iam considering starting out with prime (reefer division) but getting a lot of conflicting and negative feedback from others. can anyone tell me how much time i would have to spend with a trainer if i came on with my cdl. how many miles is the avg.length of haul, is there a lot of unpaid detention, are the trucks governed, how are the trainers? any answer would be greatly appreciated. these questions are all pertaining to the company driver division. as opposed to the lease deal. only a fool jumps off the high board when he can barley swim.

Prime should be able to give you that info themselves... If they didn't - I would question why.

I am not familiar with Prime's answers to your questions but if I didn't get an answer from the horses mouth at all - I would walk away.

i talked to them but it is always good to get a second opinion . info from drivers is more valuable then a recruiter who might get a comision if he reels you in.

As a previous lease operator with Prime I can tell you to stay away. If you would like more personal info you can shoot me an e-mail and I will be happy to answer any questions.

Satch,

Just keep asking around you might get some answers to your Prime questions. Just remember these guys(Prime and thier ilk) are masters at sales and marketing and it doesn't take long before they have normal and sane drivers mumbling about how great the lease is... I would just avoid them. Throw CR England, Stevens, and a few others in that pile as well. Another driver in training at Prime just informed us that the 30 cpm includes an 8 cpm per diem. So yet something else to murky up the waters. IMO you should just shop for a better company. There are a lot of good companies that you would fair far better with. BOL

Longsnowsm

I would stay away from their lease program unless you want to age prematurely and be broker than broke. I have made money with the lease but I was always on the road and apparently when dispatch had me drop a load and power up another I was being billed for the refer fuel until it was delivered. Detention pay is like everyone Else's but you have to be sitting 24 hours before it kicks in.

The lengths Of haul can be short or long depending on where you are when your empty and where the freight is. I had 2 different fleet managers. One gave me 300 to 800 mile loads and I always got around 3000 miles a week and had hours to run them. The other would have me sit and wait for a long trip to get me in the 2800 to 3000 mile a week and it always seemed I would have to wait on hours or restart to get the next week paycheck started. The point here is the dispatcher with experience will keep you going and not run you out of hours. The inexperienced will keep you frustrated and waiting and never figure out why you don't have hours with only 2800 miles for the week.

The company driver program seems fine to me right now. A part of me feels the company side gets the miles and the higher freight than lease. After all Prime is paying all the bills so they want to make as much as possible I am sure.

Once you have your CDL you will go out with a trainer probably for at least 60,000 miles if you have experience but its not recent and probably around 100,000 if its a fresh CDL. Safety will determine the time by your experience and your driving test.

That probably doesn't answer exactly what your asking but the company driver program is a good place to start and please do not get talked into the lease program at least until you know what your doing and you cant blame innocence or stupidity for making that decision.

thanks centuary your reply has helped me quite a bit. from what iam hearing about prime ,swifts looking better every day. if i do wind up at prime i will keep my expectations low. as far as the leasing of a truck. iam far to stuborn to get talked into that. do you still drive for them? a would imagine there is a lot of unpaid down time running reefer waiting at shipers and receiving .thanks again

thanks centuary your reply has helped me quite a bit. from what iam hearing about prime ,swifts looking better every day. if i do wind up at prime i will keep my expectations low. as far as the leasing of a truck. iam far to stuborn to get talked into that. do you still drive for them? a would imagine there is a lot of unpaid down time running reefer waiting at shipers and receiving .thanks again