Comments By Carter

Hey Carter ? How is the bunk space on those lightweights ? I've seen a lot of them going down the road and they seem small.

I'm still in my trainers truck, so nice and spacious... I will definitely let you know once I get into my own. Daniel B has a great post (with pictures) describing how to make the most the space in a LW. Just use the forum search for "lightweight" and it should be the first result.

Welcome to the forum, from a fellow Mainer (Ellsworth).

Hope that interview works towards getting you a job.

My buddy driving for Prime for almost a year and he's happy there. He drives reefer and makes 36cpm.

I started at Prime about a month ago and I believe it is .38 base for reefer, plus .05 additional for lightweight, which I'm pretty sure all new drivers start with, for a starting total of .43 cpm.

Also, I will say that everything I have seen to this point tells me that they really have their stiff together and are a good company overall.

I've been very happy.

Took me the better part of an hour - with wasted, sleepy musicians whining the whole time.

Say it ain't so! Stoned musicians are whiners?

Yeah, that doesn't sound fun. At all.

I started with Prime a little over 3 weeks ago (still in my training phase, team driving). The organization is top notch, the training is thorough (at least my trainer is) and the pay is very fair from what I understand.

If you come in with the attitude that this is very hard work, you need to absorb tons of vital details and you will be bone tired all of the time then Prime will give you all of the tools you need to succeed in this industry.

Brett, that would have given me a heart attack. The lesson, as always, take your time, check your surroundings and don't make a bad situation worse, throw on the 4 ways, figure out a good safe escape plan and execute...safely.

You have a really really really good trainer.

I agree. He has his quirks (who doesn't), but he knows his s#!t and is willing to teach, not just collect trainee miles.

I lucked out.

I'm sure glad that, a: I made that mistake with someone experienced on board that could save my bacon, and b: that I didn't ruin my career by clipping a beat up '84 regal with missing hubcaps except for the fake spinner on the front.

That woulda sucked.

Greetings everyone from beautiful Utah. Well, I finally did it. I performed an action that my trainer can use as an example of what NOT to do for any of his future students. I knew that providing him with fodder was inevitable, not sure anyone makes it through training without at least one level 4 brain cramp, I'm just glad it is out of the way and no innocent lives or property were damaged.

The scene of the crime was Gary, Indiana and he wanted me to fuel up at a TA. Everything was ducky at this point, he had gone to sleep a few hours earlier, I was going to show him that he could feel comfortable sleeping for mundane things like fueling and so on without having to get up (anybody catch my first mistake?).

I come off the interstate, make my turn and start towards the entrance. All good so far. I see the big sign on the corner up ahead at the light and assume the truck entrance is over there (who here caught my next series of mental errors?)

So yeah... I catch the "truck entrance" sign out of the corner of my eye add I roll past it. "No problem" I think; I figure I will just circle back around. I turn left at the light to find myself in... a residential neighborhood. Crap. At least there is a fairly large parking lot with not too many cars here on my left. I'll just swing through there... Yes, that is really what went through my mind. It was 2 am, don't judge ;-)

First half of the parking lot went swimmingly, right up until I offset my way into a corner with about 2 cm between my trailer and a parked car. At least there was a storage container pretty close to the other side to take some of my focus off of the potential property damage I was about to inflict.

I was contemplating my options (going to Mexico and getting a new identity did flash across my mind, but...) when Satan came out of the bunk (in boxers, of course). He politely asked what was going on, or maybe it was more colorful than that, but I digress. After some swearing and video game level steering, he got us out.

He bought me lunch the next day. And told me to never, ever. Ever. Try to fix a mistake by creating a bigger one. He told me if I'm ever in doubt, stop, don't make it worse and then we will figure it out.

Lesson learned...

Wow Chris. It might have been a little easier if you asked the secret of the universe, but I will try anyway.

You may hear a lot about how you are young and need to take advantage of the opportunity you have, or "when I was your age, I would have..."

None of that really matters, you have kind of already answered your own question. You love to drive, but not more than you want to be at home. Nothing anyone says here is going to change how you feel about not being with your friends/family. Those are your priorities and just because they may not be mine doesn't make them any less valid.

Knowing that being OTR will make you miserable, I think it is safe to say that over time, you would resent it. Your best bet is most likely to be finding something local. With 7 months experience, you may be able to find something where you live that will get you home every night, but be warned, it may only be long enough to untie your boots, eat and pass out. Not much social about that either.

At the end of the day, the 23 year old you needs to find something that makes him happy, while setting up the 43 year old you to be in a financially secure place so that he won't have to struggle to support your choices.