Prime Inc driver thread

ok been reading all these threads, and want to say thanks for guys like Iron Pony and Kingsson, just got the call a couple hours ago that I am hired at prime. I live in Las Vegas and will be going to SLC for orientation, going to go right to a lease, I have owned a truck in the past so I have some sense to get it going and be efficient and profitable. any current Prime contractors that can feed me some insight for things to look out for in the lease agreement? general things about the company, rates of freight you are getting and so on. I want to hit the ground running so to speak so any advice will be most appreciated. and so ya know I been truckin for 14 years, clean record and heading for 2 million miles so I get it haha. thanks guys!!!

 

Good luck with it!

I thought the lease was fairly straight forward. I didn't detect anything that would come under the heading of "weasel words" - as a fella I used to work for called 'em.

Its all about fuel and gross revenue... don't worry so much about per-mile rates.

 

Gotta question based solely on observation, what are these new pete's and freightliners I'm seeing with the tiny sleepers on them? They appear to be brand new, so my question is are these regional trucks, or is Prime running these OTR with the same 3-4 weeks out expectations? As I run through the day these are the kind of questions that come to mind so I figured what better place to ask then on this thread. BTW, I'm impressed with the fleet that Prime operates, pretty sharp looking trucks.

 

They are OTR lightweights. Same 3 - 4 weeks out. JCW just got his, 25k on the ticker, and a nice 1st full week shaping up.

 

They were originally bought as regional trucks for company solos. Morphed into all company solo guys would get one, and that has changed again (I guess) into something optional. I understand there is a 5-cpm bonus for fitting into one on the company side (can't say for sure these days... being I'm on the lease side.) I also know they don't have a problem leasing one either.

The deal is that one of the "lightweight" tractors along with the newer trailers have a significant advantage in pulling much heavier loads that a full-sized condo can't touch. It opens some load possibilities up... it also means that some of our competition is having trouble matching that.

 

Their the cute trucks!!! Lol flatbed doesn't use those lol

 

Laugh all you like. They've provided for a major expansion of the company's business... when just about every other carrier in the nation was downsizing.

 

I will laugh. They are helpful, but very small. They have their place in the fleet. Still laughing though lol

 

I will not laugh. I may chose one to lease! I looked at a new KW lightweight today. It doesn't look that small to me. Now that I weigh about 75 pounds less, I think I might fit. LOL But seriously, I think I might be able to live with the size. (Consider the TransStars people used to drive back in the day, they would have given anything for that much room.) I look at the fact that I might have more freight available to me with it, as well as the fact that the payment is supposed to be quite a bit less, it might be a good business decision. I expect that the leasing office will call me in on Tuesday. We shall see.

 

Just saw a new Prime truck the other day, a brand new Freightliner Cascadia, sharp looking truck for sure, pulling a clean well secured flatbed. The only no no I saw was they missed the truck route turn in ElDorado, KS and were driving straight through downtown, lucky no popo caught them. Tried to give them a heads up on the radio before it was too late but could not raise them.