One perk Prime drivers have as an independent contractor is being able to take passengers on the road with them whenever they want and Prime driver, Zach Maricle, made the most of it.
When Zach Maricle was deciding between being a lease or a company driver at Prime, one factor that pushed him to lease was that as an independent contractor he wouldn’t have any age restriction on his rider policy. Zach was thinking about his daughter, Emily, who was 7 at the time. He wanted her to be able to ride along with him on the truck. Before joining Prime in 2018, Zach was working at a scrap metal yard, but he was looking for a change of pace. After talking to some of the drivers at work, he decided to pursue his CDL.
After completing CDL training, Zach considered other trucking companies, but none of them seemed like a good fit. Then he found Prime. Since he didn’t have any over-the-road experience, he started out with a trainer. “I left with him the day after Thanksgiving, and we were done by the first of the year,” Zach says. That following summer, he took Emily, and his wife Jamielee, on an epic six-week road.
Typically, Zach runs the same freight lane. Based out of Forestpark, New York, Zach runs the northeastern part of the United States and up into Canada. When his fleet manager, Terri Higdon, found out Zach was bringing his family on the truck, she asked him if he wanted to explore more of the country with them. “That first summer, we went all the way out to the West Coast and back,” he says. “We touched both coastlines and got to go through the northern Rockies.” Since then, the trip has become a yearly tradition.
Throughout their adventures, the family has gotten to explore the Las Vegas Strip, stay at a hotel on Santa Monica Beach, visit family friends in Denver, drive through the fire zone of a wildfire, take pictures straddling the continental divide and more. Because it’s a six-week trip, Zach is able to work in a couple of resets, and the family picks one or two places to take an extended break out of the truck. Exploring new places is always exciting, but for Zach, the best part is spending time with his family. Like when they crank the radio in the truck and have a late-night dance party at 2 a.m. “You miss out on a lot of stuff at home when you’re on the road, but it makes those days you are together that much sweeter.”
Read more road trip stories in our magazine, Prime Ways – Family Road Trip
Interested in driving for Prime? Apply online at www.primeinc.com/?r=blog or give our recruiters a call at 888-664-9121.
