Any Experience With PAM?
Topic 13019 | Page 1
Jean, You have other options:
Company-Sponsored Training Programs
- Article Category: Choosing A Truck Driving School
- Trucker's Career Guide: Choosing A Truck Driving School
- Forum Topics Tagged "Choosing A Truck Driving School"
- Article Category: Finding The Right Truck Driving Job
- Trucker's Career Guide: Choosing Your First Truck Driving Job
- Forum Topics Tagged "Choosing A Trucking Company"
After review of the above information you might want to check out:
- Truck Driver's Career Guide
- Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
- High Road Training Program
Becoming A Truck Driver: The Raw Truth About Truck Driving
That should help prepare you for the journey forward.
Good luck!
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Company-sponsored Training:
A Company-Sponsored Training Program is a school that is owned and operated by a trucking company.
The schooling often requires little or no money up front. Instead of paying up-front tuition you will sign an agreement to work for the company for a specified amount of time after graduation, usually around a year, at a slightly lower rate of pay in order to pay for the training.
If you choose to quit working for the company before your year is up, they will normally require you to pay back a prorated amount of money for the schooling. The amount you pay back will be comparable to what you would have paid if you went to an independently owned school.
Company-sponsored training can be an excellent way to get your career underway if you can't afford the tuition up front for private schooling.
OOS:
When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.
Well I'm glad to know they do teams. Was wondering aboutt that last night.
I have been at PAM 5 months and went through the c1 program. Your information is correct, if you want to make good money here you need that hazmat and you need to team. Another kicker is that your partner has to have the hazmat also. Me and my partner have and we do gross enough to reach 50k. On a slow week my take home is 800$, i have gotten as much as $1000. That is after taking out insurance for family of four, retirement, taxes, life insurance and everything. Now their solo pay is pretty bad, had to solo fir week to switch partners and it cut my check in half. So if you go with PAM and get a good partner i would strongly advise the hazmat and team fir a year then you can solo at .32 a mile, i only got .25 solo. Payroll told me it takes a year to get the .32, they also cap at .40 for solo, again coming from payrill dept. Personally i got lucky, have a great partner and enjoy teaming with him so i am real happy here, but again gotta team and gotta hazmat if you bucks. If you really dont want to team, i would look to somewhere else. I used the company guides here also they are very informative and hazmar study guide is awesome! Made that hazmat test easy, feel free to ask me any questions, not many positive pam guys here lol.
HAZMAT:
Hazardous Materials
Explosive, flammable, poisonous or otherwise potentially dangerous cargo. Large amounts of especially hazardous cargo are required to be placarded under HAZMAT regulations
Cool, thanks very much for the helpful replies.
I worked for PAM my first year driving, and I will relate what I experienced.
First of all, remember that those figures where they state, "You could make up to," are best case scenarios, with the key word being "could."
I grossed a little over $14,000 driving solo during the 7 months I was at PAM.
When I drove with a trainer, I was able to experience team driving, because the trainer wanted to try to make more money by running more miles as a team. I discovered it is very hard for me to sleep in a moving truck. When I told my trainer this, he stopped running the truck team, and explained to me that when the time came for the company to pair me up with another driver for team, I could explain to them that I can't get any sleep in a truck that is moving. It's as simple as that if you just want to run solo, your entire time with PAM, because they can't ask you to drive when you can't get any sleep.
After 6 months, you will have enough driving experience to have other companies take a serious look at you. You do not have to stay at PAM for an entire year, but you will owe a balance to C1 for approximately 1 year. C1 was really good about allowing me to set up an affordable payment plan, to get my school debt paid off.
After driving for PAM for 6 months, I applied to Crete Carrier, and they started me out at .45 per mile to run National Fleet. They are highly skilled at getting a driver 3000 miles a week, which makes for a pretty sporty paycheck.
If you can keep your record spotless like I did, including no damaged trailers on private property, you can set yourself up to go to work for a quality company after only 6 months of driving.
I can't think of another industry where you only have to pay your dues for 6 months, and be allowed to bank over $1000.00 a week on average. It won't be easy, but if you have what it takes to keep a clean driving record, and make on time delivery every time, you can climb the ladder fairly quickly.
As for the PAM campus in Indy, they have a fantastic facility on the same property as the PAM Indy terminal , but since I attended their school in Little Rock, AR. I can't speak to the quality of the instructors or their training program overall.
Terminal:
A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
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Looking at going to Indianapolis to do PAM's CDL training and was wondering if anyone has experience with them (good or bad). Spoke to the recruiter and got access to the driver account website where it lays out all their specifics. While their marketing materials say that you can make $50,000 your first year, they qualify that once you've signed up for the website by saying that the only way you'll make 50K is by driving team hazmat. They also require you to drive team for 6 months out of your 12 month initial commitment. Is that standard? Would really prefer to be out on my own after the OTR training.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
HAZMAT:
Hazardous Materials
Explosive, flammable, poisonous or otherwise potentially dangerous cargo. Large amounts of especially hazardous cargo are required to be placarded under HAZMAT regulations
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.