Prime Inc. Orientation Oct, 2010

I missed it... did he at least spell my name right? Pet peeve of mine ya know.

 

At Prime as well as any company you pretty much take what they give or else sit. I love the phase and i quote "Well thats all we got where your at" but yet you talk to other drivers going for better freight, but you can't do anything about it, its their choice unless you pick your loads or are on mileage pay.

 

Maybe the other drivers knew how to trip plan, didn't get overweight tickets because the didn't inspect the trailer and see the suspension was messed up, and didn't pick fights with their dispatcher for no good reason?

Nah... that couldn't be it.

 

There's more to this story than that. It does no good for an FM to not send you the best loads available - and ones that keep you profitable. Your FMs commission is based on your success... so you "did everything right" except build a solid relationship with your business partner, who decided your success wasn't one of his priorities at his own expense...

There's more to this story than "Prime screwed me..."

Like you didn't read the contract...

 

Ok to sazook and ironpony: I’m telling the truth, sorry I won’t lie, Sazook you have a decent dispatcher but the lady that trained you (sazook) sadly didn’t have a good dispatch for a while either. Facts are facts, the low down everything that you pay for that is fixed is an average of $1100 a week, includes the $65 week for the Tri-pac they lease you(No, it’s not included in the $800+ Payment). You don’t get fuel discounts at all (but if anyone knows big carriers they get discounts with T/A, Pilot, Petro etc.) they keep them. The Fuel Surcharge if they still go off the DOE is about $0.33 a mile by their rate. The average flat rate for a load is $1.40 a mile ($1.00 Per mile at 72%) + $0.33 Per Mile FSC( oh and fuel surcharge is not based on 6mpg it’s based on 6.5mpg, so you lose more money) so for a total of $1.74 Per mile gross if you can get that all the time or $1.33 after your cut, you can get that anywhere and not have to stay out for 6 weeks. And that’s if you get it when you get your rate over the qc its usually wrong. You get less. So, let’s do the math on an average based on 2500 miles a week because of electronic logs (yes they use electronic logs) 2500miles x 1.33 per mile = $3325 Total Revenue. Now, Let’s minus everything $3325- Fuel at 6.5mpg and a current average of $3.45 per gallon, so you will burn about 425 Gallons (that includes 10% out of route), which yields $1467 also, even though your leasing it you are responsible for tires and Maintance which is about $0.06 Per mile (you have to set that back, they won’t) or $165 Per week at 2750 miles(remember Out Of Route) So, Total Revenue = $3325 – Total Fixed Costs = $1100 – Fuel = $1467 – Maintance = $165 – whatever else they will take out yields = $593 a week gross if your not getting dock for anything $593 divide that by 2500 miles is $0.23 Per mile or at 2750 hub miles = $0.215. Werner, Schneider, Swift whoever. Pays better than that and you can get home on weekends Like I said you get screwed. Case Closed

 

I'm gonna be like every other whiner on this website and complain that you are posting this information in the wrong area.

This is where you discuss your favorite trucking company.

 

Point taken but others need to do the same, everyone is posting about going to orientations but thats not the point to the thread. You can't say the company is your favorite if you are just starting, #### you might not even like it. you technically you should post here once you been there for a bit so you can be honest

 

First off... you don't have a clue pal. Obviously you aren't going over your settlements - and I'm willing to bet right now that you didn't opt for the operator statement breakdown.

That's about right... but for $1100 a week in fixed costs you're including medical insurance, permits, license, federal highway tax, liability and bobtail insurance, and occupational accident insurance - so there's quite a bit there. BTW - rent on a new APU is $70.

You're wrong about that. The difference between pump price and the corporate discount is refunded to you 100% as a separate line item in your statement.

It's still set at 6.0 mpg - and you really don't understand it. FSC at Prime is calculated off of the previous week's fleet average fuel cost. They don't use the DOE number.

