Prime, Inc. - Springfield, Mo.

Leasing makes more money for the dealership, almost always. Remember, they are leasing a truck that is usually more expensive then what you would buy on the market. Then the lease payments are spread out longer so you dont have the option to sell on the market at the end, like a fiance arangement. Leasing is a win win situation for the company / dealership because they get the vehicle back if it doesnt work out and they can lease it to someone else. If you were to buy it with a loan, you have the money that you put into it as equity and have more legal leverage when cashing out. It is also harder for a company or dealership to try to sell your used truck, plus the truck does not go back to them but to the finance or bank company.

I would never lease. I bet you that I could do some research and find a company that would give me financing even if I had bad credit that would be a better deal than leasing.

 

Every responsible driver deserves a livable wage. I was on youtube watching truck and bus crashes and you could see the drivers on the cams being tired and making mistakes that would cost them their lives and the lives of others. As well as stupid people who would crash into them. You work you get paid. No tricks.

 

I'll call you out .. i OWN my truck and Stepdeck trl and make $1.60-$2.00per mile to the truck!!! hauled a load yesterday 88mi for $585 , was offered a load this AM from ATL to fresno 22k lbs no tarp for $4400 to the truck and turned it down ... so go play with your prime's and so forth you'll never know what real $$$ is like, they want to keep you as broke as possible to keep you working!!!!

 

I'll concede you can do 4000 solo... but not much more than that, even in a perfect world.

 

Actually, that's not the case. The recent posters to this thread really don't have a clue... the only $.85 to $1.00 per mile loads I've seen (except for the last quarter '08, 1st quarter '09) are out of places that have way too many trucks to support higher rates... mostly out of FL. While reefer loads haven't paid as much as they did a couple of years ago, its quite possible to make a good living leasing, however I'll be the first to agree that getting your fixed costs down by owning the truck will get you a lot more in your pocket than paying someone else to borrow their truck.

 

The numbers those folks were quoting were off of a team operation. Prime won't dispatch you that many miles solo.

 

well im back. prime was good at first..... showed me the money, was goin along good then i asked for extended home time(6 days. i stayed out 5 weeks). it was granted by dispatch. was there leasing one of their trucks. when i came back from time off i didnt see any positive rev. for 4 weeks. did the most sitting i ever done during 3 of the weeks. i felt used. like i was stuck in jail. had 2 friends i made during my 2 years w/ prime. they started when i did. they have turned their trks in as well. they couldnt get out of the big black void known as the HOLE!!!!!!

 

oh yeah i was there for a year and a half never late no tix or bad inspections nothin. always tried to please mi fleet mgr took loads that were boderline on being late. ran lots of hours/miles. and i treated this like a business. but when they dont give you the freight how can you run a business????? then this happened....... what a joke. sorry for all the negativity....................................

 

Dude your problem was with your fleet manager - not Prime per se. You did something to PO the guy. This can happen anywhere, and really points out why that relationship is so important. Either you have a good FM and a good relationship with him, or its going to be bad.

I do like that Prime makes the FMs pay based on your success. Either they get you the revenue, or they're limited to a rather small base salary. I think a very large portion of the reason that Prime is working for me is that relationship - it keeps me running, and in the red.

 

to a casual reader you should disclose that you're a company driver...

Prime is making that Company truck payment... miles have to be turned in that truck and you get paid your .35-38/mile no matter what the revenue is.

You cant make blanket statements that it must be his fleet manager....

We all pull from the same pool of freight? Ok, even as a company driver, we all sometimes see loads with too much time between pickup and delivery... Ok, on the lease side its not the miles but the revenue... but in this economy just how much better can that revenue be to satisfy someone to sit on a load for a whole day... (and for argument sake, its a Wal-mart load and you cant deliver early)

I highly doubt that this guy was singled out. More likely got into a cycle of bad freight (it happens on the company side two) and it just piled on being in the hole.

Here is a question....Is a FM performance based on a across the board average? or is it some combo that takes account for each truck on the boards performance?