prime inquiries

Hey driver I too have heard all the rumors about Prime. Thats not what concerns me. Have you seen the payments they charge for their trucks. Its crazy man. I am not here to point you away from Prime. I too have to support my family as the sole bread winner. So let me tell you that there is a company called Lone Mountain Truck leaseing that I have been looking at to get my own truck. You can google the name they are in Iowa and georgia. Your truck your payment, credit dosent so much matter as much as if you can get leased on somewhere. Here is a company that will probably hire you because you live right there close to I40. R.E Garrison out of Cullman, Al. They also do lease purchase without those high payments like Prime. I have never worked at Garrison just know guys that do fairly well there. Just open up your search if its an "easy in" company, there has to be a reason.

 

tho my time spent there was a while back i think it is about the same today.back when i leased from them i was fresh out of school.the trainer i was with was making very good money around 1500 to 2200 a week after everything paid out.he did this training tho.when i got my truck it was around 1000 a week just for that + everything else.i ran as much as they would allow me to and my ck's would range take home from 300 to 1000 a week.

so all in all i said if i ever did that again"which i won't" or should i say any advice i could give on l/o would be if you wanna lease i'd say the only way to make good money would be either as a team driver or trainer.solo l/o is very hard to do.if you have a family and need to be home at anytime as a solo that means all those bills will stack up for that week your off.

there is no way i'd ever lease again as a solo driver it's sticking your neck out on the line way to far.im not even gunna go into how much money they rape you for with the lease...

btw just to show some numbers so you can see who is making out on the deal.my truck would generate around 4500 to 6k a week to the truck as a solo yet i never brought home over 1k most of the time it was below 700 a week. not to mention if something broke on the truck....

 

I'm doing fine as a solo lease operator. What do you want to know?

 

I'll chime in here, but don't want to be all negative. I have to agree with Josey. If you need that 1200-2200 paycheck every week teaming/training is the way to go. But then again I've spoken to teams that have been in the hole by thousands of dollars and haven't been home in months. I can't say that you can't make it as a solo with prime. I was solo with prime for 2 years and can count on one hand the number times I took home more than $1000. Typical checks for me were $100-$400 a week. Maybe ironpony can give you some tips on how to best pick your fleet manager. I couldn't help you there, mine sucked. As far as I am concerned its a crap shoot. You could get lucky and do very well, but on the other hand your FM could be a real dips#%t and you'll wind up broke.
Just my $.02

 

I take home more than $1000 practically every week. If I don't its because of the way my trips end vs the time the cuttoff for scanning is. That's solo. Its about how you run your business.

 

Must be nice. If I had it to do all over again.....

 

Freight has been good for us since the last half of '09, and the rates have come back nicely too this year.

If you had troubles after mid '08, its the economic nose dive that got ya, and most other folks as well. I know a lot of lease-ops who were on the edge just couldn't make it through that little disaster.

 

I have been leasing the last three weeks and I can confirm what ip is saying frieght is real good right now and I a averaging 1100.00 a week so far. my fm just keeps me rolling.