Comments By Stoug Danhope

I've been on a substantial amount of psychiatric drugs and did my physical through the same office that prescribed 90% of them. When I did my physical I went cold turkey on all of them which I really advocate against because for one withdrawals are awful and two it gets you listed as "non-compliant" and did the physical and drug screen clean. Then I had the doc prescribe the meds again after stating I now had a med card/cdl. A lot of doctors will sign off without really knowing what liability they are taking with that. At least that is my experience. Of course you're very clearly setting yourself up for a disaster civilly and possibly criminally. Some companies as stated will bar certain things. I'll go ahead and say, of the psychiatric drugs I've used, anti psychotics all make it impossible for me to even work a job like crunching numbers or bussing tables. Anti depressants typically blur my vision and make me somewhat antsy. Mood stabilizers are absolutely awful. I can't function in day to day life on them, let alone a job. Stimulants give me really bad tardive dyskinesia which require benzos to make me sleep which are almost universally banned by companies and rightfully so. Stims also make me hate driving because I can't sit still on them and want to pace around.

I don't take anything now and just deal with the mental challenges and more or less tough it out which is unhealthy as all hell but otr is extremely unhealthy in many regards anyways. If you have to be on psych drugs I'd look into something else as a career or go to driving in a govt job like public works, solid waste, or dot state projects. Pay sucks but benefits are good, great home time, and you can drive on insulin, bad heart, etc. I might end up back in the govt jobs because I'm nudging the cut off to high blood pressure and I'm pre diabetic. I might have another dot card renewal or 2 in me but I won't be driving non excempted interstate in 5-10 years.

If I may ask, what have you been formally diagnosed with and what are you prescribed? Also of major importance is if you've been baker acted before. If you've been held on 72 hour involuntary, I'd be much more concerned about getting a cdl. I've never been through the 5150 process but have been in in patient psych wards before, I've been diagnosed as schizophrenic, schizoaffective, major depressive, and also bipolar by different docs. Some also think I am autistic but they never tested me for it.

Even with all that, I breezed through the med card deal since I wasn't and still am not on meds. Prime scanned a copy of my med card with the disclosures on it and probably didn't even give it a second glance. They're really more concerned with medications than anything else and if you have a med card with no prescriptions, you're usually golden.

Be forewarned though, trucking isn't easy for most people. Compounding that with mental illness and especially anxiety is a bad recipe. Most companies team you for a while and if you're on like me, lack of sleep really exacerbates issues. Luckily I can sleep in a moving truck so it doesn't really bother me but again, you're going to need super human resilience to make it out here with anxiety and mental health problems unless you get lucky and can mesh well with the job. On the personal level for me, I'm stuck with my own thoughts endlessly which isn't really a healthy thing. I'm still in team training but even then, my thoughts are racing the whole time I'm alone and I'm sure with anxiety that isn't a good thing. Just some insights from someone out here with psychiatric illnesses. I'd suggest looking into something different first but if not, good luck. You'll need all of the luck you can get.

Yeah I'm sure it will get better for the food thing once I go solo but my trainers truck has 1 small cabinet for my stuff and no fridge or anything and he doesn't go to Walmart with his truck except for extremely rare circumstances. He's terrified of getting booted at Walmart or towed and also won't drop and lock trailers at truck stops or prime terminals to bobtail. He's pretty afraid of getting off anywhere but truck stops, customers, or prime terminals. Which leads me to another question too. He says that prime will withhold mileage payment if you route outside of qualcomm gps route. So say you take a wrong exit and don't turn around but it is only a 20-30 mile detour back to your route or there is a bad storm or traffic and you route yourself 50-100 miles around it. In this case prime would supposedly give you a hard time about getting your paycheck. I'm pretty certain this is a complete lie but figured someone here could answer that. I'm sure they don't want you wasting fuel and they won't pay you for anything more than dispatch miles but that seems not only illegal but extremely unlikely.

Interesting that they are paid on an incentive basis as well. My trainer made it sound like our FM didn't care at all if I changed divisions since I was going company anyways. There's a lot to the behind the scenes stuff I wish I had a guidebook for. The job itself isn't too bad other than the training or rather my trainer possibly. Teaming is pretty awful but the job itself and life on the road isn't really that big of a deal other than the boredom and crappy food choices, for me at least. Once I'm solo it won't be the worst job I've done by far.

