New to Prime INC - What to expect (Springfield edition)

Great reply on your actual experience on the job & with Prime.

Have to correct one thing, though.

They actually DO DO criminal background checks. I know from first hand experience. Pretty darn complete in my case. Actually shocked me with detail of something minor I never thought about. So......they definately do do background.

 

FMJ,

They must have changed that since I went through orientation. I had something pretty ugly at the time that's since been expunged. It wasn't anything violent or drug related but it was bad enough (and felonious) that I lied and claimed no criminal history. A good friend of mine was there at the same time. He had an ugly incident on his background as well. Neither of us were called out and we both lied. The thought was that if they did check I'd be out anyway. If they didn't I would be stupid to offer it up. As I said it's been expunged since then but they certainly didn't check. I was pretty confident they weren't checking once I received the invite/offer and the bus ticket. I'm pretty sure they check something like that before spending the money to get you there. That is, if they were checking. I've also thought maybe they were very short on drivers at the time and not thoroughly checking experienced drivers. Of course they checked driving references, DAC and MVR but they sure didn't check criminal.

 

Hear ya there. Things must have changed. Just want those considering coming to know.

I can vouch that even expunged cases show up. Hell, I even got questioned & had to fill out report on a dogs at large issue from several years ago I didn't list. Go figure.......never even crossed my mind till asked. Had completely forgotten.

Again, good relation of what it takes out here.

Peace

 

Dogs at large. Who woulda thunk it? I'm guessing they knew this before they bought your ticket on the dog. They may pull criminal now but they're definitely doing it before they bring you to MO. They wouldn't spend the money getting you there and THEN pull it and send you home. That would make no sense. But it looks like they're pulling it now. Thanks for the input, FMJ.

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I wanted to also throw my two cents in on the lease op program. There are entire threads devoted to Prime supposedly screwing lease ops. This is not true at all. First, if you're a rookie, you need a couple of years as a company driver before you start thinking about a lease. You need that OTR experience before you add the stress of taking on Prime as a business partner. The lease drivers who say Prime screwed them are either lazy or they went in with the wrong idea of what the lease program is all about. I have a friend who did both. I'll get to that but you need to have the right attitude about the lease deal.

The L/O is not a deal where you will own your own truck at the end of the lease. That would be a lease purchase and I haven't seen a company really doing that since Werner stopped giving away Petes in the late 90's. My lazy friend got bent about the L/O program and said "you're paying for their truck for them. Then when the lease is up, you get a new truck and start paying for that and they sell the truck YOU paid for and they keep the money." This clown (yes, he's my friend) came to Prime basically thinking they would buy him a 379 and finance it for him. That's not how it works. My attitude is this: Prime lets you use a new truck, which you make the payments on. You get owner operator percentage of all freight and they even help you with the financials, fuel card, they finance your equipment with no finance charge (for flatbed, that's a few thousand bucks) and they arrange all your freight and you run under Prime's authority. When you finish the lease, you get to dump the worn out truck and get a new one. You can even order the new one in your color and depending on who Prime has contracts with, you may get to pick which make. If you look at it like this and are willing to work, you can make some money but you have to run it as a business. And you MUST take care of your truck or it won't take care of you.

I also hear about guys yapping that they made money in the L/O program but if they even took off a few days they went broke because the lease payment doesn't take off work. You have to plan for this. If you had weekly car payments and you didn't have a paycheck one week, you may be in trouble. It's the same deal. Prime will work with you and withhold money for you to cover payments during off time. I have $300/week held back so I can take a week off every 4 or 5 weeks and that money is there to take care of my payments on my off week. I work my butt off the weeks I'm running. I take care of my truck, service it when it's due, pre-trip every day and I'm thankful for the tire monitor system. One blow out will cost you $500 on the road, minimum. With the $300 coming out each week, I still clear between $1400 and $2000 each week. Sometimes I have a carry over or a blowout week and clear $2200 to $2500. BUT, I've been pulling flatbeds for a long time. I know how to secure a load and get rolling in a hurry. I know how to make my logs work to my advantage. With paper logs it was gravy. With e-logs you have to work around them. I know how to get in and out of shippers and receivers quickly and it's different with flat freight than it is with vans/reefers. I'm meticulous with my numbers, I keep a spreadsheet updated on every penny I spend on fuel and every penny of gross I earn. I have no surprises when my settlements hits the bank. I know what it is before it hits.

