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CR England or P.A.M

by David
(Tyler, Texas)

Good morning all!

I am brand new to trucking, i have been in the IT field for more than 18 yrs and have decided to start driving a truck. I have two choices in my area for company sponsored driver training...CRE or PAM. My question is who would be the preferred trucking company to start out with?I plan on doing my time to get the experience and then move to a flatbed company. The only reason im not starting out at the flatbeds first is they require a year OTR or they are not hiring in my area.

Thanks ahead for your response.

David

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May 03, 2009
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Lil info
by: Anonymous

If your gonna hook up with PAM I think they require HAZMAT so be preparred, wouldnt want to get held back for that since now days it takes a good while to get that paper work through. GIG EM AGGIES!!!

Apr 25, 2009
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David and PAM
by: Jimmy

David, don't worry about transmissions right now. If PAM is all autos, then worry about driving a 10-13 speed next year. Find out if PAM has any 10-13 speeds at all. And the way it's going in the industry, all manufacturers will be making autos only pretty soon. Heck, Just 5 years ago, autos were a rarity. Now 10-13 speeds are getting to be a rarity. Keep in touch and let us know on a regular basis how it's going. Jimmy

Apr 25, 2009
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Thansk guys
by: Anonymous

Hervy, Jimmy

Thanks for the quick response. I have been talking to a lot of truckers since January and CRE seems to be quite the let down and not very kind to drivers…maybe I got the disgruntle employees. PAM on the other hand seems for the most part pretty good, im just worried about the automatic transmissions. If I train and work for a year on an automatic will another company hire me that have a 10 or 13 speed transmissions?

Hervy, I am currently a Systems Engineer/Analyst for main servers in a medium size energy company…just a lot of fancy words for someone that works of big computers…lol. And if you’re wondering why I want to get into trucking, it’s a long story so ill try to keep it short.

While going to college (…long…long…ago and far far away) I quit for about a year and drove a big rig and just freaking loved it except for being away from my kids. Well now one is the Marine Corp and one is going to Texas A&M University and I have no wife or girlfriends and I just want get out of these four white walls and see the country. You see, in all eighteen yrs I have worked for medium to small sized companies that I always have to be officed in the computer room with NO WINDOWS at all. I have had one…that’s right “1” vacation in eighteen years. I would have to take a long weekend as a vacation and that’s it. Well now im burned completely out and want to do what I want to do and that’s drive a truck.

So when I get driving OTR and you guys have computer problems just call me, because I can field strip a desktop, laptop or server with my eyes closed. Both hardware and software.

Thanks
David

Apr 24, 2009
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Pam transport or CR England
by: Hervy

I lean toward Jimmy's response.

You should keep an eye out up there at the truck stop at the loop in Tyler and talk to any England or P.A.M drivers that might be around. Maybe there will be a driver there that lives not too far away in TX.

Then you can ask him how hard he is running and getting home in today's trucking environment.

Talked to some more drivers today saying they not getting the miles.

Starting to wonder if my company the only one steady moving!

Things seem to be on the verge of picking up though, hopefully by the end of summer most companies will be moving more freight.

Let us know how you progress David. Welcome aboard.

What did you do in IT, computer tech?

Apr 24, 2009
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David from Tyler
by: Jimmy

I would go with PAM. Much smaller company and not a whole lot of negative opinions. Dry freight, established company, affiliated with Allen Freight out of Fl. Also recently bought out Decker out of N.J. Good luck and don't quit. Stay with it. Jimmy

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