Comments By Terry C.

So this is a good thing?

Just as Daniel said it doesn't effect students. The new rule effected me as I was hoping to get home to Florida for the 4th. We got into Springfield Monday and neither myself or my FM knew about the new rule. So after Monday when my psd was doing very well after 4 hours pad time I had my FM schedule the test for today and I was thinking I'd be able to leave tonight or tomorrow if my student had to retest something. Low and behold with the new rule my psd isn't scheduled until Friday now. So much for being home for the holiday =/

So this is a good thing?

It shouldn't effect the student, it's just another thing the instructor has to keep in mind.

Terry, thanks for letting me know. My student is nearing his required hours so I'm starting to think about when I should test him out.

No problem Daniel. I had you and Ken in mind when I posted this.

Hey there all. This post is meant for any current prime trainers and their PSD's. Last Monday 6/29 the state had started requiring 48 hours notice to sign your students up to test. This is up from the previous 24. They also want a list of potential testers 5 days prior to testing. So keep that in mind when your PSD is nearing their 75 hours. You'll need 48 hours now instead of telling your FM the day before. I got this info today from an examiner at morning roll call. I told my FM yesterday to schedule for today but didn't get confirmation from him so I went to roll call anyway and found out about the new rule. This is coming from the federal level as they're trying to make testing requirements the same across all 50 states.

Early in my career I was driving back empty from Fort Bragg, CA down us 20. (A very curvy 2 lane road with few passing lanes) Well I had another truck riding my ass much like six string. I came up to curve with some extra room on the dirt shoulder so I decided to grab the shoulder and let the jag off pass. Well he passed me so I started to get back on the road but only my left side tires were on the pavement and I started spinning out not moving.

I was going uphill and couldn't drive forward so I decided to try and back up on the pavement and get my right side tires on the pavement as well. But since I was on a left hand corner my 45 ft trailer began going over the lane I was traveling but I still couldn't get traction to move forward. I even tried engaging my inter axle and that wasn't helping.

Next a CHP officer stopped behind me and turned his disco lights on and began directing traffic since I was blocking a lane. I told him I was only able to roll backwards but I may be able to get all tires back on pavement and get going. He said "go ahead and try," so I did. BAD IDEA!! All I did was jacknife more and now was blocking both lanes with no more room to back up and still not able to move forward.

For the next two hours I sat in my truck completely blocking us 20 with cars backed up miles in each direction and some very angry people.

A wrecker finally got to me and pulled me back onto the road. I asked the chp officer if I needed to sign a ticket and he just shook his head and said, "no just get your ass moving and don't pull off the pavement again!". To this day some 15 years later I've never made the same mistake.

The moral of the story. Don't let some jag off in a hurry behind you dictate your driving. And keep your wheels on the pavement.

Here's the way I understand and use the 8/2 split: I use the 8 hour sleeper break first. What this does is "pause" your 14 at wherever it was when you started your break. After 8 hours sleeper you'll get back the hours you had left at the start of the pause. (Example: You drive 8 hours strait and go sleeper. When you start your break you should have 6 hours of on duty time left. After 8 hours sleeper you now get those 6 hours back. IE you only get back what you had when you paused the clock)

Now comes the fun part. When you then take your 2 hour break, you'll get back all your hours minus what you used between your initial 8 hour break and your second 2 hour break. (Example: after our 8 hour sleeper we had 6 hours available. We then had 4 more hours of on duty time driving. After driving those 4 hours we take our 2 hour break. The 14 now resets minus what we took after the pause (4 hours) We now have 10 hours of on duty time available.

This is the way my brain TRIES to comprehend this stupid rule. I only use it when I can't quite make my delivery in a full 11 hour shift and I don't have time to get my full 10 hour break in.

Now if you'll excuse me I need a nap.

Hello the Nat. Hey I live in Florida so I get many (and take many) loads to Georgia. I'm a company driver and I try to go home every 3 weeks. Prime (or at least my FM) won't let me take a trailer home (empty or not) which is good because I can't even park my tractor in my driveway, let alone a trailer. (HOA rules) What I do is rent a storage space at a local storage facility for the 3-4 days I'm home. Usually costs about $20. I usually drop my trailer at a customer or I live close to 2 drop yards in Florida. One is in Auburndale the other is our floral drop yards in Pierson.

