company to lease

Here's a question for you, do you think the thousands of other lease drivers didnt do the same thing??

 

What kind of fuel mileage are you getting?

 

I went back to Prime last August and took another lease. Not knowing how much the company and business had changed in the five years I was gone, I took a short lease instead of a shiny new truck. The truck I ended up with turned out to be a lemon... very unusual for Prime. I lost a LOT of time in shops with APU issues (NEVER get a Rigmaster!), which caused me too often to run the truck all night to get A/C, and then heat as it got colder. They never did get it fixed right. The engine developed some kind of cough that occurred between 1100-1300 RPMs consistently, and especially when pulling up hills. They never could figure that out, but I lost a lot of shop time. If they do not find a problem, L/O pays for the shop time - since there is nothing to charge against the warranty. This cough and the APU issues meant my MPG sucked, down around 5.5 most of the time. Lost my butt in fuel and down time. November and December, lost about $3,000 - and had to get out. I also only was able to get home 1-2 days a month, probably because I spent so much time in shops and terminals AWAY from Omaha. So, if you are company now, STAY THAT WAY! My FM even asked if I would consider moving to company from the lease, but I was so bummed out by that time I just wanted done with the whole thing. My marriage had suffered horribly, we were behind on EVERY bill and had no Christmas presents (Thankfully, I know that holiday is about more than presents!). Stay company. Produce is good through the summer... but there are three other seasons!

 

So you got a bad truck, and couldn't get above 5.5 MPG, and yet somehow it's the fault of the lease?

I'm not saying you did anything wrong, but to blame it on the lease, and say only go company is a stretch. I know plenty of solo L/O's not having any problems making money right now.

 

load planner is the most important thing that makes or break the profit margin. not every week is good but the good one will carry over if you get a buget. The lease should hav a mileage preference clause to keep the right % of light loads to heavy loads as much as possible .

 

No Sazook. Not blaming the lease or the company. Just a sucker truck, and since the lease had another year on it, and we couldn't switch leases, we had to get out of that. And I was tired of never being home again, so we did not go company. There ARE L/Os making money - who have new trucks, that run well, and never go home. I have talked to some. And there are a lot who are making money and going home, etc. We just had a bad experience this time around. Will we try Prime again? I don't know. I have nothing really to complain about the company, and if that came across I apologize. My FM was great, and I felt badly costing him $100 when I left. But we lost a whole bunch of money, and that is not what I took the lease for.

 

They wouldn't let you turn in that lease truck and get another?! I know of a few (2 or 3) people who have done that after their truck was spending a lot of time in the shop.

 

I asked and they said I could not do it. Maybe it was just at that time... We would have loved to do that. I was told my only option was to maybe move to Company... and there are reasons I went for the lease, like being my own boss, more or less. I like the freedom there, etc. We might do it again someday when my wife can come on the truck with me and I don't need to get home to her. Now, though, with everyone on E-logs... I don't know. Although it is just a matter of time before we all are doing that. Our company has to match qualcomm now... so not a lot of difference. And our newer trucks have e-logs. So... who knows.

 

The e-logs aren't that bad once you get them figured out.