Profile For Truckin Along With Kearsey

Whats up???

Didn't leave in a huff bud, just was wondering l. Im still tnt. For every horror story there's a good one. Thanks pj since you were lease its easier to understand.

I'm just anxious thats all, I'm ready to go solo, driving and dealing with shippers and relievers not that bad. ( only thing I got to get used to is the waiting which I am) wish they were all drop and hooks lol.

I decided to go company for awhile. I need to take advantage if primes dental and insurance, even though the cost is crazy for a single person. Prolly just do my year or alittle more,then get a yard jocky job or somthing local. Unless I can get lucky and gran a regional from prime,but till then just going to learn and keep enjoying it.

I should just be proud, not many people make it this far.

Truth about Leasing

I see you watched one of my videos. This one discusses $10k negligence fees that most lease ops dont know. And how they are responsible for the freight.

Oh please I couldnt even get a Covid test when home. Every drug store and urgent advertised it and none actually gave out appointments to test.

As for Volvo... They cant make a truck that can handle Primes safety features. I doubt they can make an electric one.

Lol prolly just like everyone else does. Calculate how your averaging miles per gallon,how long to your next stop, divide that by the miles. ( this works well in most circumstances) but if you driving in hill terrain,starting and stopping etc etc. We had a run from cali,to pageland sc and from pageland back to cali and ran good fuel mileage per mile. Ran both ways around 60 mph.

That is all a waste of time. Prime has a Macro 27 that calculates the route, best prices based on local, federal and IFTA taxes. In the end a smart lease Op fuels in the exact location a company driver does.

There are only 2 numbers on his 20 page settlement that are worth anything:

"Income & Expense Cashflow LTD (Lease to date)

"Miles LTD"

Divide the cashflow by the miles and you have the cents per mile.

I have recently gotten numbers from several lease ops wiling to share their settlements with me. Here are the results:

6 months driving: 52cpm 2 years driving: 48cpm 6 years driving: 54cpm 6 years driving: 64cpm 8 years driving: 42cpm 20 years driving: 73cpm

I know you wont listen to anything we say. But you have a family and should consider not having Workmans Comp or health benefits. I have loaned tons of money to lease ops who have gotten sick or injured.

Lease ops lie about being company. At least go company for 6 month to a year.

Great feedback! Kearsey that’s especially good to know, since Wilson and Prime are my top two choices. I’ve had nothing but positive interactions with them since day 1, and truthfully, if I were lucky enough to be offered a position at both, I’d have a difficult time deciding.

The one factor that gives Wilson a slight edge in my book would be the opportunity to train in Missoula in the winter. As mentioned above I imagine I’d probably get more Mountain passes on my runs, in harsher winter weather conditions, than if I trained out of Springfield. Better to get that experience under my belt under the watchful eye of a trainer than it experience it for the first time on my own as a rookie solo driver!

Well.... That isn't necessarily true either. Many lease ops despite the company may try to stay out of the bad weather and mountains. But company drivers like myself do go there. I get paid by the mile and dont really care where that 2700 mile load takes me lol. In the schooling portion, we pick up and deliver loads with the permit. Some states do not allow that so you will be routed to states that do. But the schooling portion lasts a few days of orientation and SIMS and then a week or two OTR making deliveries, a couple days of pad backing. So the "schooling" portion isnt as important as the "training" portion. The school is just to get your CDL.

Now, some CDL instructors may teach a whole lot more OTR and others may concentrate on just getting you to pass. You could learn fueling, routing, the atlas and more during the school portion like I did.

My current trainee has already driven Donner Pass once, cabbage pass 3 times, and Wyoming several times. When she got on my truck she already had her CDL. I am dispatched out of Springfield but live in NJ. I make it a point to have my students do most of the "scary" mountains 😂 but I dont chain hahhaha

We are in the team training phase. You would need to do 50k miles at Prime before you can go solo. Or there is an option to do 30k miles and then agree to team for 120 days with another company driver. You would get full team pay at that point. Once the 120 days is up you can go solo. It is your choice. That is prime specific though. Not Will or JP.

If you want the mountain training ask your trainer. My team trainer owned her truck and despite me coming in the winter ... I only drove in snow a couple times because she avoided the mountains and bad weather.

