Again your wrong. I ran smart except for deciding to go with them.... All I got was bogus info that was wrong. Loads that don't exist, etc. How about having some trucks available? I mean if you got 26 lease guys in orientation you might need 26 trucks not 2. I did not take advances. With prime if the wheels are rolling it is costing.

__________________
A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

Before I'm going to say what I am about to say I have to preface it with I have no doubt in my mind leasing a truck is way more expensive than buying one. And the likelyhood of a new driver succeeding in a lease program is very slim.

That said the only math I have seen thus far in this thread is the breakdown cost of the lease.

Ownership math thus far has been "I can buy that truck for less than $100k". I take it then you are paying cash for the truck? If not, where is the breakdown of the financing costs? TTL? Money for your corporation formation? D.O.T. Fees? etc etc.

How about the cost of the carriers more interested in their L/O's getting the more equitable runs than the O/O's. After all the company is going to make more money off of the L/O's, so where is their priority going to be?

Where is the math for all of the costs of being a private business? I'm not even a driver yet and can see your arguments make no sense because your only telling half of the story.

Has anyone here ever looked at the cost difference of buying/financing/or leasing a car? I put them in that order because that is the order of expense. It is way cheaper to buy a car for cash than to finance it. And you'll never recover from a lease.

True, you can make $1000-$1200 a week at Prime. You can also do that with a lot of other companies. But, how far is that $1200 gonna take you when you have a transmission failure and it's not warranteed? Suddenly, you have $200 or $300 a week taken out of your settlement to repay Prime for the repair. Then while you're paying that off, you hit some road debris and blow a tire. They don't just tack that onto the end of the repayment. Now you have $200 or $300 a week coming out for the tranny and another $50 a week for the tire. This can and usually does add up real fast. Suddenly, you're taking home less than a company driver would make for the same miles. God forbid, you have another breakdown, or need service or new tires all around, during that time. Each instance, creates a seperate deduction. Then you get into a slow month, or need to take time off for an emergency. Those deductions and lease payments don't stop. It's conceivable to be driving for weeks on end and have negative settlements. Believe me, I had more than a couple negative settlements with Prime.

As for the loaner truck? You're still making the same lease payments and everything else, while you're in the loaner. If you're down two days, waiting for a loaner, you lose that income and if you have to travel 600 miles to Springfield to pick up the loaner, it's on your dime.

Sorry, but you need to gross at least $2000 a week to the truck, to make any kind of lease, lease/purchase, or loan payment work. Either that, or have a minimum of $25,000 cash in the bank to fall back on for repairs. I'd recommend twice that much.

__________________
Semper Fi,
Wayne

P.T.Barnum said "there`s a sucker born every minute."Sometimes the company isn`t ripping a driver off,sometimes the driver is ripping himself off.

There is a tire fund set up in the lease. Im not sure how much but its x cents per mile. tire replacement comes from this, and any leftover/accumulated money is returned at the end of lease.

As I understand it you can set up a maint. fund. A set amount (by you) is held in an account for maint or emergency issues.

The truck is under warranty and you are responsible for anything not covered by the warranty and all preventive maintenence (oil changes etc).

Sorry, I dont have any details... Im company, maybe a lease guy can fill in the details.

Ive personally seen some big checks (bonus + leftover funds) presented to guys who finish their leases.

I found this, I dont know how up to date it is... maybe it can help some of you.

SUCCESS LEASING LEASE PROGRAM SUMMARY
The following is a summary of the basic components
of the Success Leasing Program.
Actual contract terms may vary.
Costs mentioned below are subject to change due to year updates
 Standard Lease Program:
 All trucks are covered by physical damage and B/T insurance and come equipped w/QC.
 Weekly fixed Payments:
 Reefer Team or Solo (3 year lease)
Cascadia Class starts at $810 new
Payment declines $20 for each 12 month period
 Reefer Solo (4 year lease)
Cascadia Class starts at $740 new
Payment declines $20 for each 16 month period
 Flatbed (4 year lease)
Cascadia Class starts at $758 new
Payment declines $20 for each 16 month period
 Tanker (4 year lease)
Cascadia Class starts at $773 new
Payment declines $20 for each 16 month period
 Weekly mileage charge:
 A variable portion of the payment based on 4.5 cents per mile for all authorized dispatched miles.
 Excess mileage charge: Average Miles
 Reefer Team or Solo: 0-2900 miles no charge
2901-3400 miles 5 cents per mile
3401-4100 miles 3 cents per mile
4101 miles and above 1 cent per mile
 Reefer Solo: (4 year) 0-2300 miles no charge
2301-3600 miles 5 cents per mile
3601 miles and above 7 cents per mile
 Flatbed/Tanker: 0-2750 miles no charge
2751-3200 miles 5 cents per mile
3201-3800 miles 3 cents per mile
3801 miles and above 1 cent per mile
 Tire Fund is based on 1.5 cents per mile for all authorized dispatched miles and is used for Tractor tire replacements.
 There is an additional approximately $150.00 per week in fixed costs. (i.e.: License/Permits, Performance Bond, Operating Statements, Fuel Card charge, Occupational Accident, F.H.U.T, TruckStop Scanning)

