Comments By The Dude

Poor S.O.B.

Atleast he'll have a great story to tell for the rest of his life.

It's a good program, I had no complaints. I did get very lucky and had a PSD instructor and a TNT trainer who I got along with very well and am still friends with. Your mileage may vary with that. Any specific questions?

Might I recommend the steak and mass fries from Fire and Ice?

I don't like to read a lot if words. Titles are plenty enough.

I've thought a lot about creating a website like this that can serve as a consolidated place for truckers to find trucker related stuff, but I've always figured that most drivers won't buy mail shipped items being that they are on the road. I'm guessing that's why there aren't any websites like this now.

I know not all flatbed loads require to be tarped but of course there are some that do. This has me wondering on the weights of the tarps. The reason for this concern is that when I was younger I broke my left arm in half, both bones in the forearm, and while it is still useable I do have some weakness on that side, however I can lift 100 lbs repeatedly but with some soreness on that side if done for long periods.

Am I overly concerned for nothing or should I consider maybe a different division?

The weight of your tarps will vary depending on the tarps your company assigns but if you can lift 100 pounds repeatedly, you should be fine. You can also purchase custom lightweight tarps if you want to flatbed for awhile and you deem it a good investment. There are other things you should consider like throwing many chains over a load and if your left arm is your dominant arm, that may be an issue. It's hard to give a definite answer, you'll never know if it will work for you unless you try it.

I've spoken with a few Prime recruiters this week, so I have some info to add. Even though their company sponsored training page here on TT says that they hire from all 48, I've been told that Prime absolutely does not hire from Idaho whatsoever, as they do not run freight up there. Also, other northern states such as Montana and North Dakota are very difficult, if not impossible.

I got a strange vibe from the first recruiter I talked to. I've spoken with recruiters from several other companies, and they all seemed very eager for me to fill out an application and come on board immediately. The Prime recruiter, on the other hand, seemed to spend the first ten minutes I was speaking to him looking for any reason to not hire me, before finally running my zip code in Idaho and telling me it's not one of their hiring areas. However, he still e-mailed me an application link and told me to apply, which I thought was odd.

I called back a few days later and got a different recruiter. When she told me that the issue hiring from Idaho was getting drivers home for home time, I explained to her that my residence there is basically a mailing address. My plan getting into driving is to just basically live on the road taking "home time" wherever I end up, saving money on a permanent residence and seeing different parts of the country. She told me Prime would be able to hire me so long as I'd sign something saying I had no expectations of Prime routing me through Idaho for home time, which would have been fine.

Called back a couple days later to verify this info before I applied, and it was flatly denied by the third person I spoke with (as well as my original recruiter when I e-mailed him asking about it). I explained my situation with taking home time on the road and not needing to go back to Idaho for any reason, and the third recruiter told me "the cost of routing a driver home to Idaho for home time is simply too prohibitive". When I tried again to elaborate on my circumstances, telling her that my plan for home time would most likely be to just get a hotel room in whatever city my home terminal ends up in if not taking my time off somewhere out on the road, she said "well eventually everyone needs to get home". I don't think she was listening to me.

I guess there are always extenuating circumstances, like if I got called for jury duty, and I'm sure it's a legal thing on their end where they simply cannot hire anyone with an address in a certain state. Still wondering where the lady who told me about the form I could sign got her information from. Just figured I would offer all this up there to anyone from a northern state who's hoping to drive for Prime.

If your heart is set on Prime, I might look at taking it a rung up the ladder to get a definite answer. You could open a P.O. box near one of the terminals and use that as your filed address. You might try to talk to someone in the department for the PSD program or in reefer/flatbed/tanker ops to get some traction. If it's the company you want and you can be a good driver for them, it'd be silly for such a non-issue to disqualify you. Recruiters are so overwhelmed with applications that they are looking to qualify or disqualify people as soon as possible.

We're not supposed to talk bad about other companies here, but what's going on at CRE is insane. The .25 CPM and this is disgusting. I understand companies having business models revolved around employing new drivers for cheaper labor and incurring the liabilities that come with it, but what CRE is doing is a complete racket and dangerous to the industry. I think they should be taken off of our list of company sponsored companies because I don't think they can be recommended in good faith to anyone seeking a start in this industry.

At Prime you get two tries a day for three days on each portion, totaling six tries on each portion. After that point you get to go home and study because you're wasting everyone's time.

Nevermind, as I look closer they're just normal straps. They appear as if they split off into a 45 degree angle subsection based on the load.