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Usually they run about 62, 63, something like that. I pass them, but I don't exactly "blow their doors off", so to speak. But every once in a while I come up on one who's nothing but a ROAD HAZARD.

I was somewhere in Indiana on the turnpike one day. I was hearing guys on the CB talking about a "brake check" then yelling at a Prime truck on my side. I hadn't passed any Primes in a while so I knew it was still ahead of me. I kept seeing brake lights ahead, cars and trucks swerving into the hammer lane (because nobody looks any further than 50 feet ahead of them) and when I got up to him, he was doing about 40 or 45. I held that air horn strap down when I went past.

About an hour later I stopped for "driver fuel" and took my time. No hurry. I get back out on the highway about 45 minutes later and merged in about half a mile behind that same Prime truck, and at the point where I passed him, I wasn't even in top gear yet. Same thing as before, air horn as I went by.

 

50 mph. We sell a service and Tyson likes the way we do business, so they throw a lot of it our way. Its called "on time." Works real well if you keep your left door closed.

You don't pay for your own fuel do you? Its a different story when you do. The fact of the matter is that if you were to slow down a bit, you'd get to where you're going just as quickly as I do. The other day on US30 in Indiana (I don't like paying those foreign jerks that run the toll road) I had the same three trucks passing me that were going 2 mph over the speed limit while I poked along at 55. This little game started in Warsaw, and ended at the TA in Burns Harbor. They passed me 3 times on that stretch of road, and I ended up at the TA before they did.

There's a minimum speed limit as well as a maximum. 55 is well over that minimum. Don't like it? Write to your congressman.

The guy should have had his 4-ways on at that speed. I think 55 is the minimum on the Indiana toll road isn't it?

Seriously though, 55 isn't "too slow" to be on a limited access highway, and the laws of the road agree with that assessment. Have you ever considered that maybe 65 is too much for you to handle if you can't deal with a slower vehicle in front of you?

 

Prime is the only fleet I see going EXTREMELY slow all the time. I wasn't talking about owner-operators either.

The minimum should be the same as the maximum, IMO.

I don't know. Who pays attention to what the minimum is, other than Prime drivers, tree-huggers, & old people?

Yes, ... it is too slow. Unless you're in bad weather, or an urban area.

I'm supposed to slow down because the occasional Prime truck is driving at a dangerously slow speed? I don't think so. At 65 mph, I'm slow enough already!

Your feedback is appreciated, ... but I still don't quite understand how someone could actually drive that slow, even if they are paying for their own fuel. Owner-operators pass me every day. There's something fleet-specific about Prime that makes even the company drivers go slower than their governor speed, and some even go dangerously slow.

They set the "minimum" speed at 45 in most places, assuming people will only go that slow when there's snow on the road. (Whenever road & weather conditions are bad enough I don't feel safe at 45 mph, it's time to park it.)

 

Its obvious you don't pay for your own fuel.

I'm paid a percentage of linehaul, FSC and accessorials to run a load. In other words I get a pot of money. I pay my costs, fuel being the largest one of the bunch. I minimize what I pay to the oil companies (greedy b$$$$$$ds that they are,) and maximize what I put into my pocket. It's no different for the O/Os except they like to whine about rates not being high enough to afford their fuel bill.

Dangerously slow? I beg to differ - you're going dangerously fast if you can't deal with road conditions.

 

Of course I don't. It's a company truck. They pay for the fuel, they set the governor at 65, so I run 65. Our fuel bonus is based on idling and overspeed. (The trucks will go 68 if you put the hammer down but the cruise won't go over 65)

A slow truck in front of me is not "bad road conditions". However in snow, heavy rain, ice, etc. I'll slow down, but it's bad enough I can't at least SAFELY do about 45 or so, I'm parking it.

 

Our company side fuel bonus is based on two things. If you can't toe the line (6.75 mpg) you'll get turned-down from 62, if that doesn't do it you can drive for someone else - and the less fuel you use, the larger the fuel bonus based as an increase to your paid rate per mile. Most of the companies that went under during '08 and '09 were due to their inability to control fuel costs - drivers with a serious case of lead-footed inability to discipline themselves enough to slow down.

Sure it is. And when you rear-end another vehicle, it will be your fault.

 

I have quite a question... what's up with the small trucks?? those little pete 386's and Cascaida's?? someone said that they was OTR trucks, no way in hell!!!!!!! those things are tiny!!! gentlemen said they were equip to haul up to 48K, i pray and hope to good those things has some horses in em.....

 

Yup, OTR for company solo drivers. A lot of folks run those in regional situations where they are home frequently. Those tractors and one of the new light-weight trailers allow us to run 48-49k in the box - we have a major competitive advantage over some of our competitors with that. Yup, plenty of horses, but what's more important, plenty of torque... that's what pulls us up hills.

 

hmmm.... interesting

 

45 mph your parking it? Depends....I've been in plenty of winter conditions and even heavy rain storms where we were doing 35 and even slower following a line of trucks down the road. Keep you foot of it and stay behind the pack and its a heck of allot safer.