Thoughts On Prime

Hi....Prime is a Great Place to start, they have some of the highest training and 1st year pay rates but after that first year you may want to move on, or maybe not...:) Everybody has an opinion and most guys talk a lot of junk without ever having worked or been there so keep that in mind and be the best you can be at this lifestyle, then enjoy the results. I'm a Company Driver for Prime, went through their training and highly recommend them as a Great Place to Start...

Ken C.

Thanks guys for all your input !!! Can't wait to get on the road with some awesome people like you

Hello Ty. I've been with Prime since July 14. I'm going to come out and say upfront that I am the type of person that tends to be pessimistic and see negative before I see good. It's a trait I work on every day trying to stop. I've had a pretty rough go since coming here and it all has to do with the truck I was assigned. However I still wouldn't say that the company is a bad company. Here's what's happened to me and the way it's been handled so far.

I was assigned a 2013 frieghtliner cascadia lightweight. Before I even drove off the lot on my first load in Sept. the APU went down and wouldn't start. I then had to wait 4 days to get it fixed as it happened on a Friday and the soonest they could get to it was Tuesday. Since then and as of today I'm sitting at the Prime terminal in Springfield for the 5th time in 6 months getting the APU fixed. It keeps breaking down. The A/C quits blowing. You may think big deal its winter, but I live in Florida and am there frequently so just because it's winter doesn't mean I don't use the A/C. The last time I was here a couple weeks ago I talked to the leasing girl and pleaded my case about getting another truck assigned since this one keeps breaking down. I'm having more than just APU problems. She told me strait out that the company won't reassign another truck as the one I have is due for turn in this summer and they won't want to assign it to another driver after me. So I got the truck fixed, took a load out of Springfield and headed home to Florida for 3 days. Before I even got home the APU A/C went out again (it was 80 degrees in southern florida) so I talked to my FM about coming back to terminal after home time. My first day after home time I talked to the leasing girl again and this time asked if I could have to anti-idle turned off so I can idle the truck if/when the APU breaks down again. She agreed and said to talk to the shop when I get here to have that turned off. Well I'm here and there is no note on my truck to turn it off and since it's Sunday I'll have to wait till tomorrow to talk to her. Not a big deal cuz I have to wait till Monday to get my APU worked on since the company is closed weekends. Well I talked to our road assist Friday about getting me an appt for the place and that wasn't done either. So I may not be able to get into the place.

So in total I've spent 14 days so far sitting and waiting for repairs on this truck. At an average of 550 miles driven a day at .43 cents a mile that's a fair chunk of change. So the bottom line is when you're dealing with a company, that company will look at what is more convenient for THEM and not the employee. It's the nature of business especially when dealing with the society of truckers, who in whole are complainers and unhappy. You can either accept this truth and deal with it, or not accept it and your life will be totally miserable because you're not going to beat it. It's no wonder why alot of truckers are unhappy because of the low pay, hostile environment and high stress. It's been posted how the trucking industry has increased profits over the past 25 years, but the drivers profits have increased very little.

It's all about your attitude Ty. Even with what I'm experiencing, I wouldn't say Prime is a bad company. If you're starting your career in driving I'd say it's a very good company in fact. There are some basic truth's to trucking you'll have to accept in order for your experience to either be happy or unhappy. Here are the truth's:

1) Driving revolves around "the clock". You're always under the pressure of time working against you. You'll have to adjust when you sleep, when you eat, when you go to the restroom everything because you can't adjust time itself.

2) There are many people involved in the industry that are highly stressed and have bad people skills. People under high stress tend to be less than friendly at times.

3) Trucks are high maintenance vehicles and break down frequently. Even when the truck is brand spanking new off the lot, in very short order something is going to break down.

4) Trucking is one of (if not the most) regulated industries in the United States. There are so many laws and regulations to follow, it's hard to know where to start. Someone is always checking on you and your truck to make sure you're keeping up with regulations put in place for public safety.

5) Other motorists consider trucks a nuisance and treat you with less than respect. To most people a truck is a vehicle going slow in their way that they can't see around. They don't see a person operating a vehicle, they see a huge object in their way and treat that object with disdain.

6) Driving is unpredictable. Especially in the winter months because of weather and traffic. There are so many variables when considering how and when you get from point A to point B.

So I went off on a tangent from whether Prime is a good company or not, I just want to point out that the reason you see so many negative posts coming from drivers is they don't know how to accept the truth's about the job. So the real answer to your question has to come from within YOU. Can you deal with these things? Are you the type of person that goes against the grain? The company itself I'd say is a good company. It's how you deal with the unchangeable things that makes or breaks you. Good luck in your endeavors!

Terminal:

A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.

Fm:

Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager

The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

OWI:

Operating While Intoxicated

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Terry,

Thanks for the input I worked for mcds for years so I can pretty much tolerate any kind of situation thrown at me good or bad just got to take things in strides