Considering Prime For Schooling And Teaming With Fiance

Hello,

My fiance and I have a few questions that we can't seem to find any answer on - despite several weeks of searching. We are young (23 and 22) and I have been together for nearly 7 years but have been looking into the trucking field for a couple years. We live just north of Houston, Texas and with nothing tying us down (no children or large bills) we thought why not go do something we both have really looked into and have a good inkling we will very much enjoy. This being said, we have looked into team driving a lot and while we very much would like to go to a separate school, we don't have near ten grand lying around to spend on schooling.

We turned our attention to company sponsored schools and found a couple we liked for several reasons, the top being Prime. We have researched it, and found lots on the orientation and training, but very little on teams aside from they exist. We called and got a very nice recruiter that gave us a good overview, but we were unable to ask a few questions. Hopefully someone here can answer them:

For Prime: For team drivers, are there pay raises, and how do they work? For team drivers, what are your average miles per week? ----We have found some stuff online, but would like to know from team driver's what is a realistic for beginner drivers, as well as a seasoned driver (6 months, 1 year, 2 years). What is the CPM currently for teams? How much do benefits cost on the average weekly? ----Our recruiter said it would be discussed during Orientation but I like to be able to ballpark what could be average take home for saving purposes. How much home time do you actually get vs being on the road? Does Prime have the policy about male trainers being unable to train females still in place? Will we be pushed into leasing once we finish our training and CDL?

General questions:

What is Per Diem? Is it similar to what petty cash would be in a law firm/office work? Are there any other good companies with CDL sponsorship that would give us similar benefits and training for the same amount of contract time? What exactly do we need to provide to prove work history? ----I have seen a thread or two about providing W-2s to companies to verify work history. Is this a common practice for Prime and other companies? Or do you just have to provide a resume and contact information for the business?

I thank everyone who gives any answer. I'm sure I'll think of some more questions down the road but these are the ones that are at the forefront of my mind now.

Thank you, -E

Hello, I can't answer all your questions But as for team driving at Prime I was a team driver with a friend of mine awhile back, after we got our class A here in Ma we both went to Prime did the 40,000 miles of training lucky we both finished it on the same week so we were in Mo. at the same time for close out Ort. We decided to go lease instead of company they don't push lease its up to you to decide but we did our training with lease drivers instead of company so we learned the lease side so it made it that much easier. We took his trainers fleet manager as ours. we picked out our truck and left now on the lease side they pay you 72% of the load and the fuel surcharge as a team you get to run more loads than a single driver as long as the loads are in the area you are in. also as a team you get the east to west runs more. and high value loads which pay more. Now as for us it started wrong because we were at close out on thanksgiving week so we could leave on wed. with a load heading towards home but his wife wanted him home wed so he flew home wed morning and I drove the load back so instead of us both getting home on thanksgiving only he did I got home friday afternoon the load didn't deliver until mon afternoon and it did pay very well for my first run it worked out to pay 2.50 a mile. Well I delvered it monday then picked him up on my way up to maine for our 2 run heading to pa well long story short we didnt work out he was a pain i didnt like his fleet manager and he wanted me to give him half of the first run and i wasnt going to do that because he had nothing to do with it . when we got to pa I went to the pa hub and got off the truck went company driver single and loved it from then on. As a lease team or solo you can go home when ever you want as long as you can afford too. I have a friend who is lease drives North east and stops by the house offen and is home for 3 days every 2 to 3 weeks. Now as a company driver you get 3 days off every 3 weeks sometimes 4 just be friendly and do you job never be late. and talk with your fleet manager and he or she will take very good care of you company or lease. My company fleet manager was awesome her and I had a great relationship. On the lease side you can fire your fleet manager and pick a new one. I still talk to my old company fleet manager Treasa often in fact when I go back to work For Prime at the end of the month I will see her and she said she will take care of me got me a good lease fleet manager and because I have been local for 3 years I have to go 15000 with a trainer so she got me a good trainer to get this done quickly. If you want to know more about company teams I can give you her number and you can text her to ask about it.

