Prime, never been insulted by employer before.

I would agree.Although I would never work in his field (reefer) nor would I care to work for Prime, I enjoy reading his posts.IP always seems to put thought into his posts and truly seems to enjoy what he does and where he does it.He doesn't come off as a cheeleader,he simply adds input from the perspective of someone who actually works for the company in question.

You have to wonder why someone wouldn't speak up for the co they work for......if ya aint willing to do that why in the hell(o) are ya still workin for 'em?

 

So, how's working for free turning out for ya? Have you been watching your mpg lately? Be sure to keep that rig at 52 mpg for excellent fuel economy....clown.

 

nobody is working for free.

52? Please. Its not hard to get good MPG at 55 or even 58 if you know what you are doing.

My Century averages around or above 7.25. Well above the company minnimum of 6.75... and that keeps them from turning down my truck to 58. Plus I get paid extra on a sliding scale for every .01 above 6.75. Translated to an extra $2.5k last year.

The guys in the new Cascadias have it easier...

Cant complain about miles either.

Here is a 23 week comparison between Jan 1 and this week with the same period in 2009

Ive had trainees for the 3 weeks this year and none for the same period last year..., so the third column adjusts by subtracting half the miles accumulated with the trainee (4395 miles).

2009 2010 2010
Hometime days 11 / 17 / 17
Disp Miles 37,585 / 51,857 / 47462
Per Wk Avg 1,634 / 2,254 / 2,063
Adj for hometime 1,756 / 2,517 / 2,303

Hometime days are days actually charged to me being at home... they dont include personal days Ive been allowed when around the terminal running errands etc... or the extra day(s) I sometimes get at home hanging near a phone waiting for an outbound load.(ready for dispatch) Unlike 2009, 7 of the hometime days this year were paid vaction days.

Now, those first few months of 2009 were really slow and picked up about mid April last year... I think I counted 13 on the road restarts those first 3 months of 2009. I finished 2009 around 135k miles (if adjusted for 29k trainee miles in 2009 you can pin it at 106k miles)

since all raises and vacation are tied to dispatched milage milestones, a trainee can speed up the process a bit. It also adds a nice weekly boost in paycheck as the I make the team rate minus the .12/mile paid to the trainee (if we dont turn 5k miles, the difference to reach the $600 garaunteed to the trainee isnt charged to me) I also share a 1/4 of the fuel bonus to the trainee.

If I tie this back to the Subject of this thread... I dont find this insulting.

 

You're a lease operator right?

This required minimum mpg is ########. Gawd. Even werner doesnt treat me that bad. 6.75? That's not a problem on this truck, but my last truck i couldnt get 6.1 on....I sure wouldn't be happy getting turned down...and that truck had issues, it wasnt me...

And if you're a lease operator, that makes your classification as a 1099 independant contractor illegal by IRS standards.

11 hometime days in a year? that's it? I've already taken 21 off this year. #### man. Any reason why so little hometime? I couldn't live like that, even if it's just the way you choose to run! There's more to life to work...or thats how i feel atleast.

By the way, what's the hometime policy for lease ops? Is it just whenever you want and for how long you want provided you can still pay the truck payments like other companies, or what?

 

U2 is a company driver.

There is no minimum fuel requirement for lease operators.

I've had 16 days of hometime this year, taken all at once in Janurary for a trip to NYC. I'm going home from the 6th - 20th of July to the outer banks in NC. Then from November 15th to the 30th I'm going to be in Holland, Belgium, and Poland. Also taking a weekend in September to go see the Prairie Home Companion tour. I couldn't take hometime on this schedule if I was a company driver.

As far as lease hometime, as long as you can remain profitable, you can take as much hometime when and where you want. I have enough sitting in my emergenchy fund right now to cover all the hometime I'm going to take for the rest of the year.

 

Read your lease, the only way it's your at the end of the lease is if you buy it, call it a ballon payment or whatever you want you are going to pay more for a worn out frieghtliner than it's worth. What's that you say it' only three years old, tha's a long time for pos frieghtliner

 

I was company, but have switched over to the lease side. That was always my plan - just got delayed a little by the country's recent financial unpleasantness. U2 and I shared the same FM while I was company...

