Comments By Ricky O.

I passed my test already. Just wondering how many points you can get before you fail. I missed 1 item on pre trip. Aced skilled. Was a hot mess on the road but passed with 19 points. Just wanted to know how close I was to failing. My first red light turned yellow right about hard break or run it time. I ran it. He wrote down. Got nervous and drove like it was my second day again.

Another good company to check into is Prime. I know for a fact they hire from FL. They have reefer, flatbed and food grade tanker (not sure if the tanker is an option being from FL), but I know reefer & flatbed are.

Ernie

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Lot of vets at Prime. Loving it here so far. Good luck

Today was my test day. Got the trifecta. Just left dmv with my cdl a licence. Missed 1 item on pretrip. Zero points on backing. Drove like **** on driving test. First light I blew threw yellow and got all in my head and nervous. Hadn't drove that bad in weeks. Tomorrow starts my 30k tnt miles. First 1000 are back home for a week off to fish and .....

Awesome! I've been waiting for your update, haha. I got the trifecta a week ago. Missed two on pre-trip, you got me beat there. Spacing on the mud flaps, and indicator lights in-cab. Stupid, nervous mistakes.

It was pouring rain during my driving test. That, plus a terrible trailer with shotty brakes, made for quite the ride. Missed a couple things, like a gear coming up to a light, and something about how I should have moved to the right lane... Little stuff. Kept 'er 5 under the limit and slowed early to compensate for rain, instructor had great things to say. What a relief.

I spent three days at home near Springfield, started TnT with a trip to Minneapolis, and now I'm down in Los Angeles. It's been crazy.

Hows it going? Im down to 10,000 TNT miles to go. Been in the shop 4 times and one 8 day home time 2 days off for a funeral my trainer went to. And now going home again for 8 days. Didnt want another 8 day delay but figure once I get a truck those days are over and it is summer and I live on the jersey shore. By the time I get home I should be close to 25,000. In California now. I saw a guy from our orientation couple days ago and he only had 10,000 miles in. Saw another with 16,000. Hope its going good for you.

Does FOUR to ZERO for "No Cam" help you decide? I'm, just sayin' ...

Ok thanks. So everyone agrees I should definitely get the cam. If my trainer didn't really suck at training I would be ready without thinking of a cam. Only 10,000 miles TNT to go and on my own. Im going to ask my fm to put me running walmart account so I can get allot of backing in for a couple weeks. Than going dedicated north east. JK on the cam. I was surprised noone was for it. I thought on a driver side ally dock it would show the gap on the passenger side. You see nothing out that mirror even with electric mirrors. Im sure I'll figure it all out. Just hope I dont hit too much before I do. Not an easy job to train yourself.

You are correct in the statement that you will be driving as a team for the 30K miles.

Most trainers that I know personally at Prime are very good about teaching you what you need to know during that 30K miles. Their job is to teach you how to do your job once you go solo.

They teach you about trip planning, fueling, how to use the Qualcomm, etc. From the time you start your training until you are solo is about 3 months (give or take).

If you have any questions, let me know. I will do my best to help if I can.

Ernie

So from start of driving to 40k is roughly 3(ish) months?

Thats not bad at all if you consider the alternative. Personally after hearing so many horror stories of drivers who were forced on team driving for their first year and having the entire experience somewhat tramatizing and "ruining" their trucking career, I would really like to try and avoid that.

I hear Prime is a great company to work for, and a great place to get a start. I think I am going to try and talk to a Prime recruiter today and see what my options are as far as training. My only thing is, no income at all right now so trying to find a way to pay for food and the license itself (I believe the permit and license is a total $150 out of pocket) So should be an interesting challenge.

Also, does anyone know if I will be able to get my CDL Permit in Florida and still be able to get my CDL License with Prime? Maybe that can give me a bit of a head start.

The first 10,000 really isn't 10k. It is 75 driving hours. I just finished that part. I didn't get to 10k. By the time I got back to test out I was well over 100 hours driving. We got allot of long runs in the beginning which didn't give me much backing practice. The last week we got put on a dedicated wall-mart account which got me allot of backing. Don't know why they tell you 10k miles when only 75 hours is mentioned after orientation.

I would think that would be a pain since you would be having to remount every time you swapped trailers. To me getting out and looking as well as using your mirrors will help you learn more than a camera would, especially if the field of view on the camera doesn't show the sides where your mirrors would. But that is just my personal opinion on cameras and it holds especially true on passenger vehicles, most look only at the screen and not at their mirrors and hit a lot of things on the sides.

My thought was for getting into tight spots until I get comfortable with backing. If it is magnetic mount would only take a second. If the cam would show down the blind side of the trailer it may save me some trouble until I know what Im doing.

Anyone ever set up a backup cam to the side of a trailer? Im thinking as a rookie thats soon to be cut loose on my own it might be very helpful. If so which one and how did you mount it? It would have to be a fast easy mount to switch on and off trailers as needed. Maybe magnetic mount rigged somehow. Was thinking to the front right corner of the trailer looking to the rear.

Today was my test day. Got the trifecta. Just left dmv with my cdl a licence. Missed 1 item on pretrip. Zero points on backing. Drove like **** on driving test. First light I blew threw yellow and got all in my head and nervous. Hadn't drove that bad in weeks. Tomorrow starts my 30k tnt miles. First 1000 are back home for a week off to fish and .....

Awesome! I've been waiting for your update, haha. I got the trifecta a week ago. Missed two on pre-trip, you got me beat there. Spacing on the mud flaps, and indicator lights in-cab. Stupid, nervous mistakes.

It was pouring rain during my driving test. That, plus a terrible trailer with shotty brakes, made for quite the ride. Missed a couple things, like a gear coming up to a light, and something about how I should have moved to the right lane... Little stuff. Kept 'er 5 under the limit and slowed early to compensate for rain, instructor had great things to say. What a relief.

I spent three days at home near Springfield, started TnT with a trip to Minneapolis, and now I'm down in Los Angeles. It's been crazy.

Congrats on the trifecta. Its been crazy says it all. I'm in Albany ny drop tonight at 10 than heading for 8 days home time. Can't wait.

Prime Truck School Now Using Shifting simulators whats? The student passing ratio now .. Thanks for return. cruzer

Yeah Sims helped allot with shift pattern and double clutching. Not much else was helpful real world.

Good luck.

Today was my test day. Got the trifecta. Just left dmv with my cdl a licence. Missed 1 item on pretrip. Zero points on backing. Drove like **** on driving test. First light I blew threw yellow and got all in my head and nervous. Hadn't drove that bad in weeks. Tomorrow starts my 30k tnt miles. First 1000 are back home for a week off to fish and .....