Believe it or not, we have some 7% and 6% downgrades back east. My CDL instructor had me going back and forth across Monteagle TN and that 7% in West Virginia. They arent high enough to chain, but the driving concept is the same. Learn one downgrade and how to control the rig and the altitude only matters due to snow depth and ice. Which if it is that bad you should be parked anyway

Remember, the schooling portion is just the beginning. The real training begins in the second phase.

Good luck

Hello! I have been driving with Prime for 5 years and am also a trainer. It is a great choice and I am treated very well.

I wrote an article that may help both the driver and a spouse deal with and understand the emotional roller coaster on both sides.

We are here if you have questions or issues and it is best to have your husband join the forum. I also have a Youtube channel as Truck in along with kearsey which has many Prime specific details. If you watch the "Prime promotes Women" series I discuss in depth the classes and resources prime has to create better drivers.

There is an organization that Prime assists called "Good Dads" that gives support to families separated by being over the road.

Good luck!

OTR Relationships

Eugene mentioned Prime and class size at Prime does not matter at all. Our training on the pad and OTR with the permit is one on one. There is no sharing trucks or instructors. We used to share the SIM with another student but due to covid they are not even doing that anymore. Our pads are 24/7 and at springfield MO we have 12 pads. UT and PA have much smaller pads but it is still one on one.

What I think would cause a delay and we have seen this on the forum in the past at various companies, is waiting for a trainer. Many go home for the holidays so due to less being available there is sometimes a wait. IF there is a delay at Prime, Prime would still get you trained one on one on the pad and local roads and test you out. Worst case scenario they would have you go back home after you tested and get your CDL from your DMV then have a TNT team trainer pick you up there. This happened when one of my students came in just before Memorial Day and another over July 4th.

I seem to remember one of our members here quitting Roehl because he was placed in a hotel for 2 weeks waiting and felt disrespected by them because of it. Prime is paying trainers and solo drivers $800 to stay out Dec 7 to Jan 6th. TNT trainees get $400 in addition to our normal Christmas bonus. That incentive is higher this year than usual so it seems more drivers are staying out. So a delay may not occur.

Yes Turtle tested out right around Christmas, the day before or after I dont remember. I think CK here tested around the same tine of year in Salt Lake and it was snowing badly (for a student) lol. Turtle had some weather issues too I believe. Was it him that had to reschedule cause testing was halted?

Anyway, I believe Will Trans/Jim Palmer trains as Prime does also. So be sure to ask recruiters. Class size will only matter if the company doesnt do one on one schooling.

Kearsey, my bad. I thought the question was asking for a recommendation for which gps unit people are using, not about the accuracy of a particular app or if a gps alone was trustworthy..

The two main trucker GPS brands are Garmin and Rand McNally. Each have quirks and features that some like and some dont. They can cost between $300 to $500 but you can use truck stop fuel rewards points to cut the costs and there are often rebates as well.

Our companies often provide a GPS as well. I have the company GPS and a Rand MCNally Trucker version. My student just paid for Trucker Path annual that is supposed to have a trucker GPS and she found that all 3 recently took her different directions. And 2 told her to turn on non truck routes.

I am sorry if I came off rude. But as a trainer I have woken to trainees driving through corn fields because they do not understand that the GPS is not to be trusted

The OP is still in training and sounds as though he is relying on this?

I use a Samsung Galaxy Tab E8 16gb T377A, check it our on amazon for around $125 +\-. Way cheaper than a Garmin or Lowrance. It is durable and has a nice big 8" Screen. It does not need to be connected to wifi for the gps to work. Check it out at amazon for around $100 +/- . Then use whatever map app you want. I like GAIA for offroad and google maps for on road. For my offroad prerunner I use the Samsung Galaxy Active 2..

But google maps and other non truck routing will get you in big big trouble. People have followed GPS onto beaches, the Atlantic City boardwalk, into lakes, onto historical bridges that were destroyed, crashed into low bridges

NEVER EVER follow a GPS blindly without checking an atlas for your truck size and height

Oklahoma has an infamous "shark bridge". It got its name from the countless trucks it has "eaten" due to driver error.

