Comments By Michael W.

Did they go into detail about home time for company drivers?? They'll tell you the policy is 1 day home for 7 days worked. But not that days you work over 21 or 28 don't carry over. IE if you stay out 25 days you get 3 days off earned. The extra 4 you had over the 21 don't carry over to the next trip. You lose them.

If anyone else had it different, I'd like to know.

I can only state what I know about their (intended) training. Expect to be out and away from "home" the ENTIRE time. You might be fortunate to have a trainer who either live in your general area OR decides he/she will sacrifice their own home time for yours. However, do not count on that. That breed is rare; very rare.

Prime it mainly OTR; expect that lifestyle (nomadic). Old School, really. 3 - 6 weeks out, even after going solo. It also depends on where you live! if you live in traditioanlyl heavy freight areas (ie, major urban areas) AND close enough to their terminals, you will probably get home more often than those who do not; even when you don't wanna. Expect, however to be gone 4 - 6 weeks at ashot most of the time, epecially during high-frieght times of the year. Training? You'll likely be gone the entire time, unless your trainer is a rare type to sacrifice their own home time OR lives close enough to allow you the same hometime.

I do not know about theri regional/local opportunities. All I have dis\covered thus far is: they have those, but it's very VERY rare. I do see, however, they do not have a lot of complaints against them, overall. Even former drivers seem to miss them, even if they are working elsewhere at the time.

I fyou want more hometime (week out, weekends in, or home nightly), then spend the year sucking it up at Prime, then switch to what you NEED to do. Right now, do what you HAVE to do.

Beyond that, I cannot advise or even posit a guess. Perhaps someone else more experienced with Prime's real world operations can chime in.

Mike

Just want to touch on a few specifics with this post.

It's my understanding that the mid-west and southeast regional divisions are easy to get into, whereas there is a Texas regional that has a short waiting list. These drivers get home more often.

I don't know if getting home before going solo is THAT rare. They seem to always try to get drivers home after their first couple weeks of TNT.

Nice! Is that a choice, or do they force home time that soon?

Please forgive all my typoes. I somehow got rid of the spell check on this browser. I will take care of that right now. LOL

Did they go into detail about home time for company drivers?? They'll tell you the policy is 1 day home for 7 days worked. But not that days you work over 21 or 28 don't carry over. IE if you stay out 25 days you get 3 days off earned. The extra 4 you had over the 21 don't carry over to the next trip. You lose them.

If anyone else had it different, I'd like to know.

I can only state what I know about their (intended) training. Expect to be out and away from "home" the ENTIRE time. You might be fortunate to have a trainer who either live in your general area OR decides he/she will sacrifice their own home time for yours. However, do not count on that. That breed is rare; very rare.

Prime it mainly OTR; expect that lifestyle (nomadic). Old School, really. 3 - 6 weeks out, even after going solo. It also depends on where you live! if you live in traditioanlyl heavy freight areas (ie, major urban areas) AND close enough to their terminals, you will probably get home more often than those who do not; even when you don't wanna. Expect, however to be gone 4 - 6 weeks at ashot most of the time, epecially during high-frieght times of the year. Training? You'll likely be gone the entire time, unless your trainer is a rare type to sacrifice their own home time OR lives close enough to allow you the same hometime.

I do not know about theri regional/local opportunities. All I have dis\covered thus far is: they have those, but it's very VERY rare. I do see, however, they do not have a lot of complaints against them, overall. Even former drivers seem to miss them, even if they are working elsewhere at the time.

I fyou want more hometime (week out, weekends in, or home nightly), then spend the year sucking it up at Prime, then switch to what you NEED to do. Right now, do what you HAVE to do.

Beyond that, I cannot advise or even posit a guess. Perhaps someone else more experienced with Prime's real world operations can chime in.

Mike

When you call their number, do not use your recruiter's extension. Use the main switchboard operator to physically transfer the call. The extension seems to depoit a caller right to voice mail, while I have never failed to get through using the operator. Just an FYI.

Doing that will cut hours of time/waiting and some frustration (and worry) from your life.

Other than that, Prime is pretty smooth to deal with. They were up front and honest about everything (I have ropevious experience from the 1990's, so I knew what would be true, omitted, or outright false. I knew which questions to ask,b ut only got to ask one; they answered all the rest on their own. They even added information about which I forgot to ask. It was quite easy to forget I was talking to a recruiter.

If the restof training is that way (mainly), this is gonna be fun!

David G

You home everyday and you making 650 to 850 a week? Hmm I see absolutely no issue. Local routes or routes that have you home every night are often really long hours and the pay never matches the amount of work you put in. It takes awhile to work your way into the good routes.

Unless you get with a larger LTL company or possibly Union then expect to make that kind of money.

These other drivers have probably done what you are now and worked their way into the routes they have now. Longevity at a company has its benefits.

If he's talking gross, I disagree that anyone working in this industry, driving these trucks, should accept being paid as little as grossing $650 per week. Especially not on those kind of hours. I'm guessing he's exaggerating about 2 A.M. to 7 P.M. daily, but that would be 85 hours per week.

I'm not sure exactly what he does, but I can identify with the 2 AM - 7 PM thing. Then again, it may - MAY - have a lot to do with: how far away he lives from the terminal AND what he delivers.

Back in the 1990s, I drove a rig for a "local" trash hauler. I lived 90 miles south of their one and only terminal. So, I had to get up at least 4 hours ahead of report time just to get to work. The work itself was 3 or 4 loads per day, sometimes drop and hook but mainly live load. At times, the planned 3 loads would become two before they shut me down for the day. Another long trip home. I brought home around $600-800 GROSS/week (not bad for the 90s, but still...). I was home every night, but not really "home." During the week, it really was just a place to lay my head. There was no quality time at all 5 - 6 days a week. At the time I was married; my wife really thought I would kill myself living/working like that.

Then again, as I implied, pretty much all my choice there. Had I lived, say, 30 miles away from the terminal, quality of life would have been much different without changing anything else. Even with the AWFUL Chicago rush-hour traffic. If it's only time one needs, find a place to live smack in the middle of your main runs. Had I done that, I may have remained with that company a lot longer than 1.75 years.