My experience in Prime's lease program so far.

Here's an idea:

BAIL OUT!

 

Well you can thank Prime for the low rate, they cut everyone's rates on the DelMonte loads out of the ports.... Lot of pissed off people.
They couldn't honor the contract and lost their butt on that one .... serves em right.
But good luck with your mission and MHC Kenworth has a program with 3/5k down you can buy a truck through them with warranty and a low credit score (510) a little more money down a better score puts you in a different program with a good rate.... Just an option to consider or not.

 

With the high weekly payment, the Prime Lease is a time bomb waiting to happen. If you get sick or have personal time off for 1 to two week, you will be negative thousands. Sooner or later, the truck will have issues and only Freightliner Dealership can work on it. The wait time to be seen may be many days. Many of the truck mechanical issues will be covered by warranty but dealerships put warranty work as their last priorities. Just because a truck is new, things could still go bad. And if you lease a used truck, the chance of mechanical issues will be much more. With $3k a week as expense, it will be very hard to get to the positive side.

 

Lots of drivers are plain dumb people, have no intelligence. So speak to everyone is like sucking all the garbage in. Prime is a Scam, period.
Trucking has big bicks, but need be smart and dont waste time. Complete lease complete lease i heard left and right, and you get a crappy bonus. I have one friend who in 4 years got 5 own trucks and trailers, now sitting at home in Orlando and drivers running his trucks, just an example. Honestly kind of annoyng all this Prime structure of scam they build over the years. Prime is brutal company, money making machine and driver is just a number and steering pilot for prime. You need feed so many people at Prime in offices as driver, that where your money is going, that why salary is low at prime. I am getting my own truck soon, and it is all possible because i quit Prime.

 

This is in response to @trucker28truck @johnnyman1099 @IrreverentCrawfish @Opus @MysticHZ @Scooter Jones
Everyone talks about how bad the lease is at prime but no one wants to talk about what's included with that true walk away lease.

1. It's a 100% walk away lease minus any damage and detail work need to release or sell. Sorry guys this is normal for every lease out there!
2. A warranty that is much more than your standard manufacturer warranty and a maintenance team that fights to make sure you get everything warranty covered.
3. A company that will cover 50% of any major repair over $500 that isn't covered by warranty.
4. A truck that is speced to be the most profitable possible. That means a very good mix between fuel economy and power. Most lease trucks out there are lucky if they get 7mpg, prime's trucks as an average do well over 8mpg or better. I'm grossed out with this load I'm on and got 8mpg climbing the mountains from Seattle to North Dakota (some of that has to do with how you drive the truck btw) with cruise set at 65-67 mph.
5. You can take your walk away lease truck to another carrier of you feel you can make more money elsewhere (I've done that with mine)
6. You have a truck that would cost you $150k or more for how prime sets them up if you went to the dealership and ordered the same thing.

With that last one, think about what most first time buyers would pay in interest on a typical 60 month loan for a new truck. Usually a first time buyer is going to see an interest rate of 10% or more. At the end of the walk away lease at prime you will have paid $159,796 (umm oddly enough, that's your typical purchase price of a new truck from a dealership before taxes, extended warranty, and upgrades). The buyout if you want to keep the truck is $72,500 making your total of that truck $232,296. Oh by the way, that price includes your physical damage and bobtail insurance which is roughly $18,720 for the 36 months you're leasing that truck making your true cost of that truck $213,576.

Now if you went to the dealership and financed the $156,000 truck at 10% for 5 years you would spend in total $198,872 (That total though is missing taxes, extended warranty and upgrades) which is means your paying prime an extra $14,704 to be able to walk away from that truck at any time. Oh wait, we forgot the lease completion bonus of $15,000-20,000 you get if you complete the lease.

Can someone please tell me how you are getting hosed on this deal where you can walk away from a truck with little to no financial obligation?

Now i didn't include the cost of the apu lease payment since you can have the apu removed when you lease the truck. But for those that think it's important, here is how the $70 a week payment works. You are leasing the apu for that 36 months which gives you the following benefits:

1. Everything except pm's, filters and belts are covered by prime.
2. You're protecting the tractor's engine and dpf system by not idling
3. You're saving about $300 a week in fuel by not idling.

For the 36 months you have that apu you'll pay $10,920, roughly the cost of a new apu. At the end of the 36 months you can purchase the apu for $2,500 making your total $13,420. Again the cost of a new apu installed out the door at most places.

All and all, this looks like a fair deal to me for a complete 100% no money down walk away lease. What am i missing here that is making me get hosed?

Oh, for the record, I'm not employed by prime. I run my own trucking company now with my own authority, but i did do a walk away lease and buy my truck out.

 

I don't fault anyone for wanting to pursue opportunities that will help to advance themselves. Advancing is not only quantitative, but it's also qualitative.

Sacrificing my life and time to a very high weekly obligation like you have described is not my cup of tea. I appreciate the fact some have reached their goal of paying off a truck, however, you have to be honest, the odds are against you.

Just remember, almost every gambler who walks into that casino believes that he can beat the house odds.

That said, more power to you all who are pursuing this route, it's your time and life, not mine