L/O preferred truck?

I prefer a Pete. No whatever is on their website is what they have at the current time. But that list changes daily. After 3 months you can order what you want though (make, color, graphics you name it)

 

I would highly recommend you don't lease through Prime. Read the fine print on the lease. Basically, you must stay with Prime until the truck is paid off. If you quit early you loose all the money you have put into the truck including the payments and maintenance. You pay all the expences but prime gets to keep the truck. Now, Prime knows this. They know you cant afford to leave. They will start giving you their worst freight. If you stick with it, you will have trouble making payments and may even default on the truck. They control how much money you make and thus can control if you can afford it. If you fail or leave early, they got you to pay all the expece and get to keep the truck for free.

The best solution is finacing a truck on your own. If you cant do that, go to a 3rd party leasing company. One i looked at was http://www.lonemountaintruck.com/truckleasing/. I've never used them, but their info looks solid. If you lease though them you can work for any company you want including Prime. The differance is, Prime can't treat you bad because you have the option of taking the truck else ware. Since its not a prime lease you can sign on with any other company if prime miss treats you. They have to give you good freight to keep you happy becuase you can leave at any moment. Leasing directy through prime you give up that option. If you must lease, go with a 3rd party leasng company. Is a huge conflict of interest to have the company you work for hold the note on your rig.

 

That is insane. My truck payment is 1800 a MONTH. 948 a WEEK is double that.

Brand new truck should be 15k down +2500ish/week for a 5 year. (around 165,00 total cost)

Prime is charging an average of 4,108/month. ([948*52]/12) This adds up to an extra $32,184 dollars. The prime lease cost you $197,184. I don't think the truck is worst nearly $197,184.

If you can't afford the down payment, then buy a used truck, make some money then upgrade. With prime you will be struggling for 4 years to make payments and if your lucky you end up with a truck. I became an o/o 1.5 years ago and now own 2 rigs, on my way to buying a 3rd. The number work out so much better buying on your own. (or at least doing 3rd party financing.)

 

Unless you team or train, lease is not a great idea @ prime, esp in reefer division - as you will be competing with the bulk of company drivers (me) for freight.

That said,

Cascadia evolution if you are smart
Peterbilt 587 for the image of "cool"
Kenworth 680 for the image of "newest look-at-me toy @ prime"

Remember, paccar products are not built like they used to be, & you don't get "respect" from the guys in the real KW's & Pete's driving for a semi-mega carrier in a plastic areo toy that has a woefully buggy engine, fewer service centers, weighs more, has worse visabilty, worse turning radius, & returns over 1mpg less (money out your pocket) on average than a properly specced cascadia evolution.

From what all 3 of our terminals' in-house shops tell me, both the peterbilts & the kenworths are much more of a pain to work on then the freightliners as well.

 

This is where steering wheel holders / wanna be business owners screw up. It is all about the $$$, bottom line. It is not the name on the hood or the 'cool look at me' factor. The best LO truck is the one that makes you the most money. period. It is about how much you make in a year after everyone is paid. I'm not a fan of LO and the $4000 a month truck payment is one of the reasons, that is a joke, it should be a crime. LO strokes the egos of truckers while offering little increase in pay.

There are deals to be had out there that will get you in a 2015 Volvo 780 or 2015 Cascadia for less than 2600 a month without being chained to one trucking company. Research all the options. Get a good paying company job while saving for your own business down the road. Jumping in too quickly without the funding to back you up always leads to failure.

 

Read the schneider threads and decide. At least with them you book your own loads.

 

Well, let's start with I did fine on the lease side, solo, reefer division. Never had a problem with competition from company drivers... they get the miles we get the better rates if there is a choice. As far as the payment is concerned, yep, its high, it's also a three-year note which beats paying for 5 years, and the revenue is there to support the payment. You do have to watch your costs, but what's any different in any business?

IMO, you're best off with the Freightliner Cascadia. First, it has the lowest fixed costs of any of the trucks if you lease a new one. On a used lease, you can probably find one that will be less costly. On the maintenance side, IMO Freightliner does the best job of standing behind their product from a warranty standpoint, but also the Cascadias are the most reliable trucks in the fleet. You don't make money off of a truck that spends most of it's life in a garage.

From the SNI folks I've talked to, there are some caveats that come with that ability to "pick your own loads." First, many folks who jump into leasing have no business and very little trucking experience. Choosing lanes adds an additional complication to the mess, that will directly affect your revenue. They've also told me it's not all it's cracked up to be since you're bidding against a couple of thousand other trucks. Prime's dispatch system isn't perfect either, but you do get offered the best load available at the moment you come up to the top of the dispatch queue... which does spread the lower paying loads out a bit, in the same way a mutual fund spreads the risk of the market out a bit.

 

It's 3 years not 4. I did the ACE lease with 6k down my payment was 937/wk for 3 years. Paid it off last month and still have 200k of warranty left.
Yes it would be insane if it was one of them buck a mile plus fuel deals but there was plenty of revenue there to pay the truck off quick and still make a good living.

As far as booking your own freight I don't really want to have to spend the time foolin with all that. We have some pretty good lanes but if they send one to somewhere I don't wanna go I just send it back and get another one. Doesn't happen very often tho. I do a lot of short runs and I would wind up spending more time looking for loads than playing video games.