New Prime, Inc. - Springfield, Mo.?

Slick50,

First off Semper Fi. Second, thanks for the articulate post', that have provided great information.

I am a newbie, start CDL school July 16th,2007. I have chose a company (not prime) that appears to be the lesser of evils after weeks of research and comparing the other offers I had. My neighbor drives for Prime as an O/O and he speaks highly of them as does his wife.

My Intention is to fulfill at least 1 year with my training company, then depending on the relationship that has developed, opportunities they have provided me due to my hard work and dedication, decide whether to move on or find better opportunities within.

My short term goal (3 years) is to become an owner opperator. I have previous business ownership experience, so I am well acquainted with the hard work and dedication it takes to make $$$.

Also as tradition goes, I could not dishonor our beloved Corp by being a slouch at anything. My career choice into OTR comes from years of what if's and a recent relocation to East Texas for country living (10 acres).

My wife and I both fully agreed where we live required a decent commute to any job so why not commute full time and persue a what if dream.

Anyhow thanks for the post' if there is any advice any of you may have I will be looking for your post'.

Bullfrog

 

You still had road taxes,maintenance taken out and a whole slew of insurance,and eating expenses,in 1984 I grossed 190.000 a year and cleared 90,000,but still had fed and ssi and state taxes to pay,that was when fuel was only 72 cts a gallon,and you only needed 750,000 in insurance,does prime charge you trailer rental, I don't want to doubt your word,but if you banked 72000,and was able to pay upwards of 750 a week for truck payments,you are doing unbelievable. Are you a relative of prime,do you ever go home with your family? It sounds like you would have to be single and never come home to run 161000 miles and make that kind of money paying all those expenses,maybe you mixed something up,like your retirement from the marines? and included that in there,just kidding ,I think. You may be a recruiter,did you get any drivers signed up to reap the sign up bonus of prime,maybe that supplemented your income,just kidding you,I think,but,actually if you did clear 72000,no other prime drivers have ever told me that kind of money being made there. I am at Pride truck stop every week in springfield talking to many prime drivers there and in wi. where I run nearly every week. Good luck to you,you are truly a success lease story i have never encountered.

 

Slick 50,when I posted my remarks to you,I was assuming you were in a Prime lease purchase deal. You averaged 1.27 at 72% of primes gross that They paid you. I was amazed at your insurance rates,only 250 a month,,you must have fire and theft on it too,ussually it costs that much for just fire and theft, and collision is a plus rate. I wish you luck.I do know a guy out of denver with will trans with prime freight,hee runs like he wants,has a new 387 pete with payments of 742 a week,runs like the devil,but has to run every which way but loose.It is easy to get into trouble fudging logs too much,most companies I have worked for want logs to average not more than 2.5 less than the states speed limit. There are some that still run outlaw but are slowly being put out of business thru accidents and lawsuits. Two drivers from heartland that run regional told me yesterday that heartland is raising their experience level up again,they tried to lower it but since they did,the qual com has told them about all the wrecks their drivers are having all over the country that have only a couple years of experience. The insurance rates are killing them slowly.

 

Hey there Buck and a half......I just went through a course that Prime holds to help us be more profitable....Going through all my numbers on paper....It's costing me an even $1 to operate....that's truck, fuel, ins,....everything....and I'm averaging $1.47mi..... There is money to be made here. One of the guys that I went through the course with saw the light of day about using his cruise control and shifting in the sweet spot instead of racking up the rpms.....he hasn't been using his cruise, and it's costing him big.....and even though my average speed was way above his I'm getting better fuel economy....and that's with me running the Rockies.......and over the 6 week period of the DDEC that we had printed out.....he shifted at a point above 1800 rpms over 7100 times......just blowing fuel out the stack. I am going to have to call him every day and remind him to use his cruise....and shift early...LOL. The point of the story is.......They go out of thier way to show us how to make more money with our trucks....sure...the company is making money off of us....what company out there isn't making money off of their drivers......even the beloved Landstar is making money off of the O/O's that they have leased on....otherwise they wouldn't be in business. The thing is that you hear a lot of bad information out there......no one wants to admit they couldn't make it on their own....so they blame the company. And, I'm no recruiter...but Prime does give us the tools....We just have to use them. I just wish people would talk to those of us that ARE doing what we know will make us money.

 

If you don't mind me asking, what type of truck payment do you have monthly, so you can operate at $1.00 per mile? Plus how many miles do you get to run on an average weekly? I'm considering Prime myslef.

 

Hi Slick,

I've been company driving for about 7 months now for a subsidiary of PAM. They recently put me on medical leave because of an injury I got while driving a couple of loads for them in one of their old "spring ride" trailers. Anyway, after recovering from the injury they kept me out to get my BP under control. Once they were satisfied with that, corporate told me to go back to work...when I contacted my subsidiary, they told me I was terminated for being out more than 30 days. Rather than be devastated, I decided to be more proactive and start looking for other opportunities while PAM decides if they'll reinstate me back or not. I've been in conversations with Prime and I've read your posts on the subject and I must say that I'm impressed with what they seem to be offering. I also have a cousin who has been driving for a few years for Prime (he's the one who referred me to them) and he has nothing but good things to say about them as well.

I've almost committed to the idea of going with them. I'm contacting you specifically because yours is something of a success story and I also noted that you worked with them as part of your own corporation. I wanted to know how you got that in motion/what should be my first steps?

I thank you in advance for your help and I appreciate you greatly for your service to this country.

Maraming salamat po (Many thanks respectfully),
Airwolf

 

Just got in last nite, read your post today. This is how I see Prime:
They make their money off freight (28% their cut) 2,500 reefer trucks and 500 flat bed trucks (3000 trucks X $4000 gross X .28 =$ 3,360,000 a week). AND, they make their money off their trucks (your lease payments over 3 or 4 years pays for the truck, you give it back, they sell it to Freightliner) Think of how many trucks get sold back to F/L in a week at 3000 trucks in the fleet (about 19 trucks at $30,000 each = $570,000 a week back to Prime. Not bad business plan. You can also add in $15 a week for the required 'settlement' X 3000 trucks = $45,000. Shall I go on? Now these figures are just rough guesstimates based on my degree in business and working for Prime for two years. They can make their money so long as I can make mine. Like I said at first, I'm still here.
Prime has a good customer base, good support network, incentives for the dispatchers to keep you loaded (they get a cut) and they have to keep the ball rollin' so to speak (and you are the ball). What I didn't like about Prime was the deal on the trucks, so I bought my own. I run their freight, with their trailers, and get 72%. Other flatbed places (Warren, Diamond, Sammons, etc) give you 65%; 75%with your trailer. Now if I bought my own flatbed trailer, I could get 75% to 85% of gross. But I have the expense of buying and maintaining the trailer, and not getting pre-loaded trailers. So, no one is giving away any money that I have found, you just have to do your research to find what you can handle.
One thing is for sure; the companies are there to make money, not give it away.

 

I have to agree with you slick the company is here to make. the point I try to make to people who smart off about Prime getting 28% is that they have to make money off the freight and he trucks or al those lease operators wouldn't be making a dime with them because they wouldn't be in business.

I've been here since Satruday and met and talked to at least 50 drivers around 10 company drivers and 35 leasee's all these people are making money from $800-$2000 a week or more some weeks. I've ran into a couple that claim they have bad weeks, but you know what you can find a bad week in any business. What I did notice is some of them you can just tell talking to them they shouldn't be running a lease. It does take some business sense to be successful at running any type of lease or owner operator business.

So far I'm pleased.

 

slick. What are the trucks selling for in that ace II plan?

 

Are the lease trucks brand new or used at Prime ?