pay your 100.00 then you take your physical. Please make sure you have your medical forms filled out before you get there or you will be sent to the back of the line. They give you a meal card that you punch out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After the physical you either go study for your permit test or you start you Computer Based Training modules or CBT's as they call them. Even though I didn't have my permit yet I went ahead to the computer lab and started my CBT's and finished them within a couple of hours and tried to start my simulator training but the instructor said I couldn't until I had my permit so off to the room I go to look over the CDL manual. Wednesday I took my permit test and passed with flying colors with scores of 95,100,and 96 I was also ready to take the doubles/triples, tanker and Hazmat but I would have to wait until I got my CDL because those endorsements wouldn't transfer to my home state. I referred several people that were having trouble with there test to truckingtruth and told them about the high roads training program and they said it helped them a lot. I got a call from the doctors office for me to come see them and when I did the nurse told me that the doctor said I was medically disqualified because of the pain medicine I was on for my Sickle Cell. They said I would have to talk to my doctor and get him to change my pain medicine to a different one that I could drive with and be off of my current medicine for 30 days. After that I would be able to return and finish the program and be sent off with an instructor for OTR training to test for my CDL. I'll keep you guys updated on how everything else go.

Hey Chris, what a great update. I am looking at Prime myself and updates like yours that kinda give you a glimpse behind the curtain, so to speak, are really helpful. Sorry to hear about your delay with regards to your pain medication, but keep right on plugging away. You did really well on your permit tests, so, you have the knowledge. Get your doctor to change you meds and head right back up there.

Thanks Roadkill, I already have my appointment scheduled and having my meds switched isn't going to be a problem because I talked to my Doc about it before I decided to go for it and he told me upfront that if they had any problems with it he would switch it, I'm just waiting on him to come back from vacation. I have a lot more info I can tell from just my 4 days there so if you have any questions just ask. I would have loved to have written more but I was only allowed to use 5,500 characters to type it out. It's a fast paced program and after they go over the paper work with you and how they want it filled out, your're pretty much on your own after that. They give you a schedule on your first day on what you need to do and they suggest to you on how to go about it and after that first orientation meeting your on your own as far as getting things done in the amount of given time. I wish you the best of luck in getting your career underway.

Hey, thanks indeed for the update! You can write more anytime. Each post is limited to 5,500 characters but you can always start another post. The more information people can get about Prime's program, the better.

It's a bummer you weren't able to find us sooner and have that permit finished and the meds looked at. Those are two things we could have gotten you squared away on before you ever left. We knew about the advantage of having your permit before you arrive and we know that medications need approval. But like you said, no harm done. This will give you a chance to get your meds switched and get more study time in on the High Road Training Program.

A bummer you have to wait to return there, but no big deal.

Can anyone tell me if I have my CDL and DOT. Physical done at school. And want to come to prime. Do I gave to pay $100. Fee and will I go out with a driver right away to start my on the road training. Since I went to school already will I have to do any test when complete the driven over road. Will I get paid while on road training. How long fo u stay out for this.

All depends how long ago did you get your cdl. And yes 100 is still require and son is the dot physical. But if you have just got your cdl or just left a cdl job then you go out for your 40000 if it's more the 3 months since you drove or got your cdl then you have to do the whole program like someone who doesn't have a cdl. You get a evaluation at 75 hours instead of your test. It's 40000 miles and it could take as little as 7 weeks to 3 months depends on you and trainer driving habits

Will I get paid during this 40000 miles . For 3 months.

Does prime require 6 months team driving after training like some companies do? I'm really interested in prime but i seriously am not going to team for the long term.

Can anyone tell me if I have my CDL and DOT. Physical done at school. And want to come to prime. Do I gave to pay $100. Fee and will I go out with a driver right away to start my on the road training. Since I went to school already will I have to do any test when complete the driven over road. Will I get paid while on road training. How long fo u stay out for this.

Hello Lisa, I have some insight for you. I just started with prime 2 weeks ago and am on the road doing my 40k miles right now. I already had my CDL and had just renewed my physical in May and prime still gave me their own physical even though mine was only a month old.

For current CDL holders the orientation lasts 3 days from Wednesday to Friday. You will do a skills test on a computer simulator and not in an actual truck. As long as you pass the physical/drug screen and complete the computer based training (which involves hours of short videos with multiple choice questions at the end of reach one) they'll hook you up with a TNT trainer Friday afternoon after you get your prime ID. I got lucky on Friday morning and was the first of 12 men and women to get a call from my trainer before I even got my ID, and was on the road with my trainer by 4:00 pm Friday to get our first load going to Massachusetts. I don't know how long the others had to wait for a trainer. The pay is $500 a week before taxes and also if you don't have a TWIC card they take $64 a week from your first 2 checks to pay for a TWIC card. So your checks should be around $420 a week take home. Any other questions you can send me a PM or ask away on the forums.

Does prime require 6 months team driving after training like some companies do? I'm really interested in prime but i seriously am not going to team for the long term.

No they don't