Prime Trucks

I'll answer what I can to hold you over...

What are there lease trucks set at? 65mph

What is reefer freight looking like right now for teams? Prime is almost begging people to switch to teams right now. We've had to turn down produce freight in the west coast due to a lack of team operated trucks. This will obviously slow a bit after the produce season has ended, but teams seem to be running well. This is second hand info as I'm a solo driver.

What can a team expect for miles in a week if they run hard? Not sure, but as a solo driver I'm running as many miles as my hours can handle. My main problem right now is having to work in 34hr restarts and bumping my 70. Remember, we are on electronic logs. Your main problem will be available hours. Getting loads shouldn't be a problem. It has never been a problem for me in the 18 months I've been here.

 

when my buddy and i were there in january the truck was governed at 63.

 

My lease truck is governed at 65 cruise and 62 pedal. I asked them about it when I first got it and they told me that's how they are doing all new leases now. It's not so bad... after all, I am paying for the fuel. I drive 57 most of the time anyway... unless the load calls for a bit of a hurry up.

 

Trucking has changed quite a bit in the last few years...

65 mph is due to 3 primary reasons... first, the speed-limiter laws in Canada require that the ECM be set to a maximum of 107 km/hr (105??) - works out to 65. Second, insurance. But mostly, third, fuel costs.

There's a point (somewhere over $3 per gallon) where the cost of fuel overshadows personnel costs as the highest controllable expense a trucking company has. At 65 mph (flat out) you're going to really limit your profit as a lease op these days, nor will you remain employed as a company driver either. Company drivers must maintain a 6.75 mpg minumum average week over week with dips below that not to exceed a three week period. Don't worry it's not that hard to do - even as a company driver doing mid-fifties down the road, you'll still get a good paycheck.

Cascadias have a DD15, full size Petes have a Cummins ISX; both are 15-liter engines. We don't do KWs anymore. The lightweights have some sort of 13-liter POS in them... I know the Columbias are a Mercedes engine.

 

i got a question, my friend drives for prime as a lease driver..he recently told me that prime ordered like 200+ new pete 384's and freightliner columbias with the small sleepers (which i have seen going past there springfield terminal). he told me that they are putting company drivers in those trucks, an giving the cascadias and peterbilt 387's to lease drivers...is that true?

 

Not entirely. Originally, all company drivers were supposed to get the lightweight tractors - unless you were teaming or training. When I turned in my company truck in June, I was told by my FM that had changed. It was back to a choice of whatever was available - full-size condos, or lightweights.

That being said, as a company driver you get what is available. There is one advantage in the smaller tractors... they can pull the heavier loads that I can't do in my Cascadia. Big disadvantage is they haven't figured out what they're going to do for an APU on the company side in those trucks. You still have to toe the line on fuel economy, so in hot weather your idling is limited by how well you do otherwise.

L/O's can choose whatever they like - I'm in a brand new Cascadia. L/Os can choose a lightweight tractor, and put a TriPac on them if they like. They also have first crack at the available tractors coming out of orientation. There were a couple of '08 Centuries, one Pete and a couple of Cascadias that had been turned in; otherwise it was a new Cascadia on the day I signed my lease.