Prime Upgrade Freeze

Rainy, thank you for the non combative response and advice

Oh good grief. Here we go with this again.

If you're going to give yourself the nickname of a famous Viking warrior you'd better quit being such a sissy and grow a pair.

You're lucky Rainy was in a good mood that day. She's a Jersey Girl. Normally she'd rip you a new one just for the fun of it, and I'm from New York so I rather like it when she does that.

I’m really sorry you felt that you received a “combative response”. We’re here to combat ignorance. Some cases such as yours, Eric, are most tragically difficult. Hope you start a thread topic on your successful lease venture. I would really enjoy reading that one with great expectation.

Another update for the original poster. Approaching two weeks out of TNT and still cannot upgrade. Fleet manager says will be another 1-2 weeks. If this turns out to be true then one can expect 3-4 weeks wait to begin upgrade as of mid June 2019.

Rainy, thank you for the non combative response and advice. Very much appreciated. Success leasing did confirm there is quite a back up and upgrades are quite delayed at moment.

My orientation roommate has been done with TNT for two weeks. He’s at SPRIMO now taking his classes and such. Says he’s being told to expect another two or so weeks so he’ll be driving his trainers truck for the time being.

Maybe it is a leasing thing. All trucks go through inspection and detail which takes time. New trucks come in with duals and prime swaps them to singles. Some trucks that get turned in are not good enough for leasing...if they can get away with not forking money for cosmetic body work, they give it to company drivers.

Usually trucks turned into Pittston and SLC are those who quit or got fired. So you wont get new ones there. they have company drivers flown, bused or rental carred there and have them drive them back to.sprimo. Also it is quite possible for you to request to do recovery work. You get paid per mile, given a room and rental car. You drive to pick up a truck someone abandonned.

I do not know.why the wait is so long because i know 4 people who upgraded in the last few weeks. One on this forum and no one waited that long, not even 2 who went lease.

Just remember to get those classwork done ASAP. If you attempt.to go on the list without upgrading completely, you will be skipped. Since you are going lease, check the inventory list daily. Many drivers will take the last 6 months of another drivers lease that was turned in. They run the 6 months without going home, then take 2 months off before getting the next truck.

You can reserve a truck on the inventory list ONLY if you are in sprimo, and they only hold.it 3 hours for you. Also, sign that contract on Wed morning cause the "free first week" starts at Tues 5pm. If you sign it on say Friday, the next payment is expected in the next pay..so you cheated yourself.out of wed and thurs.

good luck.

Brett he wasnt being sarcastic. I think he was being sincere.

Brett he wasnt being sarcastic. I think he was being sincere.

I know he was. So was I. It's this conversation here, and a few others, that led me to write this post recently:

A Reminder About Who We Are And What We Do

I don't like this new age "I'm a fragile flower" thing where everyone is constantly upset or offended by everything that gets said. I'm not playing that game. I'm not going to worry about finding the most sensitive and careful way of saying everything, and I don't want a running critique of our "sensitivity performance" everytime we try to help someone.

We're going to say what needs to be said plainly and directly so that people know the truth about how this industry works and get our very best advice. If we don't say it in the most sensitive and careful way, well we're all adults here and we expect people to handle it like adults.

If we were talking to kindergarten children we would be more careful, but we're not. So EricTheRed needs to be a little less sensitive. He's 39 years old according to his bio. We should be able to speak plainly with him and tell it like it is without a running critique of whether or not we're being sensitive enough for him.

Update:

I think i got some answers.

Like Varys on GOT, I have a network of spies everywhere. A friend at the Volvo.dealer in Sprimo told me the hold up of trucks has been Prime's safety feature configurations causing wiring issues. That caused an increase in downtime. Prime basically told Volvo they need to increase their repair abilities and make their systems compatible. So the order is still pending, Primes money is tied up in the downpayments, but the order is on hold until rectified. We are not talking 20 trucks or dozens.. we are talking hundred to even thousands. Prime ordered internationals in groups of 800.

Volvos response was to double their repair facility. They have been constructing new bays for the past several months, but the construction was delayed by the weather and constant tornados this year. It should have been done already. Trying to get trucks from elsewhere at that point would have taken longer.

Once the facility is complete, and Prime approves the order, the trucks will be rolling in.

As per a lease op TNT trainer whose trainee just upgraded, yes they did have the trainee stay on his truck for a total of 40,000 instead of 30k. Yes it was an inconvenience. He said his trainee was scared the whole time that perhaps he would have an accident and get more miles added, which is a possibility. Primes website said "a minimum of 30,000 miles". Reason being is that drivers with tickets or accidents had miles added. To alleviate this fear, a trainee may be permitted to upgrade then stay on the trainers truck, but the pay increases. The lease op pays the trainee, so the lease op could have rejected that. This is why Prime structured the new training pay to allow this increase.

I know a driver last year who did 75k miles in TNT because he made stupid mistakes. He got a ticket for holding a cell phone, plus he hit something. He came in with his CDL so he had originally needed 40k. they added 20k for the cell phone, then 15k for the accident.

So the 30/40k was never an iron clad rule.They were minimums.

I have also been told that current company drivers who need a new truck are bumped to the top of the list. They get paid layover for the truck wait, so it makes good business sense to keep them rolling.

Lease ops upgrading are in fact being delayed because they want to put the lease ops in the brand new Volvos there is just no ETA yet.

I hope this clears some things up. It is not a "sky is falling" scenario as we keep seeing posted. In trucking and life, crap happens. You need to be flexible. It sucks, and it is temporary. The fears are increased by companies like Falcon just closing.

This is not the case. This is a case of Prime trying to get the best safety features installed with less downtime and keep all of its drivers rolling.

And i do understand that new people wouldnt understand this. You will eventually if you stick around.

Thanks Rainy. To add to that here is what I’ve learned in addition to everything stated above.

Now only 55 are added to the upgrade list each Wednesday for the following Monday. The fleet managers submit applicants name once all requirements are met and they are selected into the 55 according to some sort of ranking system.

There were 87 submitted for last Wednesday’s list. I barely missed the 55 and am told I will roll into the next 55 next week for upgrade on July 1st. So as it stands now about 220 are processed each month and everything outside of that is pushed back into a truck for more TNT.

Puts me at about four weeks after completion of 30,000 to point of upgrade.

I scanned this thread, but I might have missed something, so excuse me if this has already been mentioned. If Eric hasn't got a truck yet, can he still back out of the lease agreement and go to company driving?

Waiting that long for a truck to basically rent. Ouch. Makes me appreciate my old truck more

I scanned this thread, but I might have missed something, so excuse me if this has already been mentioned. If Eric hasn't got a truck yet, can he still back out of the lease agreement and go to company driving?

He is still a company driver until he is assigned a truck and signs the contract. He can at any time decide to go company.