Profile For Michael M.

I work for a company in Chicago OTR I’m a company driver. I have the opportunity to lease a 99 Pete 379. Truck is in great shape inside and out (not sure about mechanically yet) the company has terrible reviews online mostly talking about escrow. That doesn’t bother me because the company tell you up front if you break the lease the escrow is not returned so those people just weren’t paying attention. I’ve never driven an old truck but it’s my dream to own an old Pete. Should I risk it and try to get the truck I dream about or stay where I’m at. I make good money and miles are consistent where I’m at but I’m sick of working for someone. I want my own truc

I have several years of experience driving semis and i want to get into the tanker business. i don't have hazmat and don't want it. what are some food grade tanker companies that hire in Florida. i can't find anything online. i live in the fort myers area so a lot of companies won't hire me because I'm too far south. i need a company that is willing to take rookie tanker drivers.

Knight is starting to disable thiers as well. I absolutely hate automatics. They are junk and it's going to make me quit being a company driver

I trained at Prime Inc on a 10-speed manual transmission and drove about 6 months solo on one until they put me in a new truck with the D12 transmission. I hated it at first but I ended up driving 519 K miles in it and I got pretty used to it. I got to the point where I could take steep downgrades fully loaded without touching the service brakes by downshifting to lower gears in manual mode and engaging the Jake brake, including in the winter. Well now, they’ve put me in a new used truck and the first thing I noticed was the manual mode didn’t work. I took it to the shop to get repaired and was told that Prime is purposely disabling the manual mode ! This makes no sense to me and in fact I think it’s dangerous. The D12 is called a Manual Automatic Transmission. The manual mode was put there by the manufacturer for a reason. By not having it available, it discourages the use of the Jake Brake because whenever you do use it, the truck wants to immediately downshift by 2 gears and there you are over RPMing. In manual mode, you simply put it in the gear you want and you work the Jakes all the way down the mountain and you maintain a steady speed and RPM. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like out in Wyoming going over Elk Mountain next winter. Has anyone else heard of a company tinkering with the basic controls of the truck like Prime Inc is doing ?