Thank you very much for the reply. It has been one of the most helpful we have received on the boards we have posted to. Both of us are very dedicated to what we do and have a good work ethic. Plus, we don't need too much hometime as neither of us have children and some family members are better spoken with over the phone lol.

If Treasa does not mind the contact, we would be more than happy to talk to her and learn a little more. We are both hopping to get in to the school and into Prime. We are just a tad nervous about the physical as neither of us have had a check up in a couple years due to not having insurance due to the bloated rates.

No problem I will text her and make sure she is ok with it. The only down fall with Prime is when you do get done and are ready for your own truck you only can pick what is on the lot and ready to go. company or lease. so if your looking for a certain name of truck then you mite be out of luck. When I went lease I wanted a Pete but they didn't have any so I had to take a Freight now when I went back and went company I got very lucky they had a new Pete. Also avg. miles per week are anywhere from 4000 to 5000 sometimes 6000 or 7000 Tords the end of my training my trainer and I was doing 6500 to 7000 my trainer who is a lease opp. told his fleet manager that I was a strong driver so she ran us hard when I still talk to him to this day he says when I was with him it was the most money he has ever made . Last I knew the pay for company teams was .25 per mile all miles. Prime wants to know name of companies you have worked for and phone numbers to verfiy employment no gaps. I had to do 5 years verify. My problem recently was deciding going back to Prime or giving Wil-Trans a try and even tho I am going to Prime march 29th I still am wondering if I should give Wil-Trans a shot.

Fleet 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.

Wil-Trans:

Darrel Wilson bought his first tractor in 1980 at age 20, but, being too young to meet OTR age requirements, he leased the truck out and hired a driver.

Through growth and acquisition, Wil-Trans now employs over 200 drivers, and has a long-standing partnership with Prime, Inc. to haul their refrigerated freight. The family of businesses also includes Jim Palmer Trucking and O & S Trucking.

We haven't really looked into the types or brands of trucks we prefer. Right now we are just happy about the APUs and being able to have a fridge so we can regulate the cab temp and be able to store food for better eating habits. Thank you very much for you help, very few people were able to give us a reply about work history as we were concerned. We just moved up from Florida to Texas so half of our paperwork is still in Florida. We do have contact information for our jobs though, so we hope that will be all we need.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APUs:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

That should be all you need because they will contact your old employers and make sure you put in start and end dates on your app for your old jobs. that is all I had to do back when I started with Prime and now when I am going back. Btw they don't come with the fridge they have the slot for them and you can buy the fridge that fits the slot and put it in.

Well we ran into some issues. One of us got verified with no issues. But one of us now need to provide more proof of some sort. Our work history is filled with a few under the table type jobs, including our most recent employer. We are now not sure what we can do in this situation. Any help in this would be greatly appreciated. Besides missing some verifiable work history for one of us, we have everything else taken care of. Any advice? -J

Well we ran into some issues. One of us got verified with no issues. But one of us now need to provide more proof of some sort. Our work history is filled with a few under the table type jobs, including our most recent employer. We are now not sure what we can do in this situation. Any help in this would be greatly appreciated. Besides missing some verifiable work history for one of us, we have everything else taken care of. Any advice? -J

In regards to your work history, if you can provide someone to make a testament and notarize it supporting your information, that normally suffices for most companies ... did you fill out the "online" application with Prime? That's the best way to know what you need because you can go over the application WITH the recruiter real time and know what kind of documentation you need to provide ... also, you mentioned the physical - unless you are completely unhealthy (at 22 or 23??) you will pass the physical with room to spare ... good luck ... Prime is a good choice ...

Jopa

Thank you Jopa. We are currently looking into seeing if the recruiter will take something along those lines. We heard from another recruiter that we should try to get a note from our previous employer that says that we worked when we did and have it signed by them. But that recruiter was not sure if our recruiter would take it. Hopefully they will.

Our recruiter said that it will not count and that we need a W2. We did do a lot of cash jobs and were claimed as dependents on our parent's tax returns. We are going to try to speak to a manager tomorrow. Another recruiter said that he would take it fine, but that we were tied to the recruiter we started with. So we will see. =/