Comments By Okiecowboy

Miss my two boys and my wife, i'm new to the industry so gotta do my otr time then hopefully get a lane to get home on a regular basis :)

Regular team pay is .175 per mile, if you and partner have hazmat it is .21 per mile. And that is wether you pull a hazmat load or not. Teams max out at .26 per mile

Solo pay is .21, talked to payroll and they say that is for if you went to company cdl training. After 1 year you go to .32, 1 cent raise per year and cap at .40 currently, for solo.

I am on the hazmat team pay, me and my partner also got a good dispatcher and we get around 4800 to 5500 miles a week. I usually bring home 700 to 1000 dollars a week and that is after insurance for a family of four, open road, disability, and 401k. Didn't sound bad for only 3 months experience.

Dunno why i said compared in first sentence, just meant to say solo pay is low.

Ya going solo with PAM company training is pretty low compared to solo. I lost a partner and ran solo for a week. It nearly cut what I was making in half. But got the hazmat done and so did my partner we are getting .21 a mile as a team now.

Np, if you any other questions about the PAM program just let me know. Good luck!

Oh that take home pay is per week

C1 in Little Rock will put you in their bunkhouse, i had to share a room with 5 other students lol. If it is full they will put you a hotel. Trucks have cruise, manual transmissiom and am/fm cd radio. It does have an audio connection for xm or plugging your phone up and usb port.

My stove is juat a cheap little roadpro stove, heat up canned food and small hormel dinners.

When you sign on you make an agreement to team at least 6 months then you can go solo. However i plan to team at least a year sobi can start at .32 per mile instead of only .25.

Also, if you after money and want to solo there are prob better options out there, the money in this company is teaming. I take hom between $750 to $1000 , pretty good for only 3 months experience. Now that pay is with me and my partner getting the extra 3 cents per mile for both holding a hazmat. And the bonus is for all miles whether you haul hazmat or not.

Rand Mcnally GPS systems are the most common.

I'm sure you've heard this before but nothing beats proper trip planning using your Atlas.

Ditto, use it myself

The trucks and amenities:

International Prostars and Freightliner Cascadia. Some newest ones have apu and 1700 watt inverter installed. Bed just has standard mateess but you can put own in.

Food

Mix of both, mostly cook meals in a stove on the truck.

Work schedule:

When you run team they shorten the delivery time, for example I just left Ohio for texas with 2 days to get delivery done. You generally have to run the truck constantly to make your appointments. You are expected to keep the truck moving, except for layover, maintenance, or 70 resets. Sometimes we get a lot of beeathing room sometimes only a few hours. Now actual driving you will drive about 500 to 650 a day, your sleeper time is spent in a moving truck while partner drives. Also remember your pay is for ALL miles the truck runs wether you drive em or your partner. We generally run everyday and do our reset in Sunday to watch some football :). They start you out as otr so 4 to 6 weeks out then 4 to 6 days home depending on how long you were out.

Np, when you go test in Arkansas they put your scores on the computer and Oklahoma looks them up, so you will het your license in Oklahoma. You will also need your permit before you go, i also went ahead and did my tanker test before I left. If you are going hazmat, I would also go ahead and turn in your tsa background check before you leave. PAM will reimburse the cost once you go to orientation.

We usually take time off at the same time once a month. After you get some experience you'll be up for a lane and get home every other week or even every week. They have both team and solo lanes. If you need to take seperate time off, the other driver goes solo.

On the 70 hours, we try to drive 10 hours then switch, now some teams like to do a shift that I've talked and agree on like a 5 to 5 each day or something like that. On the weekend we do a rolling reset. So how that works is driver A goes to the sleeper, this starts his 34 hr. reset. Driver B runs his shift then parks the truck. Driver B goes to sleeper, this starts his reset. In 24 hours driver A gets the 34 hour reset and starts driving. Driver B will finish reset in the sleeper while moving. So the truck only stops for 24 hours compared to a solo truck who stops the whole 34. Also dont forget things like 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper, off duty if you go in to eat and such. Hope I explainex that well, now remember I am new, only been out here 3 months. Sure some other guys will have aome input, but ask all the questions you want, I actually enjoy teaming. I make more money and i fortunately have a good partner :).