There is money to be made as L/O but you need some experience and a good work ethic and you need to be creative. Back to my idiot friend that thinks Prime screwed him. This guy admitted to me that his FM told him he had the absolute worst fuel mileage in the fleet. He was getting 4.2 mpg while I get 7.2. I run wide open (62 on the pedal, 65 on cruise) but I know how and when to throttle. Throttle position is directly related to fuel consumption. More on that later if anyone is interested. So this guy was sometimes burning $3K a week in fuel. You can't make a living like that, even with the fuel surcharge. His FM tried everything to help him. He eventually decided his FM was screwing him and he requested another FM. You can do this if you're a L/O. His new FM put him on super short runs, around 250 miles each. If you're good at load securement this is gravy for a flatbed L/O because your fuel costs are nil. She (his FM) was pushing 5 to 7 of these short runs on him per week. He just didn't get it. If you load this morning and your appt is for tomorrow and your run is 250 miles, you still deliver it today. You call ahead and change your appt. With flatbedding you can move appts easier, the receiver generally wants it now anyway. Then you can unload and probably be loaded again and rolling before your 14 runs out today. My buddy didn't get that. He would deliver it tomorrow at the appt time and he'd hang out at truck stops for hours because he thought he had plenty of time. That attitude broke him. Prime eventually routed him through SprMO and fired him, which is rare for a L/O but he was going further and further in the hole, which doesn't help anyone. To this day, he thinks I get special treatment which is BS. I work hard and I work smart. That's the difference. I have another friend who leased right out of training and he made it work. He does well. He called me 10 times a day for the first 6 months and I helped him along but he wanted to learn and he worked hard.

I apologize to anyone who thinks this belongs on another thread. I felt rookies were reading this thread and it may be helpful.

 

They've been pulling criminal histories for some time now. If anyone reads this who thinks they will get away with something... don't bother. Not disclosing an incident will get you sent home at your own cost.

We have a thread that deals with L/O issues only...

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/prime/182163-leasing-at-prime.html

We like to keep this one to answer questions for folks who have never driven a CMV before. However, I agree, and always suggest 2 to 3 years on the company side is necessary to gain the skills to successfully complete a lease.

Agreed... up to and including doing your own books so that you understand your numbers and where your business is going. However, you can purchase a truck... either the one you're presently leasing, or a new one that will be yours under an ACE-II lease. It requires a $13,000 down payment... discounted by $1,000 for each full year of service at Prime.

...its the same on the reefer side. I try to work time off over a weekend so it doesn't hit my revenue so hard. That being said, having a few thousand available for contingencies (outside of your emergency fund) covers most things when you do take some time off.

On the reefer side we're tied to our appointments to a great extent, and if the time to run slower is there it's always best to slow down. A week under 8 mpg after the winter is over is a lost opportunity to slide a bunch of cash across the bottom line. Of course we have they aerodynamics to make that happen... not so much on the flat side.

NO KIDDIN'! That'll get you on a steady diet of bankruptcy noodles (ramyen)!

Same on the reefer side...

Robert does have limits to how much of his money he'll allow you to play with. You don't want to be on the "in the hole" list for any lenght of time.

No one does... the action in load planning happens way too fast for them to sit down and decide who gets favored and who gets screwed. It's simply you hit the top of the empty queue, and you're the next in line to get a load. Reject it (something company guys can't do,) and you're at the bottom again.

The lease failure rate is about 4 out of 5, most of them occurring in the first year. To any newbs reading this, the deck is stacked against you- especially leasing right out of TnT. It's a really bad idea. Do a turn on the company-side for a couple of years, and figure out how this trucking thing works before you tie a truck lease around your neck and jump in the deep end.

There's money to be made on the lease side, and generally rookies aren't the ones getting it...

 

Great post, Mutant. It's nice to hear the reefer point of view. I know you guys are tied to your appts. That would drive me nuts. I pretty much make my living off delivering very early and getting another load. You're right on the buy option. I've never delved in to it because the security of lower maintenance costs and less downtime works well for me.

8 mpg is outstanding. I can get it and I've done it but it works best for me financially to get the delivery done as early as possible and I sacrifice some mpg to do that. It works with the flat freight generally having very loose appt times. I have a friend on your side and mpg is everything to him. He cruises at 58 mph because he can't change his appt times anyway. Another thing on the flat bed side is that I think it's easier to be on a regular schedule, which is why I start at 5:AM each day. 90% of my receivers don't unload past 4 or 5M and the appt time is really just a suggestion. If I have a 3M appt, I usually don't even call ahead if I plan to arrive 6 hours early. They're glad to have the freight and get the unload out of the way. So I end up double dipping loads, so to speak. I'm a day driver, early in and early out. I know you guys get plenty of 2:AM appts. That's tough. You're definitely earning your pay.

On another note for the new guys, the shock for me when I first started driving was the sheer boredom. Being away from home is one thing, but sitting in that seat for hours and hours of open road can get to you. Some guys can't handle that. I run a big Cobra trucker GPS so I don't stress about where I am and where I'm suppose to be and when. But you have to find a way to entertain yourself once you're rolling. I enjoy the exercise of securing and tarping but once I'm rolling it gets boring quick. Thank goodness for Sirius XM because I have had many many days of 10.5 hours of seat time without a single break. But hey, that's what we do.

 

I heard they make you do the duckwalk at your medical, what does that entail as ive never had to do one

 

Anybody else on here starting PSD on the 31st? Im beginning to get butterflies, not looking forward to the overnight stay in Joplin bus terminal (or shack is more like it)

 

Squat down on the balls of your feet, and take a few steps.

 

I can do that but not for very many steps my belly gets in the way..