Pam Vs Cr England Schooling, Or Is There A Better Paid School

Do you Dot or sign papers first?

Today it was physical, lunch, sign papers, and we got to a few hours of actual instruction.

I won't be leasing a truck at Pam. After class, they send me to Arkansas for orientation, and they assign a truck there, and send me and their instructor on the road.

I went through CR England training and did team driving after that. I have no complaints, most of the negative stuff you read on the internet come from their lease drivers.

Do not worry about getting the best starter trainer company, they are only temporary and will not affect you too much in the long run. You want to learn how to drive safely and both CR England and Pam will teach you that. Six months later I had enough experience from them to get a job with a different company and am now making $1,100 - $1,200 a week.

Thank you Justin. Just really scared.

I to am looking at a school in a few weeks and like mz snapper I see allot of bad reviews not so much about the school but the company I'm going through. Wonder how much of it is just people that can't be made happy

Do you Dot or sign papers first?

Today it was physical, lunch, sign papers, and we got to a few hours of actual instruction.

I won't be leasing a truck at Pam. After class, they send me to Arkansas for orientation, and they assign a truck there, and send me and their instructor on the road.

Yep that the company I'm going through PAM. They don't have a big fan base but I'm trying not to be discouraged. Perhaps the unhappy people just don't want to put the work in IDK

I've never heard any of the Pam students mention a lease option. As far as dispatch working with you, that's a super tough call. OTR doesn't lend itself to flexibility like that. We signed our contracts yesterday. I just passed all the tests for the permit today, thanks to my instructors and the High Road program on this site. It's been a Godsend, and I believe the Truckingtruth servers will be getting hits from dozens of my classmates tonight :)

The very best thing you can do is stop reading opinions on the Web and start talking with more actual drivers for the companies. Go to a truck stop nearby and approach some of the drivers from any company you're interested in. Walk up to them while they're fueling or catch them as they're walking into the truck stop. It's quite common for drivers to ask each other how they like the company they're at so nobody will think anything of it. Three minutes of time with someone will give you a ton of information about the company.

Whenever you want to learn about something, go to the people that are currently out there doing it successfully. If you want to learn what life is like at a certain company, speak with some of their current drivers face to face. Those are the people that will give you the best information.

But when choosing the right company to work for you should focus on the facts, not opinions. Compare companies based on pay & benefits, equipment, home time, types of freight, and the number of opportunities they have with different divisions. Don't worry that "JohnnyDriver2121" says a company sucks or "FreightDog" says you can't get good miles in the various forums across the Web. We'll give you honest and helpful information here because our forum is heavily moderated. Others are not, so anyone can say anything they like without repercussion. In the end though there's no substitute for talking face to face with a company's current drivers.

Thank you Bret. The reason I post my questions on here is because this is such s heavenly moderated site. I AM looking for truth only, facts. Being a moderator, can you give me any info that you have collected on here and I will try to get to a truck stop before school starts. Thank you soon much.

I am a contractor with Pam. I have been there 6 months and been driving 24 yrs. Pam compared to some of the other starter companies is the lesser of all evils. Pam is the only company I know in the industry that offers the opportunities that they do to company and contractor alike. Any company you look up on the net will have guys complaining and it is a shame that the drivers that are happy don't take the time to talk about what they like. Most complaints on most companies come from new drivers who basically went in to shock once they actually got out there on their own. Trucking is a hard job but even harder when you do not know where the opportunities are.

Pam is one of only two companies I have ever seen that have a lease program actually designed to benefit a driver. They require company driver and contractor alike to go through a waiting period before it is even an option. They seem to have realized something most others have not, if you give the driver a stake in the company, that driver will not only stay but do a great job.

I wish Pam was offering this 24 yrs ago, if they were I would be sitting on a beach typing this and not running trucks.

My advice to anyone is to visit www.ripoffreport.com and type a company name in there, like for example Celadon and any reports that have been filed will pop up.

Like with any information on the web you need to weigh out the good and bad, however if a company has a majority of bad reports , well where there is smoke there is fire.

Good Luck!

I am a contractor with Pam. I have been there 6 months and been driving 24 yrs. Pam compared to some of the other starter companies is the lesser of all evils. Pam is the only company I know in the industry that offers the opportunities that they do to company and contractor alike. Any company you look up on the net will have guys complaining and it is a shame that the drivers that are happy don't take the time to talk about what they like. Most complaints on most companies come from new drivers who basically went in to shock once they actually got out there on their own. Trucking is a hard job but even harder when you do not know where the opportunities are.

Pam is one of only two companies I have ever seen that have a lease program actually designed to benefit a driver. They require company driver and contractor alike to go through a waiting period before it is even an option. They seem to have realized something most others have not, if you give the driver a stake in the company, that driver will not only stay but do a great job.

I wish Pam was offering this 24 yrs ago, if they were I would be sitting on a beach typing this and not running trucks.

My advice to anyone is to visit www.ripoffreport.com and type a company name in there, like for example Celadon and any reports that have been filed will pop up.

Like with any information on the web you need to weigh out the good and bad, however if a company has a majority of bad reports , well where there is smoke there is fire.

Good Luck!

Please disregard that entire post. That is misleading information.