Comments By Sam C.

I have talked to my trainers dispatcher and explained my situation. He apologized to me for the delay on my home time and said that there is a load from that area everyday that he planned on giving me. That was the first time that he could remember that there wasnt a load. I will be getting my guaranteed money for this week while I wait at home to be picked up tomorrow. No bad blood

I have no intentions of quitting prime, to be honest with you I actually enjoy being a truck driver. I do feel however that the program is broken. They make a lot of promises, and if I take this forums word, that arent kept. I also think the training part has some big holes in it, Ive already vented about my training. I talked to my dispatcher the way that I did because of these reasons. In a few weeks I will have my own truck and I will interview new dispatchers so by the time I leave MI I will hopefully set and ready for a wonderful career.

Im sorry you feel that way daniel but what I did was by no way in the wrong or disrespectful. I simply asked if I would be reimbursed for money spent. The only reason money was spent was because I was told to go ahead and spend it. I am in no way acting like I know better than the rest or how to run it better I am simply stating facts. Fact 1, I was told by said dispatcher and said trainer that I would be home on said day because said trainer and said dispatcher had already planned on said trainer being home said day 3 months in advance. Originally I was going to take my home time earlier but because my trainer had already turned in his home time I figured it would be easier to do them the same time. Fact 2, I was introduced into the world of trucking with guarantees that Prime understands the stress of being on the road away from family and that home time is a priority. You may not get it the first thing in the morning but at some point within that day you will be on your way home. Fact 3, on said day I dropped off at 10am and started waiting to be routed home. I was not upset that I was not home yet and understood that I may not make it home until the next morning but at no point was I planning on receiving a dispatch to pick up the next day sometime between 11am and 9pm, 250 miles further east than I already was, that dropped off 2 days later still not in the direction of my house. Let me break it down, on monday I picked up in MI and dropped off tues morning in PA. At that point I was 6 hours away from home in OH. Why then would I be routed to pick up further into PA and drop off in Virginia? At no point was that going near my house or my trainers house in KY. Furthermore, my trainer was right there beside me complaining because he had a wedding to attend, hence why he had put in his home time to begin with months in advance. He was also the person who told me to drive over my 14 in order for him to have enough hours to make it home. He would also have had to drive over his hours that day seeing as he only got back 6 at midnight.

Im not trying to bite the hand that feeds me, I am simply relying on the information I was given by the head of the company. Our first day in training we, the new recruits, were told by Stan and by the HR lady, cant remember her name off hand, that we the drivers were in charge of our trucks. Not the dispatchers, that we could fire the dispatchers if we felt they weren't handling us properly and get a new one. We were also told that our home time would be handled as priority, I dont think sitting empty from 10am til the next evening at 9pm when I am supposed to be heading home is priority. When I was running, making money for the dispatcher, I would drop off and pick up another load within a 3 hour time frame. Now when I am supposed to be taking my home time there is nothing anywhere? Doesnt add up. Speaking to my trainer that day about the situation, he told me that it was very common for his trainer to instantly not give a **** whenever it was time to get home time. Seeing as he has had to deal with this for the past 3 years, Im going to believe my trainer. The way he explained it to me was that the dispatcher didnt care about my home time because he wasnt going to make any money by having me pick up a load only to repower it to someone else. So instead he was waiting to find a load that would be delivered and he could make money off of. Now how does that sound like my home time is priority? I got into this business to make money, plain and simple. If Im running I have no problem making money for any dispatcher, but when I put in home time I expect it to be made a priority to get me home. What I dont expect is to sit at the 90 for 8 to 10 hours for that perfect load for the dispatcher when I could be headed home.

I sent a message to my dispatcher about the pay for the week so we will see how that goes. I also received the next dispatch for my truck and ,although the next pickup is in my state, it is 3 hours away from my house and dropping off the next morning in KY which is even further away. WTF. Im waiting to hear back from my trainer on whether I have to have my gf drive me 3 hours west to columbus or if he is going to go 3 hours out of his way to pick me up.

I understand that you have to be on the truck the entire week but the way it was explained to me was that it is of no fault of my own that I am not on the truck. I was scheduled to be back on the truck at the beginning of the pay period and my dispatcher is the person not allowing me to be on the truck.

I am still inTNT training and my trainer and I took our home time this past week, last Tuesday to this Tuesday. Let me rephrase, I was supposed to start my home time last Tuesday, what actually happened is I dropped a load Tues morning at 10 am and sat waiting at the receiver til 4pm for my next load to get me home seeing as I was still over 600 miles away.