Go google that. Amazing stuff

Here is Malcolm's post from the CDL section:

Like many newbies on this site, I have many hours looking on this site, youtube and other trucker forums, the safer web site. But to me it boils down to trying to figure out if the management runs a good operation and is fair to the employees.

I really got excited thinking about driving and was worried that at 61 I was too old, but this site convinced me it's not a problem if you are relatively healthy. This is certainly not a planned career change, but one brought about by this COVID mess. I am in the process of closing down a 70 year old business my parents started, and I've been leading for almost 35 years. I had planned on doing that for a long time yet.

Now to the trucking stuff. I did so many 180’s in my thought process as to whether it was smarter to do private school vs company paid. what to pull, or going with a big medium, or small company.

Companies I always seemed to be pulled back to Millis. So as of right now Millis is at the top of the list.

A couple of these below would require private school but I agree with others on this site that it seems smart to do the company training.

Next tier on my list, HO Wolding, Prime and Roehl - I do like prime a lot in that you have choices of which things to pull and leasing is pretty easy etc. But I don’t like the Team driving during training.

Third tier maybe WEL Companies, Veriha, or Nussbaum. The only reason I didn't look harder into Nussbaum is they seem to kind of hide the fact that if you have a cdl with no experience they will train you.

A couple others that were strictly flatbed, but I felt that I would be stuck if there was no other options.

What Division -- Dry Van -- Reefer - Even though I have heard people talk about not even noticing the refrigeration unit making noise all night I think that it would be quite annoying, maybe one could get used to it pretty easily -- Flatbed – I think I would like the challenge, and regularly lift and throw heavier things around but mixing that with cold, snow and rain does not necessarily sound that great sometimes.

Also in flatbeds how slow can it get at certain times of the year, I have read that the winter can slow down. But how cyclical is it?

Solo vs Team – I have no desire to do Team Driving, not even during training. Especially for training makes no sense to me, how does it help make me a better driver if the trainer is sleeping in the back, or worse yet being paired with another student. I am used to figuring things out on the fly but this makes about as much sense as solo driving after a week! I seems that pairing 2 students together is going to help the student that struggles more and not help the one that picks things up easier. But this is rant for someone that is only looking form the outside-in. Plus the other thing about team driving is that my whole life I could never sleep at all in a moving vehicle be it cars or airplanes.

Company vs Owner Operator/Lease – my thought is now I am only considering Company driver. If things go well and I think I want to go the next step I can consider it then. To me it seems like the Lease or O/O would only just be if I wanted more flexibility with running my own pace and goofing off more, but I also know that there are lots of expenses with being on your own.

Free Time If a driver was established a bit, and the company knows they can count on them, what are the chances of being more flexible with scheduling? By this I mean if say I got a load to somewhere right next to the Smokey Mountains in October could I ask to hold off on a return trip out of there for 2 or 3 days and enjoy some of the sites that are not truck routes, or is that only going to be were you work for a smaller company?

Millis Driver Specific Questions - Due to the business stuff I have to wrap up I have no idea how long that will take. I want to get started with school right after that, typically if accepted how long before you can get into the school? - Is Millis 100% dry vans? Like I said above it would be great to be able to get a taste of flatbed - Are things still pretty stable after the Heartland buyout - I would enjoy a quick tour of the headquarters and possibly a quick intro with some of the people, do you think that is something done much in these social distancing times. I was also assuming there would be drivers around I can chat with a bit about the company, you know, get the real story. I am a little more than 2 hours east of there so just a quick trip. - Do you think there is any chance they would expand the area served to the western states, or since Heartland seems to go there already is that not likely? Or is it just kind of a sales thing, if you can find the customers somewhere on a regular basis they would do it.

I have just played with the first few chapters of the CDL Training Guide, it seems very good, about the only questions I got wrong is when I read the question too fast and skipped an important word in the question, otherwise it seems pretty easy so far.

I really appreciate this website, it is packed with information. Plus the decorum on the site is far better than any of the other ones I have come across. I don’t like all the negativity people show on some forums. My thought is that the majority of time they bring all their problems upon themselves. If there is one problem with it is that there is too much information!! But that is the best problem to have.