In Georgia we have customers all over the state but we have alot near Atlanta. I mostly pick up from southern Georgia in either: Valdosta, Albany, Sylvester, Cordele or Tifton. Near Atlanta we have a few in the Fulton industrial complex and a couple near Kennesaw and Suwanee.

These are all refrigerated companies but from what I understand we have a few tanker places in Georgia as well. (Savannah) They run the I95 corridor into the northeast. (If your a glutton for punishment or don't mind driving up there)

Hope this info helps! =)

If you're not going to help save them comments for somebody else not bout to get myself caught up in some one year contract with a company I might not About have to pay back $6000 I will get this money with your help or without your help so save your comments for somebody else

Is this post for real??? You're coming into a website forum just FULL of people that have paid their way thru private school or did a easy 1 year contract for their licence and then have the audacity to fire back at people giving their honest opinions and recommendations?? Because you're not about to give a little one year commitment because you don't know if you'll like the job? My God I've seen some entitlement feelings from people before but this one takes the cake!!!

In most every case I wish people with misguided requests with a "good luck on your endeavors," but in this case I'll say: " don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!"

My first question when I talk to a perspective student is,"what kind of music do you listen to?" Sounds stupid I know but I will be damned if I listen to any kind of rap music again. My first student listened to it (after I started turning on the radio after he'd been driving a few days and I thought he was paying enough attention) and I found myself getting very agitated and angry making both of our experiences, not so good. After a few days of n-word n-word, mother f'er violence violence I'd had enough and there was no more radio the rest of the training.

So now it's my first question. My next few I'll ask about pretrip and general written test questions to get a feel of how much information they've retained or put forth into learning. If someone hasn't put much effort into learning, I don't want to waste my time. Then, like Daniel, I'll let them know I'm a trainer. It's not that I don't want to work with someone that needs the extra time, it's I don't want to have to make someone learn. You gotta want to.

So if I was just assigned someone without being able to interview them, I wouldn't train.

I'll be bringing my current student in to test on Monday and will work the next couple days on the pad getting his backing skills where they need to be. Hopefully he'll test out Wednesday or Thursday. I won't be taking him thru tnt because I'm taking a leave of absence the second week of August for a trip to Jamaica. Prime won't let me take 8 days off so I have to take a leave which means turning in my truck in Springfield and flying home. I'll bee ready to start training again later in August.

I believe PMs go to your email.

^^ this.....

And which is why you may but have got my reply to your question about training with me Andy. I've got a student on board my truck right now that I should have back in Springfield to test by next weekend hopefully. After we get to delivery today he should only have 20 hours left to hit his 75.

I'll address the cons as the pros speak for themselves.

Grocery warehouses can be frustrating. I deliver to a few on a regular basis: Wal-Mart, Publix, food lion to name a few. First Wal-Mart has a bad reputation with many drivers and I don't understand why. I deliver to at least one a week for the past 40 or so weeks. I've only had to wait longer than 4 hours a handful of times. My longest was a very known horrible Wal-Mart DC just south of Albuquerque. I was there 7 hours. That place flat out sucks whale. I deliver to the Maclenny, FL DC regularly and have never been there longer than 4 hours.

Truth be told in my year at prime, I've rarely had to wait over 5 hours to get unloaded. Now getting LOADED is another story. I've had 2 pickups of over 20 hours at national beef in Dodge city, KS and the other in Liberal, KS. And have waited over 12 hours on 3 separate occasions at Anheuser-Busch. I hate them with a passion. Heavy loads and long wait times to get loaded.

So TLDR: it's all a part of trucking sarah. Unless you're the one unloading or loading your trailer, you're at someone else's mercy and will have to wait longer then you'd like. Accept that and you'll keep your blood pressure low. From what I understand if you want faster load/unload times go flatbed. But then you have that while slough of other headaches to worry about: 100lb tarps, strapping, bungees, standing/working in bad weather. No thanks...I'll stick with reefer any day over that flatbed garbage. No offence to my flatbed brothers and sisters. I'm very grateful YOU'RE out there so I don't have to =)