My trainer finally gave up I think on me driving for him after tnt and pushing lease. He showed me his quickbooks breakdown but it was one of those, "Here are the numbers, but I'm going to scroll faster than you can read them. But you see how much I'm making!" He didn't offer to let me sit down and really analyze them. Then again his numbers are padded from training, and also having 1 driver beneath him leasing under his llc which I have no idea why someone would do that but I don't know what it entails. He was showing me payroll and he is bringing in 1900-2300 a week for 7-10 weeks at a time and then random lump sum payments of 7-8k a week. Didn't get clarification on that but by the way he moans on and on to people on the phone about selling personal items and covering tax liabilities each quarter, my BS meter stays pegged.

Not sure where the money goes with some of these people. Not trying to be judgemental but there is a weird duality I see. All these lease ops brag about taking home over 100k a year after all is said and done supposedly but then are broke and needed higher freight rates. All while supposedly living otr full time or never going home or having a family/kids/spouse. I'm not getting rich during tnt and won't being solo either but just seems strange to me. Even with 10 dollar happy meals at truck stops there isn't much of a place to spend money. With primes home time policy, I don't know why you'd pay for a place for housing and a personal vehicle if you're single like most of the people I've talked to. Just makes me wonder where it all goes. At least the area I grew up around, a company driver making ~1k a week net would be firmly middle class and not have much to worry about if they lived frugally but I suppose expenses scale with income for most people. For me personally I'd be pretty annoyed if I had a mansion and a Ferrari in the driveway but worked 24/7 for a month or two only to get to enjoy it a couple days then go back to work. Different people I suppose. I got really off topic there.

I don't know why anyone would go otr unless they enjoyed the lifestyle or were trying to go debt free and save money to pay off a house and living expenses and then get a local job. And of course the Volvo drivers trying to get citizenship in the us and bring their family over here.

Seems like a lot of people I've encountered are out here miserably shackled to materialism and debt and the only way to service it is to work their life away. I've met very, very few whole openly say they just love the lifestyle. Just some vicarious observations since we're once again sitting at a truck stop doing nothing lol. Also, since it is a diary I figured I would mention I've lost almost 20lbs since orientation about 3 months ago. I was about 205-208 starting out and just scaled in at 187 with clothes and shoes and all. I have a highly sensitive stomach so truck stop and fast food makes for rapid and rather energetic elimination of anything I eat lol. I'm also what you could call a fussy eater, I can only eat subway so many times in a week. Barring "training" and teaming and that nonsense, the food situation is the worst part of the job by far followed by the boredom in a distant second place.

Got in touch with dispatch, signed me up for flatbed but there is about a dozen person wait for trainers on flatbed. Have a feeling dispatch didn't want to sign me up probably thinking I wasn't serious. He had to go to Steve Tassin to make the request so I probably should have reached out to him to begin with. Had I known there would be a wait I'd have made the call sooner. Oh well, live and learn.

Give your FM 2 weeks notice for home time. That way they can't say they didn't have notice to get you home. Rob Dcan answer your LW vs flatbed pay. I am not sure. Remember once you finish the miles to get on your FM to get you signed up for a truck. Once they have one.... About 3 to 6 days wait.... They will bring you in for more classes. Then you inspect the truck and get any repairs or modifications done. Then you will need to get your securement equipment. Understand you buy the tarps and straps yourself that they break into payments. Then get your load and go!!! We will be here for you as you move along. Keep truckin along.

Just out of curiosity, how long does it take for a tnt student to jump ship to another division? I requested it Tuesday and it is Friday now and haven't heard anything about it other than the initial, "we'll look for a flatbed trainer." I'm going to check up Monday again when the main FM is back in but I'm a bit of a paranoid person. I don't remember if I mentioned it but I mentioned it to my tnt trainer in passing a few weeks ago and immediately he told our FM about it but I didn't know what he told them. Of course QC messages are returned to the both of us on the truck and the FM stated he'd keep me on the truck until training was over and then go to flatbed. Just wondering if I'm being jerked around or if I should be watching for my trainers FM to drag his feet. Just for reference we've been dispatched on 3 loads since the notification and are booked out until late Monday. Not to brag or anything but I've been rather painless for everyone and I keep my head down and don't complain about a lot of stuff I certainly could be *****ing about. I run my miles safely and keep to myself. I know it isn't an immediate thing but just asking if you or anyone else has input. If they force me to stay out until I'm at like 40-45k then do 30 days flatbed; I'd rather just take the paycut and interrupted hours of reefer. On the positive side, dispatch seems to have lifted the curse on us. Last week I got 3 34 hour resets in but we're finally moving good and likely to get about 4500 miles this week.