I didnt even buy a GPS for 18 months. Buy an atlas and learn the highways. Get a truckers guide book and use them together to plan a route. That way when you do get a GPS you wont rely on it but utilize it as the tool it is.

Also...3 GPS on the same dash can take you 3 different ways. My trainee recently learned that. Use the atlas to avoid non truck routes and low clearances.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Well... It sounds more like your trainer's first time in the shop. Standard Operating Procedure at dealers is to turn off the APU due to fumes in the shop. Even some truck washes will have me turn off the reefer and APU because of this. Yes, I have transported my fridge food to my hotel room while waiting on repairs.

The FL dealer on Division St (and there are 2) has a 24/7 repair center with showers and free laundry facilities. They also have an express diagnostics pane for added service. This is far better than most dealers.

Before covid we were getting almost double the amount of trucks. And rumor has it... Prime owns one of those dealers so we are getting a HUGE discount at ridiculously low prices

The International dealer not only puts my truck in the shop right away but will take the parts off brand new trucks in their sales lot rather than make me wait. Still, repairs can take a long time to diagnose with all of our electronic safety features. Volvo is having problems with Primes requirements and their wiring.

Bobtail to a hotel

Sorry to hear this. This is typical of people who just assume local jobs are easy to get and easy to do. Local jobs are very hard for new drivers and that is why the experience is required to get them

Also realize that even if he does get a local job, he will most likely be working 12 to 14 hour days. He will get 10 hours off per day that includes his commute to work, eating showering sleeping and time with you. Many of my local friends say they feel they had more quality time as over the road drivers because 4 to 6 days straight of family was better than a couple days of them mostly sleeping.

If you want to keep doing this, you need to be strong and he needs to be understanding. Please check out the following article I wrote. What you are feeling is normal. Your child will deal with it and adjust. How you handle things is a different story. Do not ruin your relationship over a job.

Once he gains experience which we recommend a year, he can try to get jobs to be home more. A year sounds like forever but it flies by. If you truly cannot handle 6 months to a year then be honest with him about it. We are here for you

OTR Relationships & What to Expect

Thank You Rick S. and OS... You guys know what you are talking about and I am taking your sage advise!! I'm not stupid. That's why I came to this forum. To be told what "I didn't want to hear" not what I wanted to hear... I'm glad I heard the truth.

Thank You for taking the time to respond with the detail that you did... I get it !!

Go watch my Youtube channel where I compare lease Op settlements to my pay and break it down. As a company driver I make more than them and take more time off.

If you dont want to run hard... Forget being an OO. There are ways of managing your clock to get extra down time. Home time flexibility may be a little different.

Roehl is the one that has the most flexibility but it depends on your location and their routes.

There is a You Tube friend of mine called Red Monkey Trucking. He gives rave reviews about PTL and he and he trained his wife so they ran team for 2 years. They have moved on but he credits PTL for giving him a chance when no one else would and says he was treated very well.

Something to realize is that " schooling" and "training" are two completely different things

Schooling teaches you enough to get your CDL. Training teaches you everything else. Hours of Service, DOT rules, mechanical issues, routing and trip planning, dealing with bills of lading and customers, refining your driving skills.

Many people are under the misconception that a local CDL school teaches you enough to be a trucker. It doesnt.

It is also a misconception that company drivers are slaves or micromanaged or at the mercy of the company. I am essentially my own boss without the hassle and liability.

There is way too much more to know.... Spot markets, leasing freight contract, load boards, high risk downpayments and interest rates for first time buyers WITH years of experience

Good luck.

I went thru Prime 5 years ago and am now a trainer. We do 1 on 1 training plus you pay nothing but a $100 processing fee as long as you work a year.

Best thing I ever did.

The whole "free agent to avoid a contract" is crap cause you should stay at your first company a whole year anyway....

PLUS at Prime, you get paid less and stay in training longer than those who go through primes school.

In general, expect him to be gone about 6 weeks before getting home. COVID has things really messed up. I know people who drove home after the exam and waited at home for a trainer. It depends on the situation at the time and weekly changes of DMV. Each state is operating differently. And the holidays can delay trainers