First Year Pay Totals With Prime
Topic 18162 | Page 11
Yes I understand that as much, anyone, I had a horrible trainer the driver manager refused to give me a new trainer on top fact I had plans to drive to my terminal and talk to a manager the very day I was gonna get a call stating my family member had issues breathing and she was 8 years old I had to drop everything get down to my hometown and forget everything else. Getting a cab in middle nowhere in Florida to greyhound or plane Was very considering taking buddy mine plane from Florida that he even offered let me fly there. I took a greyhound got there during this process I told the Driver manager I had to take care of this first and would be back in 8 days. When I was 5 days in I received a suit from the company for 8k and a lean on my CDL my attorney brought it down to 1200 and I was not to drive for 52 weeks. That was the deal no big deal because I have other ways from welding to operating a plane. The reason I wanted CDL simple I was tired doing same old thing another thing I will say is you are like me save 20% your paycheck any way you can for savings.
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.
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.
Driver Manager:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.
Love your posts and responses Rainy...from Jersey also.
Love your posts and responses Rainy...from Jersey also.
OMG!!! 08234!!!! hi there fellow "southerner" hahha. Im near philly...but as a former postal worker recognize your zip.
thanks for reading! feel free to ask any questions
So back to the original threading here, Rainy, could you perhaps be generous yet again and now show your second year earnings to compare against your first year? I think it would help put this into a financial perspective at least from one persons growth over time? No pressure, just thought might be nice to see if you were able to at least maintain or increase thru the course of a new year is all.
i meant to do that but it would a little skewed and deceiving for a couple of reasons.
1) i started training drivers, so that is an unfair pay increase over someone planning on remaining solo
2) i lost my "run hard every minute' drive after paying my debts down. Now it is more like..."i dont feel well this week or i want to slow down...oh well". lol i can train as often or as little as i want. and i can ask for more miles when i want and get them. i have found ways to get more time on loads to allow me more "me time" and get hotel rooms and visit tourist spots..whereas my first year was all work and no play.
ill post the 2nd year in the next couple of days
Appreciate it greatly and glad to hear of your continued success. I currently am getting all my ducks in a row to apply to Prime and have been very thankful to read thru many (even though most are a tad old) posts on here regarding Prime. I look forward to meeting everyone one day in the future. 😏
I got my own truck after completing Prime's PSD/TNT the last week of October. Currently weekly average (including time off which lowers it quite a bit) for me is $1318. I'm a bit different in that I did our walmart dedicated account in Maine for 3.5 months until we lost it. $1500-1600/wk was normal for me on that account before extra bonuses. I got a bonus for working thanksgiving & Christmas ( I think it was $1250 or $1000 combined...), and a $1000 bonus in March for not quitting when we lost walmart. My average has gone down since losing the walmart account and I am doing Southeast Regional now.
I'm in a lightweight, 47 cpm (39cpm regular and 8cpm per diem is how they pay it out). I'm planning on getting an LTL job in Sept but if I stayed SE Regional until I had my truck for a year I'd project about $68-69k for first 12 months since getting my own truck with Prime. This would include a $2k bonus in June and a $2k bonus in Sept I have coming for not quitting when we lost Walmart (it is $5k total, paid out $1k, $2k, $2k) and before any taxes of course. If I did SE Regional for those 12 months and didn't get any bonuses, I'd be around$58-59k using my current SE Regional only average. Not too shabby.
Regional:
Regional Route
Usually refers to a driver hauling freight within one particular region of the country. You might be in the "Southeast Regional Division" or "Midwest Regional". Regional route drivers often get home on the weekends which is one of the main appeals for this type of route.
LTL:
Less Than Truckload
Refers to carriers that make a lot of smaller pickups and deliveries for multiple customers as opposed to hauling one big load of freight for one customer. This type of hauling is normally done by companies with terminals scattered throughout the country where freight is sorted before being moved on to its destination.
LTL carriers include:
- FedEx Freight
- Con-way
- YRC Freight
- UPS
- Old Dominion
- Estes
- Yellow-Roadway
- ABF Freight
- R+L Carrier
CPM:
Cents Per Mile
Drivers are often paid by the mile and it's given in cents per mile, or cpm.
Per Diem:
Getting paid per diem means getting a portion of your salary paid to you without taxes taken out. It's technically classified as a meal and expense reimbursement.
Truck drivers and others who travel for a living get large tax deductions for meal expenses. The Government set up per diem pay as a way to reimburse some of the taxes you pay with each paycheck instead of making you wait until tax filing season.
Getting per diem pay means a driver will get a larger paycheck each week but a smaller tax return at tax time.
We have a ton of information on our wiki page on per diem pay
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.PSD:
Prime Student Driver
Prime Inc has a CDL training program and the first phase is referred to as PSD. You'll get your permit and then 10,000 miles of on the road instruction.