No... He can't keep you more than 50k miles unless you are unsafe have accidents tickets or critical events.

As for home time... It really isn't his decision. Message your FM--- NOT weekend or night dispatch but your FM with a date for home time.

No.... You don't have to run 4 weeks once solo. They will want 2 weeks solo before home time. So go home before you upgrade.

Nooooooo... 4 to 6 days without a shower is not acceptable and they must have given you numbers to call to switch trainers if you like.

Yes lease sucks which is why I don't do it. Labor day has indeed reduced miles.

yes lease ops try to get good students to stay on the truck or run a separate truck.

Yes going solo can be totally worth it.

Yes you could switch to FB right now and finish your miles.

Yes if you wait they will want 30 days of FB TnT after your 50k reefer.

Thanks for the straight facts on that stuff. Knowing that I'll probably see about going flatbed around 25-30k miles. Maybe get some home time worked out around 45k. I didn't get any phone numbers or really any policy on how all that stuff works through tnt, just going off shop talk and rumors pretty much. Just seemed to be knock it out and try not to make a scene through tnt. My trainer can tell some big ones but apparently there are some folks that really make tnt difficult or don't understand what otr trucking is like. I don't know where my trainer ranks as far as difficulty and I've somewhat adjusted to being with him, as much as I can but for all I know I could swap and it be to someone far worse. Hence why I've been hesitant. I haven't rocked the boat any or even talked to dispatch aside from forgetting a macro 25 once lol. I've got some stuff to take care of from my old side business I no longer run that would be waiting at home and getting home time would be nice to finish that up too but the paperwork won't be ready for another 2 weeks. Should line up good if I can make it work out to where flatbed tnt finished about 30 days and at 50k simultaneously. I'd need to get boots and winter clothes too, I was worried I'd have to go to Thanksgiving with only a hoodie as well lol.

The full size truck in flatbedding is what is a major factor, that and the endless downtime and weird hours of reefer. I also sleep like a rock and have a hard time waking up to shipper/receiver calls. God forbid they say they'll text me. I need a deafening alarm to stir me from slumber.

Just wondering if at the end of the day if lightweight reefer and flatbed are a big difference in pay or not.

Wow... super similar~!!!!! Uncannily so. The husband of mine actually 'needed' that refresher in '03 that I helped him study for. He had a 'bite the bullet' time, as well. He had felt like 'he' could've TAUGHT the school . . . IIRC. BUT for the pretrip, and the new regs. Here's the way his went:

My husband 'inherited' his dad's refuse/trash company, as a 'younger' lad. (I just read your post out loud, to the hubby, ..and he said 'YEP sounds like me~!') << So true. He WAS his own boss AND bus, per se.. but for his dad, until he passed. He did some H/H on the side, also. WOW.

Life was more 'lenient' in the 90's, and early 2k, so I've heard. I didn't meet hubby until almost 2000, but.. man, he had similar stuff as you to share! No endorsements, either. Had to 'do it all.'

Wish you well, man. Hang in.

Oh yeah I've done the local trash route deal. Won't ever do that again. Trash men are a different breed of people. I remember having to tarp the back of roll off compactors with a weeks worth of garbage juice pouring out in front of you. Of all the trucks I've drove, roll offs scare me the most. That and parking next to dumping frameless end dumps at the quarry. Never could get used to pulling roll off cans onto the truck inside the cab. Outside was fine because I could see everything. Inside is nerve wracking lol. I wouldn't trade all that experience though. I was eager to learn and government workers are glad to pass off the seat time to someone else who is willing.

Yep I was driving for a local public works municipality so honestly, as long as nobody hurt anyone we could do nearly whatever we wanted. We had guys that couldn't pass the pretrip or written test on anything or drive manuals so they got an examiner to give them school bus licenses to drive on for their CDLs. No joke, we had one guy driving a hazmat fuel/lube truck after failing the cdl written test 9 times. I was one of only 5 people there that actually got a cdl the right way albeit class b. And it was a class b because insurance went up for them for class a drivers.