 Leasing Bonus’s
 First time lease bonus of $300 paid after first dispatch
 Re-Lease Bonus equal to $5.00 per week for every week previous truck was lease, once you have signed your next lease.
 Success Protection Package
 Cascadia Class OEM Warranties
 Success Drive line repair cash coverage; cash flow protection for all drive line repairs until completion of lease. A fifty-fifty split of all drive train repairs greater than $500 at completion of lease.
 At lease completion 100% reimbursement of all costs in excess of $500 per item on non-drive line repairs.
 Pre-lease Trucks
 Trucks less than 2 years old will have a 30-day bumper to bumper warranty. Trucks over 2 years old will have a 60-day bumper to bumper warranty. This bumper to bumper coverage is for items other than preventative maintenance, tires, glass breakage or driver negligence.
 Carryover warranty – established at 1.75 cents per paid miles on the truck. Covers drive train related repairs.
 Breakdown Pay:
 $175 for solo/$240 for team, paid for each 24 hour period that truck is unable to haul freight after first 24 hours (due to truck mechanical failure)
 Loaner Truck Program:
 If your truck is unable to haul freight for an extended period of time (i.e. extensive truck repairs, etc). Success Leasing will provide a temporary replacement truck at no additional charge as long as one is available.
 End of Lease Incentive:
 Lease completion incentive paid is based on 1.75 cents for all authorized dispatched miles with contracts signed before 6/10/05. Lease completion incentive on contracts signed after 6/10/05 is 3.25 cents for all authorized dispatched miles.
 An amount equal to excess mileage paid (excludes reefer 4 year solo contracts)
 Longevity:
 Annual forgiven lease payment after two years leasing; two per year after four years.
 Reduction in mileage charges by 1/2cent after six years and 1cent after eight continuous years leasing a truck from Success Leasing.
 "Super Spec" available after five years leasing.
 $500 contribution to Primes Retention and Rewards Program if leasing from Success (Prime contributes $1000 to the plan per year).
 Opportunity to purchase a truck through the Ace Lease program. "Check with Success Leasing personnel for details".

Don't get me wrong you can make money there but most of it depends on how lucky you got when you got assigned your dispatcher. If you got a good one you will do good but if you get a bad one you are SCREWED and you have to give him alot of second chances to get them to switch you. I am sorry but you are a supposed Owner/Op you should be able to just get a new one on a whim if you want.

For the time I worked there I averaged $1.01 per mile plus FSC. The problem was I was not preplanned as much as other guys were and I got so tired of delivering somewhere and sitting there waiting to get dispatched and other guys coming in after me for 8 hours and dropping but they are preplanned for loads picking up right away and I finally get my load that don't pick up til the next day.

All I know is my average profit per week there was $703.00 with no taxes or insurance or nothing taken out and no repairs ever done other than PM's and advances are included in that 703.00 per week. Was going to become alot less once the regular breakdowns started happening (alternator, starter etc) I stayed out about 27 days per month. Where I am now I take one day off for every 5 I work and don't run as hard as when I was at Prime and I average 870.00 per week after taxes and insurance are deducted.

Now the reason I am posting all this is alot of Primes solo guys are really having problems now due to the industry slowdown but they have no problem painting a rosy picture while recruiting new drivers there which is just wrong. All just to get the recruiting credits to get those free payments for yourself while the guy you recruited will more than likely go broke.

As far as I can tell, no one is recruiting here... There isnt a rosey picture in the current economy.

I have to agree about the right FM... My guy on the company side had me pre-planned about 80 percent of the time up until things slowed down... Technically only one pre-plan in the last month and a half... That one arrived about 5 min from an empty msg. He usually works 2-3 weekend days a month, but if not, he tries really hard to get us lined up Friday for loads covering the weekend rather than leave it to weekend dispatch.

Seeing as the dispatcher is paid based on the amount his/her drivers are paid, I find it hard to blame low pay problems on the dispatcher. Unless you get a dispatcher who likes working as a volunteer and not making much money themselves.

Yup, tire fund is 1.5 cpm. At 2000 miles a week, you're setting aside $30 a week. To replace one tire on the side of the road will cost about $600 minimum. That'd take 20 weeks to set aside enough. Keep in mind, most of the trucks available are lease turn ins, not brand new. So, you'll need to replace tires fairly soon. They do prorate the mileage left on the tires and put that amount in your tire fund. If you have 50% tread on the steers, you'll have 50% of the price of two new steers in your fund from day one. That's a good thing.

What I was pointing out though is that if you have an unwarranteed breakdown, it will take a big bite out of your weekly settlement. If you don't have enough in your tire fund to cover replacement after a blow out, it's a seperate deduction. Two or three episodes of misfortune and you'll be having several hundred taken out of your settlement.

The only way to go into any lease, lease purchase, or truck finance, is if you have a big chunk of change set aside for emergencies.

__________________
Semper Fi,
Wayne