Prime's lease deal. The math gets done.

Well, yeah, but the other side is easy to get. Just call Prime and ask for a recruiter.

 

No the other side is cost to be an o/o. The op presented the math for the lease and contrasted it to buying a truck for less than 100k.

Is that all the cost to be an o/o? plop down 80-90k and there are no other costs?

If your going to post a thread to show what a ripoff a company is and title it "The Math Gets Done" I as a reader expect to see all of the math.

But here we are 11 pages and multiple requests later and still no math. So I must conclude this is thread fail on an epic proportion. lol

/thread

 

I think you have to piece it together with other threads on O/O overhead, and have sort of a basis of understanding coming into this thread. The most important things are the cents per mile and then use a straight out O/O spreadsheet, then subtract the cost of benefits derived from leasing on at Prime or whatever company. Comes in the form of insurance breaks, plates, maintenance and fuel discounts.

I've not found one "single" thread with all the answers, but you can piece it together with a bit of research.

Figure at LEAST $1.50/mile as O/O with own authority, and as close to $1.00 as possible when leasing on with your OWN truck, and then really you should know that you are working against yourself in any situation where they are selling you a new truck and restraining you to their freight.

 

You're missing my point.

If I say I'm going to do a magic trick and you come to watch. Then I only do half of it and walk off. Are you going to be satisfied in the knowledge you can go somewhere else and see the rest of the trick? I think not.

The OP wanted to show what a ripoff Prime is. (maybe they are, I'm not saying they aren't) He prefaced it with the Title "The Math Gets Done". Then doesn't do the math. LOL

 

I can state some of my number if you want. I purchased my truck through my bank brand new, buy my own plates, and I am leased to Schneiders choice program. So what numbers do you want. I can post so many numbers that it will make your head spin. Let me know how far into it you want to see.

 

How about starting with what your payment cost compared to a Prime's lease. How about the truth of you being and O/O with your truck leased to Schneider and IF you can broker your own loads or if you can only haul what Schneider says you can.

The impression left by some is that once you are an O/O you can what ever you want, and they never let on that once you BUY your truck with payments to a bank and lease it to company X, you have to haul what company X says to haul... or refuse loads and see how long you are hauling for them.

The truth is there are very few TRUE O/O's out there... the guy that has his own truck and trailer, his own authority, hunts his own loads and takes 100% of the responsibility of HIS COMPANY. No offense, but if you are leased TO Schneider, you are a L/O that is buying a truck instead of leasing it, running their authority and running their loads.

And to answer a few questions, Prime owns the lease company, Prime owns the dealership you get your truck from. When I was with Prime, they openly admitted both, now they bury it. Why do you think there is a Freightliner dealership in Springfield Missouri? Because it looks pretty on that side of the road?

 

Thread drift is one of the pleasures of forums. Great information and great fun at the same time.

 

No doubt! Y'all are lucky some of the other ladies of the forum aren't in here. We can seriously hijack a thread . . . chocolate, money, food, and shopping . . . it's gone! Often, that is done deliberately when things are getting to heated though.

 

What I want is the op to get the math done. Point being is I see people constantly bashing companies about their lease programs contrasting leasing against buying.

But when it comes to it they really have no idea what it costs to be an o/o. As shown by the op when the only contrast offered was " a truck I can buy for less than 100k". At least he could have thrown in some financing numbers and shown the cost of financing the truck if nothing else.

For example a 90k truck financed over 5 years at 8% will cost roughly 109k. See, that wasn't hard.

All he really demonstrated was it is stupid to buy a truck you have been leasing. Well duh. It's stupid to buy a car you haver been leasing as well. You pay much more when you buyout a car at the end of a lease than if you had financed it. You pay much more if you finance it than if you pay cash. Are these realities foreign to people in trucking?

Most people I have met believe they are capable of being business people. Most of those same people are not capable of being business people. I had to fire 15 such people last year.

If things don't work out the way people want it's the evil companies fault. When the reality here is the math was avaiable to everyone before they ever sign the lease. They just didn't know how to do it or they were so starry eyed they didn't pay attention. Usually it's a combination of both.

The other reality in business I have learned is your customers/employees always want to dictate how much profit you are supposed to make. If they see a $10 gross profit on something they think it should only be $5.They forget that the $10 isn't yours to keep. There is a term in business called overhead that everyone over looks. My gross revenues last year were $1.23 million. (Down 40% from the previous year). My net was $5,000. (Now you see why I'm a trucking student.)

I used to have the same conversations over and over again with potential sellers of houses about how I don't get 100% of the commissions charged. There are costs of doing business. It was like they believed my business ran for free.

This op was bold enough to say the math gets done. He was going to demonstrate that "Prime Sucks" by doing the math. So what I am asking for is what he promised to deliver in the title and the op. Not from anyone else but from the op. It's called holding him to task.

 

My truck is the one in my signature and my payments are high-$2226 a month (financed for 4 years though)
Plates with about 38 states on them-about $1700 a year
Insurance (bobtail/deadhead and occupational)- $2400 a year (pay $200 monthly)
Maintenance- I set back $0.10 a mile
Fuel- Averages 5.5-6mpg so you can figure it from there
Tolls-None, Schneider pays all tolls except Ohio and Florida
Cell Phone/Internet- about $250 a month (need internet for Schneider's Choice program)
AFLAC accident/disability insurance-$2311 a year (this includes ins. for the wife also. It will cover all expenses if I am disabled and unable to work...and I had to use last year-I highly suggest everyone get it).
IFTA-about $25 a month

All in all my 2008 expenses were in the $92,000 range. I can't give you a gross income amount or total miles cause I was injuried for 5 months last year and laid up at home. But usually my expenses run about 1.05 a mile (that includes a flatbed trailer payment, with out payment I'm right around .98). Hope this helps.

Also with Schneiders program I choose what I run, when, and where. They don't dispatch my truck, I pick it all off of their load board just like dealing with a broker-just no phone call. If the load doesn't pay enough, I just don't haul it. No fuss from Schneider at all. I'm pretty much as close to being true independent as you can get. This program is very similar to Landstar and a few others.