Funny how the government doesn't eat their own. We had guys pulling excavators sometimes with 1 single 3/8ths chain draped over the tracks between the slew ring, literally completely unsecured. We didn't even have to have dot med cards or anything like log books etc. Dot saw the government logo on the door and it was like we didn't even exist. Hell I personally was assigned to pulling a tandem dump truck with 18.5 ton in the bed of 87s so grossing almost 70k with a 963 cat behind it on a pintle trailer tilt deck. That poor dump truck was moving over 100k pounds with nothing but a 10 speed and a well worn cummins n14 to get it there lol.

God forbid if any of those guys get into a wreck, the lawyers will send em broke overnight. That's one reason I left that side of work. Getting 10-14 dollars an hour doing stuff like that is just senseless. I wouldn't doubt that the bosses would throw the driver under the bus in a situation like that.

Welp I've been sitting around various truck stops for about 3 days and bored out of my mind so a small update I suppose.

Been at it about 5 weeks total and have accumulated about 17500 miles. My backing isn't amazing for tight spots but I can get it in without breaking someone's mirror or asking for help. It's just slow to do. Still adjusting to not having your axles all the way at the rear on long trailers. Also my trainers truck isn't adjusted to where you can use your blindspot or hood mirrors for backing which is croppling for me personally. But oh well, I also miss day cabs for backing lol. Other than that and winter driving I could definitely go solo now. Hindsight being 20/20 I'd take a pay cut to have the training wrap up faster having drove as a day job before. 50k team miles when you get 3-4k a week is making it an absolute slog. Between sales, dispatch, and claims, we're getting nowhere fast. We had almost 6k one week but this week is shaping up to be maybe 2800 due to claims and finding buyers for damaged goods.

As far as training, well I've been shown how to do paperwork and macros and how to redeem shower credits but that is about as far as it goes. It's more about cheap labor for lease ops from what I've seen. After the first 2 weeks it's pretty much been the same thing day to day. At least on the reefer side there isn't much to the job, just get it there on time and follow the customers rules and send macros/paperwork. I'm not going to lie though, the job is pretty easy. The training is wearing on me though. I'm very solitary and a bit of a clean freak and don't like being around people for more than an hour or two. Team driving is being particularly brutal for me for a lot of reasons. I'd really like to take home time since it's been 3 or 4 weeks since last home time but my trainer committed me to finishing training without home time without asking me. I'm sure I could push the issue but he does petty stuff at times that messes with me like cutting off the air "accidentally" while I'm trying to sleep in the bunk. I'd rather not rock the boat since you're locked in a closet with someone you have to treat as the leader of the party. Not naive enough to think he can't make my life a complete living hell if I **** him off. But boy is it grating spending weeks around someone you really dislike without an escape but for showers. I talked with Rob D about jumping ship to flatbed because I'm really not keen on the lack of doing anything but sitting or sleeping that reefer offers but when I mentioned it to my trainer he had dispatch promise him that they'd make me finish training and then do tnt flatbed after 50k. Along with that it seems prime wants you to run 3-4 weeks after upgrading so getting home time around Thanksgiving if I stay reefer or next year with flatbed... I'll just stick to reefer. I'm far beyond wanting this "training" garbage done with.

I'm not trying to be overly negative but I'm not going to sugarcoat it either. The newness has worn off, we're getting no miles because my trainer is super picky about loads, and I really don't care for him. I've had tougher jobs before but this is probably the toughest challenge because there is no reprieve from it whatsoever, you can't relax or get away except for a shower which is like 30 minutes that only comes around every 4-6 days. I've also heard my trainer loosely mention that he may keep me longer than 50k miles. Apparently it is up to his discretion. I haven't said much when he mentions it but I will leave if they try and pull some BS like that. He's desperately trying to get me to drive a leased truck for him and also drive his truck when he takes 2 months of vacation next year. Either you're fine with me driving your truck solo or I need more training, guy. You don't get to say both. I find it hard not to laugh at the idea of leasing a truck and sending him 100-200 dollars a week for the privilege of being a part of his company. As if I was that stupid to fall for some **** like that lol. The lease guys here at prime have had more than their fair share of koolaid. I don't know how many guys I've talked to that "make" 200k+ a year leasing with prime. But I better get off the lease hater train, some people might take offence. Anyways...

I'll just say this, anyone that has decent sense, is antisocial, and has driven big trucks for a job before, be leery of committing to 50k miles. I'd do it over again differently in the present moment. I've seen some prime tnt students that clearly need 50k miles, probably more, and some that probably have no business ever driving big trucks. I started driving tractor trailers about 3 years ago but it was infrequent and without a cdl. I started driving dump trucks with and without pintle trailers about 2.5 years ago. I've had my class b cdl longer than my trainer has had his class a and drove illegally before that. Not trying to sound like a know it all or anything like that, just putting it out there for guys like me that know how to get around a bit in a tractor trailer but never drove legally. It's probably a rare situation to be in and I probably should have figured that for myself before joining up but I saw primes best equipment and pay apple dangling from their website and jumped at it. Maybe I'll be glad for it once I go solo but it's hard right now.