You really don't understand how this works. You're paid a flat rate of 72% of the gross line haul revenue... it has nothing to do with a "per-mile rate" at Prime. The $1.40 per-mile average is quoted for comparison purposes, and represents the per-mile rate of your cut of the linehaul. Since FSC is provided to you at 100% of the collected amount (which does vary) and is made up to the minumum rate by Prime if it doesn't exceed the calculated weekly rate, it isn't minimized by that "72% cut." You get the whole thing.

Did you understand when you signed onto Prime that they are an Over-The-Road company? That means you're out hauling freight. BTW... there are regional opportunities available that get you home weekly if not nightly at Prime.

It's really easy to figure that one out. Copy down the numbers sent to you on the QualComm, and compare them to your settlement. I've never noticed a difference. And I do check it weekly.

Well, that would be a crappy week. Glad it doesn't happen to me, and its way low. Again - your compensation as a lease op isn't based on a per-mile rate. You take the sum of all components of a load (linehaul, FSC and guarantees, outside lumper, etc) and that's what determines your gross revenue for a week. Where did you get these numbers from? They can't be from your settlements, since they aren't structured that way. It's hard to do a comparison here since I can't see your settlements - but there are ways to maximize your gross revenue - mostly through maximizing your availability (ie, keeping the left door closed,) and ensuring your FM that he's not giving a priority load to a schmuck who can't deliver.

Ahh... the term is "subtract" not "minus everything." However,you need to make up your mind... in this little example you employ 6.5 mpg - not the 7.3 or so in your original post - which is considerably better. Second $3.45 per gallon??? You've gotta be kidding me! You buy your fuel where??? That includes the full fuel tax rate - which isn't what you pay. That's based on your mileage and the IFTA rates. If you've been paying attention you'll note that you've been getting a refund on that on a quarterly basis. If you use the fuel page on the website to base your purchasing decisions, you can achieve a considerable cost savings - and it reflects the actual price you pay less the corporate discount. So just not buying wherever and going for the lowest price I can, my at-the-pump fuel price is about $1330 per week, but when you include the corporate discount it drops to about $1225 per week - you need to include that in your figures.

That's a wise policy, so I won't fault you there - except to say that all of the repairs I've had done outside of PMs were covered 100% by the warranty provided by Freightliner. You are aware that Prime sets aside 1.5cpm from your cashflow after expenses in an escrow account for tires, yes?

Well maybe you got screwed... you certainly bent over and reamed yourself on fuel. Ah... that number for profit after expenses for me is an average of $1224 per week over the last 29 weeks. Maybe you got screwed, but I think you did it mostly to yourself. And I don't see what your point about elogs has to do with anything - I certainly am not making any less money because of them. In fact, its an almost automatic pass at the scale house - once they see you're on elogs, you're outta there!

I'm certainly not saying Prime is perfect - because they aren't, but they do provide an opportunity that a businessman or woman can take advantage of. Someone who walks into this and treats it as a company driver would a paycheck is going to get burned. You've got to do everything you can to minimize costs. Buying your fuel at the most expensive outlets (usually Flying J or Petros in our network) cetainly isn't going to do you any good, nor will having a lead foot - and if you're careful can add 10 - 15cpm to your profit. Nor is accepting loads that pay an average of $1 per mile (your original statement... it changes here to $1.33 - which is it?), blowing all your money in truckstops - while missing out on load opportunities, or getting overweight tickets because of your own negligence.

 

We actually had the same dispatcher. She refused to run overnight loads, and would run her trips so she had to take a 10 hour break when empty before she could reload. I always try to have a clock and be ready to run when I'm empty, and that keeps me rolling, which keeps my happy, and keeps my dispatcher happy.

As far as fuel discounts go, any discounts Prime gets are passed onto the lease operator. Has been for the 4 years I've been leasing a truck. In fact, we actually have some fuel stops that sell us fuel on a cost minus basis, meaning they are selling us the fuel for 2-3 cents less than their wholesale price to get us into the truckstops.

As far as differences go on revenue from dispatch and actual pay, I've had one load be wrong, and it actually went up over $300. It was a Christmas Fed-Ex load, and sales entered our contract rate in as the rate I'd get, and it turned out to be a spot market load.