At 4pm I messaged my dispatcher to find out wth was going on. He then sent up a load going further east that didn't even pick up til the next morning and didn't drop off til Friday. Once again I messaged him stating that both my trainer and I were supposed to be starting our home time, tues for me and wed for my trainer. He replied that it was the best he could do. I sent another message stating that I had already made plans with my family to go to an amusement park wed and that I had already payed for a hotel because my hometime was set a month ahead of time and that I hadn't been home since starting my training with prime 6 weeks prior.

Once again he sent a reply stating this was the best they could do. At this point I was pretty heated so I sent a reply stating that I would expect him to reimburse me for the money I had spent on the hotel and that this instance was probably one of the top reasons they have such a high turn around of students quitting while in training. At this point I figured he was getting peeved because he then sent a reply telling me to deadhead home and for my trainer to drop the trailer in Springfield and bobtail to his home.

At this point it was already after 6pm, needless to say I had to drive over my 14hour clock in order to get home and I didn't get home until 2am wed morning. I received my pay stub last night knowing that I wouldn't make much because the only miles I drove last week were the miles I drove home but I thought I would at least be paid for those miles. Instead I got a 0 mile pay and was charged for my training which equaled a negative pay. WTF? Is this right?

Now I was supposed to be back out Tuesday and instead I have been sitting at home waiting. They sent my trainer out Tues but no where near me. Supposedly, after he drops off this load he will be dispatched by me so I can get back on the truck but at this point it already screws me on my pay. I talked to another dispatcher and he said I should still get paid my guaranteed min pay of 700 since I was supposed to be on a truck at the beginning of the pay period and that if Im not I need to bring it up to human resources. WTF? Is this usually this much of a pain in the ass? How did I get stuck with a crappy dispatcher?

Even though tnt sucks it's not bad enough to make me quit. All it does is motivate me more to get in my own truck. I've spoken to other who came in the same class as I did who say the same things. No showers, non Stop, filthy truck with trash everywhere. We've already agreed to not be that way when we get our own trucks lol. I know I'm not alone with my situation so that makes it easier to deal with. I get a weeks worth of home time this Tuesday so I can suffer a few more days of filth. I also know that I'm getting back on this truck more prepared after my home time. 1 of my biggest gripes is the fact that he refuses to stop by a Walmart so I can get groceries. Instead it's eating out everyday. I swear I burn through 150$ a week just in overpriced fast food. I've already told him I'm getting back on with groceries and a crock pot. I only have 4 to 5 weeks left on this truck, God willing, then I'm in my own. So I can suffer through that to get where I need to be. The funny part is that he keeps pitching me to stay on the truck. At first he offered a whole 16 cents per mile but after his friend offered me 900 a week minimum he said he'd give me half to stay. Funny thing about half is he doesn't know what that actually means. He said he'd give me half of his net take home. I argued that net isn't half. I understand that you can't count the truck payment into income but fml he pays 900$ a month in child support and spousal support and doesn't think that counts into earned income. Same with breakdown expenses, they shouldn't go against me when I'm not getting half of the lease completion bonus. Side note, the way it was explained to me is that unless you are overweight, over 6 foot, or running teams you Do NOT get a condo in reefer. You are stuck with a lw

All in all it took my trainer 10 hours to go 289 miles. I finished up the last 630 in my 10. Yes my trainer is a lease op, he claims to make 6 figures a year, which has me interested in lease. But there are so many horror stories on here about lease. And to call my trainer an actual trainer is a joke. During psd I did 0 pretrips, in his defense I could say the entire thing word for word. Also during psd he wouldn't let me back up. I drove every minute so I did get my 75 in 11 days. When we got back to campus his girlfriend showed up and I had 0 backing practice before my test the 3rd day. I failed, then he decided to get me pad time at 10pm that night on East where you can't see squat. He gave up about 30 min into it and I failed again the next day. When he walked out of the shack with his hands up I threw the keys at his head and went off to get me a ****ing pad and a truck. He did manage to get one of his buddies to give me his pad time. Then he dropped me off to use a pad truck while he went to dinner with his girlfriend. I figured it out and passed the next day. He's a nice guy but a horrible trainer. His fleet Mgr knows all this but told me I may have to wait a few weeks if I wanted another trainer so I decided to suck it up and just get it over with.

And now that we have gone over 200 miles he still doesn't want to stop because he doesn't want the food at flying js or the rest area. He wants TA that's 40 miles ahead. I have to MFing pee. I can't sleep when I have to pee and I take over driving in a few hours . Fml