The following is from Prime's website:
Prime’s PSD begins with you obtaining your CDL permit. Then you’ll go on the road with a certified CDL instructor for no less than 75 hours of one-on-one behind the wheel training. After training, you’ll return to Prime’s corporate headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, for final CDL state testing and your CDL license.
Obtain CDL Permit / 4 Days
- Enter program, study and test for Missouri CDL permit.
- Start driving/training at Prime Training Center in Springfield, Missouri.
- Work toward 40,000 training dispatched miles (minimum) with food allowance while without CDL (Food allowance is paid back with future earnings).
On-the-Road Instruction / 10,000 Miles
- Train with experienced certified CDL instructor for 3-4 weeks in a real world environment.
- Get 75 hours of behind-the-wheel time with one-on-one student/instructor ratio.
- Earn 10,000 miles toward total 40,000 miles needed.
TNT:
Trainer-N-Trainee
Prime Inc has their own CDL training program and it's divided into two phases - PSD and TNT.
The PSD (Prime Student Driver) phase is where you'll get your permit and then go on the road for 10,000 miles with a trainer. When you come back you'll get your CDL license and enter the TNT phase.
The TNT phase is the second phase of training where you'll go on the road with an experienced driver for 30,000 miles of team driving. You'll receive 14¢ per mile ($700 per week guaranteed) during this phase. Once you're finished with TNT training you will be assigned a truck to run solo.
Jacob, how is it being in a lightweight? I keep trying to find videos of the inside and can't find a good one. Thanks!
I'm in a lightweight, 47 cpm (39cpm regular and 8cpm per diem is how they pay it out). I'm planning on getting an LTL job in Sept but if I stayed SE Regional until I had my truck for a year I'd project about $68-69k for first 12 months since getting my own truck with Prime. This would include a $2k bonus in June and a $2k bonus in Sept I have coming for not quitting when we lost Walmart (it is $5k total, paid out $1k, $2k, $2k) and before any taxes of course. If I did SE Regional for those 12 months and didn't get any bonuses, I'd be around$58-59k using my current SE Regional only average. Not too shabby.
Regional:
Regional Route
Usually refers to a driver hauling freight within one particular region of the country. You might be in the "Southeast Regional Division" or "Midwest Regional". Regional route drivers often get home on the weekends which is one of the main appeals for this type of route.
LTL:
Less Than Truckload
Refers to carriers that make a lot of smaller pickups and deliveries for multiple customers as opposed to hauling one big load of freight for one customer. This type of hauling is normally done by companies with terminals scattered throughout the country where freight is sorted before being moved on to its destination.
LTL carriers include:
- FedEx Freight
- Con-way
- YRC Freight
- UPS
- Old Dominion
- Estes
- Yellow-Roadway
- ABF Freight
- R+L Carrier
CPM:
Cents Per Mile
Drivers are often paid by the mile and it's given in cents per mile, or cpm.
Per Diem:
Getting paid per diem means getting a portion of your salary paid to you without taxes taken out. It's technically classified as a meal and expense reimbursement.
Truck drivers and others who travel for a living get large tax deductions for meal expenses. The Government set up per diem pay as a way to reimburse some of the taxes you pay with each paycheck instead of making you wait until tax filing season.
Getting per diem pay means a driver will get a larger paycheck each week but a smaller tax return at tax time.
We have a ton of information on our wiki page on per diem pay
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
Hey Bran009, check out this old thread where Miss Myoshi Shares A Video Of Her Lightweight Truck.
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Cold hard facts is difficult because everyone's experience is different. two people going to the same company sponsored school could have totally different training due to situations on the road, areas you traveled, the trainer, and the skills you have.
example: Reaper went to orientation, went OTR with his permit and tested like 10 days later. He passed all three driving skills on the 1st try, getting a $250 bonus. Then he started his 30,000 mile phase before going solo. i think he trained in an automatic.
Me? I used the High Road and was the first in my class to get the CLP. I was the only one in the class who knew the pretrip before going to Prime. I had a great trainer with my permit driving OTR but i couldnt understand his backing. i was afraid to test. I stayed out 3 weeks before attempting to test, and to finally get it done it took a whole week. i trained in a stick. My trainer with the permit was great, but he quit due to family issues. so i got placed with someone else...who then wanted a 2 week vacation i couldn't afford to take off so she put me on her friends truck during that time. so i had 3 trainers from september to feb.
christian trained in an automatic but did his 2nd phase of training in on a walmart dedicated account. he had only one trainer the whole time.
so each experience is different. however, do the high road to get the permit. study the pretrip and absorb any info you can. treat training like boot camp
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.
CLP:
Commercial Learner's Permit
Before getting their CDL, commercial drivers will receive their commercial learner's permit (CLP) upon passing the written portion of the CDL exam. They will not have to retake the written exam to get their CDL.