Prime just went about the fuel price spike disaster a little differently than say Swift and Werner. Instead of just letting folks hammer down at 62, they set a minimum fuel economy goal with a financial incentive for exceeding it - an increase in your cpm, and performance penalties if you could toe the line. It started at 6.25 mpg - below that for 3 weeks and your truck might be turned down if you didn't have a maintenance issue. I had a 65 mph truck when that poliicy started, and turned in that truck without being turned down. No big deal... I was running better than 6.4 when it started, and received regular fuel bonuses... so has U2. It was gradually turned up to the present 6.75 - my truck averaged better than 7.3 for the last year. It came down to how hard you wanted to work on fuel economy was determined by how much money you wanted to make off of it, and it wasn't very hard - but I hear lots of drivers whining about why they can't manage to do it.

So it wasn't a big deal... unless you are one of those guys with the accelerator glued to the floor. Sound familiar?

One of the reasons I commonly heard from newbs at Prime for going lease immediately was so they didn't have to toe the fuel economy line. They could just do any #### thing they pleased. That's why you run across the guys who can't make a dime at this - they're doing what they feel like, not what they need to do in order to make it work.

It's pretty simple really... profit = gross revenue - fixed costs - variable costs.

If you don't keep the left hand door closed, and make yourself available for dispatch, that "gross revenue" number goes way down. That's bad. That's also one of those reasons you hear why a lot of folks go lease... so they have "freedom." Yeah, that's a good one. You don't make $$$ sittin' on the couch with your woman.

Can't do anything about those fixed costs... they're fixed.

Variable costs... the number one item on that one is fuel. Hammer down, and watch the dead presidents fly out of the stack. That's what I usually find out when I'm talking to a lease op who can't make it - they have this idea that it doesn't matter how much they are spending on fuel as long as the accelerator is glued to the floor. It just doesn't work very well. Buy your fuel where it's cheap, and burn only as much as getting down the road requires. Anything more is just stoking your ego - and that doesn't pay squat.

Wrong. The IRS could care less how you pay for your truck - until you go after deductions. An independant 1099 contractor has certain tests they must pass to not be considered an employee - leasing a truck isn't one of them. Go check the IRS website.

Company drivers at Prime accrue 1 day of hometime every week. That is potentially 52-days off a year. Also, you accrue 5-days of paid vacation time after every 125,000 dispatched miles (loaded and empty.) The company hometime policy is minimum out for 3 weeks, and not take more than 4-consecutive days of hometime. You can take the 5 vacation days consecutively after you've earned them. I never had a problem getting my hometime or taking vacation. Always arrived on time, except once when the loads just wouldn't cooperate - I was one day late that time.

Also, they gave you the choice of having hometime over one of the three major end-of-year holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Years - the limitation was just so Prime had enough of the fleet available for dispatch to cover the freight. They deadheaded me nearly 300 miles one Thanksgiving, and I usually got both Thanksgiving and Christmas. That was never a problem from where I sit.

As a 1099 contractor, its up to you... Sazook covered it. If you can afford it, you can take off as much time as you like.

 

5 days vacation? You got screwed... I got 7. Maybe you're confusing it with the $500 you get for the week.

I run the way I run. If I wanted to be home every three weeks, I would. Thus only 17 days this year... If I don't have something planned, I stay out until the job "gets to me" and I need a break.

Im debt free... Except whatever I charge on my credit cards each month. I pay the balance every month. Other than that I have a cell bill monthly, and a car insurance bill every 6 months.

Healthy savings account, I have 10% of my check with held for the company 401k plan. I also contribute the max annual amount ($5k) to a self managed IRA account that's not doing too bad ( special thanks to Sirius for climbing above a $1 after I bought a nice chunk at .30)

Nothing feels better than having a seriously positive net worth.

Oh, and for sure Im taking a vacation to Germany next year.

 

Sorry for you two. Hope you can get something good, whether it's trucking or not. Give Old Dominion, Fed Ex, UPS, UPS freight, ABF a call. LTL is far better than OTR. Always has been.

Those lease op and owner ops are modern day share croppers.

 

I have been an O/O and a company can't tell you where to fuel or what route you have to take. It's your truck and your money. If you want to go 50 miles out of your way that's up to you. Youa re paying for the fuel, the tires, the oil, and everything else. If you find a shorter way then that's all good for you. It pays the same no matter what.