My Prime First Week TNT Update

Oh fiddles. I forgot TT does not approve of my potty mouth.

Great post and easy to see that you'll do good in your career. Willing to listen and wanting to learn. Congratulations and continued success

She was MY TNT trainer lol

We had a good time and laughed a bit. You can learn a lot from her but insist on doing all the backing. My one critique of her is that she was more concerned about me learning the way she does HER paperwork..not Prime's but hers..... than the backing which I need and told her repeatedly that I needed to work on. I didn't worry about the backing cause I thought we had more time. She told me the same about staying on the truck as long as I wanted and yeah... she offered me 18 cpm. Then she offered 4 other people the job as well. She takes a lot of time off due to her appointments and between Nov 1st to Jan 20th we only did 20k miles. She changes her mind a lot as well. I still needed 10k to upgrade... she was supposed to go on vacation and because I could not afford taking time off without pay... she put me on her friends truck for 2 weeks. Half my stuff was on her truck cause I was going back on it. Her friend and I ran harder than she did and I got the 10k miles in with him. The WHOLE time I was told by both of them I was going back on her truck until I felt better about the backing. She even tried to talk me into staying on with the guarantee cause she would pay .14 cpm instead of .18... but I would still be getting $700. Since she doesn't run that many miles it would be better pay for me.

Her friend drove me into springfield for me to upgrade claining he was picking up another student. and then she called me to drop my stuff off at the motel. I got a "call me if you need me" and that was it. She never even told me before that I was not coming back on her truck and she already had another student that day. It also turned out she didn't take vacation. .. she went out running without me. After that she blocked me on FB. It kinda sucked cause I wanted to be able to call my trainer for help... but I've met so.many wonderfull experienced drivers that I don't need her.

Sooo.. advice is remember it's a work and training situation. Listen to what she says about past students cause she'll be saying it about you next. You are not friends.... and if you do drive team after you upgrade be sure to get it in writing regarding pay and amount of time.

Also be aware of where she drives... she won't go to the northwest SD ND WY.... during the winter months is when I went into training so I could be with a trainer in the snow ice etc. I drove in snow twice..... between Nov and Jan ... twice. Once in flagstaff and once in chicago. If you want more driving in winter than that... you might want to uograde and later team with someone else in the winter cause you won't be getting it with her.

Good luck

I really need to go lease, I drove through more snow than that this month :(

Rainy thanks for the heads up! I'm definitely taking everything that anyone says with a grain of salt. So far it's been a good experience and I hope I can stay on her truck through the winter but if not then I'll just do what I can. I'll get someone at the terminal to show me how to put chains on and I'll contact someone in training for advice on driving in severely inclement weather. (Or come on here and ask you lovely people.) Would you be willing to send me your number so I can text on occasion if I have questions?

It's funny. When she started teaching me how to float I remember you mentioning it on here and wondered if she trained you. Hahaha! I know it's her truck but I really don't want to lose what I just recently learned about shifting. (Although I still use the clutch sometimes when downshifting when she's sleeping. Ssshhhhhh.....) And what do you mean about the paperwork? Is how she does it different than what Prime wants?

And I'm sorry all that weirdness happened. Seems strange, but you're kicking ass so it worked out. (Also, nothing I say here goes back to anyone.)

Facebook me at Rhoda D'Ettore. I don't want my number going to the world... youz guyz... sure. Unless there's a billionaire with a heart condition.

I was in SPRiMo on 10th and hoped we could meet. Prime has videos about winter driving and putting on chains. I'll never use them.... if it is that bad for chains... it is time to shut down. No one in dispatch will question you if you tell them shutting down due winter conditions. Prime is all about safety first. Basically I'm following the "if it's snows go real slow. If it's ice.... no dice." Be sure to get the Prime app.... it has training videos... fuel and wash places... educational videos... and you can message dispatch n receive from it. It's awesome.

As far as floating.... don't worry about it. Concentrate on important stuff. Wide turns... not hitting anything... learn the reefer settings... how to slide tandems.... backing and coupling. I drove with her for Nov Dec and Jan and still double clutched. Her truck is old and I've come to the conclusion that because her gears are worn.... missing gears was much easier. I went to her friend's Pete and rarely missed. In my own 2015 cascadia I rarely miss. Also keep in mind that I had her during the beginning of her transition.... which means the weirdness was probably from physical issues.

Good luck and have fun. We DID have fun hahaha

Idk about you... but she made me calculate her fuel costs.... profits per trip and week... my pay....I even created a spreadsheet for her i put on a cloud so it could tally everything for her. and the trip sheet she uses is 8 years old. The ones prime uses now are really simple.... really simple. But it's her truck... so her paperwork.

Oh yeah! I meant send me your number in a PM, not broadcast out here! Hahaha! I'll message you on FB.

Yeah, I'm asking all kinds of questions about the sliding tandems , when to do it, etc. Still trying to figure it all out. And I'm definitely going to err on the side of caution when it comes to bad weather. But I can't sit out an entire winter, so I'll have to do some learning. The reefer settings are usually given in the load assignment, right? So far that's where I've seen them. And the paperwork seems simple enough.

Yeah, her truck is pretty old. I'll be happy to get into a newer one when the time comes. She's already said she's not sure what she'll be doing Jan and Feb, so if I'm in her truck at least to that point, I'll have enough experience I think to go ahead and upgrade at that time so I'm not sitting and making no money.

I like all that I'm learning about leasing, but I definitely don't want to do it right away. I have a plan that will take a couple of years to flesh out before I make that jump. But it's cool to see how it all works.

Yeah, I calculate all that for her too. And it's done on paper. I guess she's old school that way. I'm DEFINITELY getting a GPS system for the truck when I have my own!

Oh, and we do have fun! She's a blast when she's in a good mood. And I think she's comfortable around me because I'm a trans advocate, and I stay in the bathroom until she's out, just for safety's sake.