Prime Inc. - A year in review

Some people have asked for the kind of miles I have been running... so here they are.

Assume each per month total is exactly 4 weeks, we are paid weekly so assume 4 (7 day weeks) are a month.

2008
April- I was a student running with my trainer on a solo clock. Students are not officially hired until they get their full CDL. My trainer would have all the miles on his stubs, but I dont have any.

The following numbers are my training miles, where I made $0.12/mile or $600 whichever is more for the week. I did not take any days off, or go home...some repair days and a day or two at my trainers house. Running team

May (3 weeks)-16347
June - 19799
July (3.5 weeks)-13234

I took 10 or so days off at home and came back and picked up my truck at the beggining of Aug. (5th). Solo at .30/mile plus fuel bonus raised to .34 mid Oct.

Aug - 9755
Sep - 8403 (4 days at home)
Oct - 8430 (4 at home)
Nov - 9113
Dec - 9146 + 1940 (4 at home)

the extra week is to account for 28 day month totals... it left me with an extra week at the end of Dec.

2009
Jan - 8442 (4days at home)
Feb - 7720 (raise to .35 at the end of Feb)
Mar - 8970 + 1181 (there has been 13 weeks so far. 4days at home)

As a solo my
2008 weekly avg was 2228
2009 weekly avg is 2024

Overall (08-09)an additional 1400 dollars total in fuel bonus at an 08 avg of .02/mile and 09 avg of .015/mile. Plus there is drop pay and layover too.

My 2009 weekly pay average has me right now making 38k over 52 weeks. As, and if miles go up or down that number will do the same.

 

A couple things there make it hard for me to say for sure...

Was the 8 months OTR?

If youve had your CDL A for a year and have 8 months experiance, then if you havent been driving for the last 4 months they may send you out for a shortend training period. Safety Dept. will make the overall call based on your experiance and an evaluation drive test.

Now the experiance of 12 years in trucks confuses me... having your CDL for only a year now. Im not questioning it... Im trying to think how they would evaluate it and make any determination about a training period.

I wouldnt sweat it. A reduced training period isnt a bad thing, it would be a team driving situation and the total dispatch miles would count towards the training milage required for upgrade... without it you would be stumbling around for a few weeks, trying to figure out how things work. (beyond the basic driving).

There are lots of simple little things you have to do to get re-imbursed for items and services you have to pay out-of-pocket cash for each week. There are things that are not cash, that get charged to the truck, and do come out of your settlement if you dont submit the correct reciept with the REQUIRED information. You dont want to get hit with a $200 plus lumper fee, because even though you got the reciept and submitted it, you failed to make sure it had all the required information.

Last night I showed an Owner operator who was hauling his first Prime load from a shipper on how to work the Reefer settings. In his case he is sharing a percentage of fuel costs for running the reefer. Correct temp is the easy part, having it in the correct mode takes less than 30 seconds and can make the difference in reducing his fuel bill over a longer period of time.

You said you are going company....Last thing... those training miles add up on your overall milage towards pay raises (Not paid Vacation, that accumulates from Upgrade to A seat) You can get a little ahead by accumulating twice as many miles (team milage while training) and only doing about half the driving. And you are gauranteed a minnimum of $600 per week (you dont qualify for benifts for the first 90 days upgraded or not, so your not taking a huge hit on pay if they make you train for a couple weeks) If you and your trainer run more than 5k miles your pay is switched to .12 per mile. If your trainer decideds to take a few days off and you dont, it may mean sitting in the truck, or your trainer has you come to his house like mine did, you still get paid that 600 min.

 

They do... its the luck of the draw from the available pool of trucks. No selection, no choice as a company driver... they hand you a key and a truck number and you give it a very detailed "check out".

I have a Century... Its not a bad truck... I make my fuel bonus and dont have to worry about whether the fuel is ULSD not everytime I pull into a island.