stay away from prime inc

I will grant you, we have only been with Prime for just under a year, but our experience has been quite positive. DH is a company driver, not a lease, and i know that will make a difference, but we knew we were not ready for the ups and downs of leasing. We average a take home of $3000 to $3500 a month on a bad month. The equipment has always been in great condition, and the FM is a great and personable guy. Yes, we have not had him home for all holidays, yes, the weather has not always made it easy to get the load there, but the FM has always told him to not take unnecessary chances. Hubby's FM has made sure that when we told him there was a need for extra miles he did his darn'dest to get them to him.
Sorry to hear your experiences were so bad. What specifically happened to turn you so far against Prime?

 

Could you elaborate a little bit? I'm lost on your reasoning...

 

I see that alot they will come in say a company is so bad then nothing no reasons no facts just hello goodbye kinda makes me wonder who is really in the bad

 

How often does Prime let company drivers wash there trucks and trls? I swear ive never seen a dirty one inless the weather is bad in that area.

 

Sounds like our buddy did something wrong and wants to blame the company. I notice he didn't bother to elaborate at all about his own performance. I wish people would quit talking trash without saying what the whole situation was.

 

Just like when the owner of that Colorado based company told his side of the story in the other thread while busting the OP's balls, you never really heard from the OP again. I guess that there ARE two sides to a story after all.......most of the time anyway.

That is one company that takes pride on their appearance!

 

They can wash them twice a month away from the terminal (at the company expense), and any time you go through a terminal (and it is above freezing).

And yes, they all take a lot of pride in looking good!!

 

I did really well with Prime for about the first year, too. But considering that Prime pays its lease operators by percentage rather than by mile, I should think Ms. Toez probably doesn't know what she's commenting on. I hear Prime's company guys do really well. Haven't heard any company guys complain.

Lease, on the other hand...you're paying 72% of all routed tolls, 100% of unrouted tolls, you pay for reefer fuel and repairs on trailers if something happens while you have it...they tried to make me pay for 4 trailer tires when I was sent specifically to get that trailer and take it to the tire shop...for four tires that had been dragged across the shipper's yard.....lease operator pays for lumpers...the list is endless.

Pay to the lease operator is 72% of linehaul and fuel surcharge. It can be quite lucrative when you get a series of good paying loads that you don't have to sit around for two days waiting for. My experience was when I got a load I didn't have to wait on, it paid right around a dollar per mile. When I got a load that paid two bucks a mile, I had to deadhead at least half the loaded miles to get to it and then sit for at least a day while it was loaded. So: a 600-mile load paying $1,200. Deadhead 300 miles to go get it. Deadhead miles not paid makes it a 900 mile run for $1,200 or $1.33/mile. The customer wants the trailer ASAP, so haul ^#$ over to drop it, the product isn't ready. So, lose 24 hours waiting for it...and then pay the lumper $150 at the other end. Net result $1,050 for 900 miles and three days, out of which, you will buy roughly 150 gallons of tractor fuel, reefer fuel and pay tolls.

The lease operator has to make roughly $1,100 in fixed payments each week, which includes a nearly $800 lease payment...for the tractor alone. After the above load, minus $450 for fuel, lease operator is still $500 in the hole and only 4 days left in the week. Next load might be 92cpm, might be a repeat of the above. The lease operator never knows, has no hand in negotiating the rates he is stuck with and cannot choose his own load off the board. If he refuses the load, his truck number goes to the bottom of the list.

$2.00/mile loads are the exception rather than the rule. Fleet average is $1.40/mile...with all those expenses. It didn't fit my business model.

So, I negotiated with Swift and came back here.

 

I've had a postive experience on both the company and the lease side...

I don't know where you get that from. Many newbs don't understand how trucking company pay works in the first place (wheels must be turning) so they get the idea that it is supposed to be like a weekly paycheck from an hourly employer. Then get ragged-off when they find that trucking works differently.

Never had a problem being paid. Frequently my FM has gone out of the way to get me paid above and beyond the minimum - especially during downtime on the tractor, and local loads with no mileage left on them.

On the company side, you're given the choice of Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Years - they try to be fair and get everyone home for one of them. Loads are arranged, and one year I was deadheaded 250 miles to get me there. I've always been home on time during this period, and frequently, had loads arranged to be home on two of the three holidays.

"Captain of the Ship" policy. If you feel that conditions are too bad to be on the road, you can shut it down. I've never been pressured to drive in conditions I didn't want to - and my FMs have often said that if I reconsider my decision to go they'd support me.

Actually a "perfect clean driving record" does bring you respect - in these days of CSA from employers, and LEOs. Had a local say some postive things after he'd asked and checked me out this summer (had an unhappy trailer tire) - and he said some positive things about very clean record. So yeah, it does bring you respect.

As for pay, $1100 per month? Sounds a lot like the take-home for an inexperienced trainee. Don't know what the OP was expecting - I've brought home weekly settlement checks that large as a company driver and consistently as a lease operator.

The OP sounds like he isn't cut out to be a trucker IMO. If you want to southern fry yourself on a cook line for the rest of your life... YOU go for it. I'd rather not.