Anyways, that's all for now. Just some wisdom from my experiences so far so that someone might find it useful.

So one week down and a day or two out until I hit the road again after home time. Did 4200 miles in the first weeks, furthest West we went was Chicago after leaving Springfield. Sleeping in a moving truck isn't too bad for me as long as I use earplugs. I have had a shift I felt too drained, really like the night driving except for the parking dilemma it causes. Still haven't been reimbursed for the rental car and have already gotten 2 paychecks. The tnt pay is .14 CPM for your and trainers miles. Was able to get a couple extra days home time because I live so close to Atlanta and wanted to be sure I made it to transfer license over since we dropped a load off in south Atlanta.

The DMV I went to "specialised" in CDL stuff so when I asked about the manual restriction they said it wasn't a problem, they just had to get it cleared from head quarters and that they can't remove endorsements you've already earned on another CDL class. The folks there are far nicer and more knowledgeable than other East of Atlanta locations. So my recommendation is to use the Jackson, GA DDS. It is only two service stations so it is pretty fast too. Went ahead and got doubles/triples while I was there so fortunately for me I have a cdl with no restrictions and all endorsements except for hazmat which I don't want anyways.

It isn't typical of Prime Inc and I wouldn't expect it but I got right at a week home time so that is nice. I'll probably try and get around 45000 miles before next home time. I don't know how they do it when they upgrade but I'd not be surprised if they want you to run their 3 week policy after you upgrade so having some home time and then knocking out another week training then 3-4 weeks solo seems like a decent plan.

It's easy to say I'd like to stay out for several weeks solo but after working jobs where you're constantly jumping in and out of trucks/equipment all the time, I'm glad to be home and doing stuff around the house, maybe I'm not as lazy as I thought. It's quite amazing how much atrophy I've had occur in a month of laying in a motel bed and sitting in a truck. After 2 days being home I was sore all over like I'd swam 3 miles. Also, strangely enough, I lost about 6-7 lbs the first week out.

I'm not going to say I'm going to jump to flatbed but... a crazy part of me is actually missing the physical activity of dump trucking or the physicality of heavy equipment operating. Maybe the road is already making me crazy. Another thing I've noticed is the difference in climate. I've always been told it gets just as hot everywhere else as it does in Georgia, it just doesn't last as long. And I can say pretty confidently that is a bunch of BS. Maybe on paper it is true but being in NJ, PA, Chicago etc, it is hot sure, but when I had to walk about a 1/4 mile with all my stuff when I got home, yeah... The heat here in the South is just another level, there's no breeze, humidity is insane and temps are higher, plus it storms every afternoon. It was striking how hot it was when I got home and I've lived in it for over 20 years. I can't wait to move Northwest. I can't wait to see the West, my trainer likes to stay West and doesn't like traffic so hopefully that is where we'll be and can rack up some miles fast.

I'll post another update around 40000 miles or so.

Swapped TNT trainers. My original one hooked up with someone else to train so I got a new one this morning, suppose to head out tomorrow some time. Got a better vibe off the new guy so that's good, met him in person at the campus inn and talked for a bit. The first guy called, talked for a few minutes about being a clean freak and wanting to know if I could manage my clock and macros on my own and that was about it. New guy had a lot more questions and seemed to care more about getting a good person with a decent personality. Also gave me the option of driving a week solo with him in the passenger seat or directly to team driving.

Also, special thanks to Rob D for taking me to dinner at the Lambert's. It's nice to get out of the routine of campus inn, Walmart, and plaza building.

As to the 700 dollar thing, the money was 600 advance during PSD plus a 100 dollar reimbursement for something. Perhaps the entry fee you send to Prime to enroll. Wasn't told specifically what it was but that is the only thing I can think of. You can opt to have prime take the PSD advance money back but you have to sign off at payroll to do it. Since it is interest free I'll just keep it, it is only 25 dollars a week deduction on payroll and while it isn't much money, you can make a nickle or so on interest lol, you're going to get the money anyways if you stick around, may as well have it to invest or save now rather than later.