Gonna jump in here. As a new driver for Prime, I expected to have to wait for loads once I got my truck. I figured I would have to prove myself to my FM over time, did not expect to run much more than 2K in miles per week, if that.
When I met my FM, I told him to run me hard and put me away wet, I would run, period. Not much bothers me on the road, Rain, snow, sun, night, day, city, makes no difference to me. Ice I worry about is all.
Soo all that said, in my 1st 2 weeks I ran as follows, week 1 (5 days is all I ran as I took home time) I ran 2200 miles and change, This week I will turn in over 3500 miles, I am carrying over about 900 miles from a run on Monday and Tuesday of last week.
So the moral of this story is, if you want to run, then let your FM know and you can run. Is all up to you.
I also have my FM giving me pre-plans at the end of his day, so I am on a new load as soon as I get off the last one. All I had to do to get him to do this is ask him to do it, my reasoning was/is I want to know what direction to point my truck when I get off a load. I told him it would make no sense for me to go 40 miles north to park up, when once I got my load I would have to reverse my course. So he pre-plans me. Works for me, works for him as it saves the company money in fuel.
So to say that people have to wait for loads, is in my thinking alot of BS, and them not wanting to work.
OK you guys can beat me up now LOL. BE SAFE OUT THERE
Journey Of A Thousand Roads
Discussion in 'Prime' started by Quest4ADV, Feb 4, 2012.
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Yeap, 2 weeks, Of course I don't count all the miles and years I drove other stuff, and of course there was the years driving in Alaska.
I was trying to show that the work is there, even for a new guy to PRIME if you want it.
BTW, After 5 months with Prime, 4 of those in training status, Even with my trainers we did not wait for loads. This is supposed to be the slow time of the year, not seeing any slow down.
Hey but what do I know, Im just a dumb NOOB driver. Just passing along my POSITIVE experience.
ttownrunner Thanks this. -
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Ok, time for an update
Stealing wifi from an unknown source for this.....
We're parked outside the 90 right now scheduled for a 8:30 delivery, but there are 3 other trucks in front of is at this time. 2 of the drivers advised that we should queue up now rather than go park at a TS and come back tomorrow. They had been here before so we took their advice.
We got in about 6:00pm, and both decided that ordering a pizza sounded liked a good plan for dinner. I called the order in and we spent the next few minutes going over PTI stuff, then the pizza driver shows up 20 minutes early with 2 orders, apparently our other trucker friends had the same idea and had called the same Papa John's for pizza. I had wondered why the guy ask what company we were driving for??? So dinner was GOOD, pizza and wings.
To backup, Met with my instructor on Sat am, went and practiced shifting and backing, then loaded up the truck with supplies from Wally World, and picked up his trailer and headed to Tx. 40K lbs of some unintresting crap headed for south of the border. He drove for the first 2 hours then I took over. He did all the interstate stuff and left me driving on a 4 lane down through OK. Lots of traffic, stop lights, night and rain, you name it. Good practice for me!
I did "ok", I was able to move us along, not too many issues, still having some problems with shifting, but mostly the downshifts. He said I wasn't doing too bad for my first day. I got us to some TS in OK, backed into a spot and we crashed, Hence the reason for no update last night.
Woke up to a beautiful clear sky and 25 degrees, really nice sunrise. Headed to a LOVES to fuel and take care of business. He drove for a little then I drove the rest of the way, About 400 miles today. Lots of traffic through some of the bigger towns. it was like rush hour sometimes. Lots of shifting in traffic. A little nerve racking, but I only screwed up once. Couldn't get it into gear on a hill after a downshift, I about had to stop and take off again. Lots of folks backed up behind me, but no one honked or flipped me off
So far I've loved it. It's much easier to drive these beast down the road than I thought, but gotta keep alert and on my toes. Still need to work on shifting and of course backing and other close quarter work. Practice, Practice, Practice. -
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