good and bad on leasing a truck

...... Without any experience

 

Somebody please explain to me why I cant read the numbers that Primes recruiting gives out for the lease,do the math and decide their lease is to expensive? What sense does it make to say that unless you have actually leased the truck you cant understand the lease? If I did lease one then decided it was too expensive and got out of it then you guys would just have a different line of arguement about me being lazy and a poor businessman. You dont have to experience getting shot to know it hurts like the dickens. Likewise I dont have to sign a lease to know its numbers are too high.

 

Isnt it funny how the "yeah but you didnt actually lease a truck so you cant know" line keeps getting parrotted?

 

Oh well

 

Sure Prime offers used trucks for lease - on a shortened term. The total lease period is three years less what the previous operator had it out for, so you can find tractors that have a year or two term, six months, etc. It provides a short period to run the truck, and at a reduced payment. Find a good truck, lower payments... what's not to like? The second tractor I ran here was a '07 Century lease return... previous owner needed to get off the road and take care of her kids. I had very few problems with that truck. So your implication that the only thing that Prime does is lease crapped-out used trucks is false. Like everything else that has wheels and moves - there are excellent vehicles, and ones that have problems.

Leasing a truck is operating a business. Approach it any other way - like assuming this is employment on steriods - is going to get you into trouble. One of the ways of mitigating risk (i.e., the truck you lease may have problems) is to have enough cash in the bank to cover your expenses while the problems are dealt with. Another way of mitigating that risk is to do as thorough an inspection as is possible - get as many problems solved up front as possible. There is a 60-day bumper-to-bumper warranty period on used trucks that covers everything you find a problem with. So its not like there is not some recourse. On the other hand, some trucks are just plain problem children... I'm sure Maverick has their share of these.

Fixed costs...

I'm fairly certain from the numbers you posted, your two-year-old truck is on a five year lease, yes? Ours are on three year leases. My fixed costs (dropped a bit Grumpy due to the age of the lease, and its a 2009 - not a 2012) are higher because I leased a new truck, and its on a three-year term. The interest payments are always higher on a shortened term. We're not comparing apples to apples here... but if we put the same truck on both a five-year and a three-year schedule you'd see two things: higher individual payments on the three-year term, but the total of the payments on the five-year term is much higher. So if all you're quibbling about is the dollars, yeah - your going to pay less out of your settlement on that two-year old truck. But there are some long-term advantages here as well. A two-year-old truck, leased for five-years will have many more miles on it at the time you pay that $1 for it than a three-year-old truck. At seven years, 150,000 miles per year - you're in the neighborhood of an in-frame at the end of the lease. That's something that a driver with a three-year-old paid for truck is not going to be considering for a long time.

So, if you don't like the lease at Prime - go somewhere else. I like the freight, and the people I work with. Most of our freight is food - and people have to eat - so during economic troubles temperature controlled freight runs better. My impression is that we were kept running better in '08 and '09 that many other carriers, including on the reefer side - and as history shows us, the next recession is on the way. Prime pays their lease operators a percentage of linehaul, fuel surcharge, etc., in other words I no longer chase miles. I can run at the pace I need to in order to meet my appointments - whether that is 55 or 65 mph, and reap the economic benefit of running slower without stressing over how many miles I got this week. There's also the benefit of reduced wear and tear on the truck itself, and less wear on the tires.

You mentioned something about the fuel bill - and "worrying about it" I believe. You're a lease operator and pay for your fuel, so its got some bearing for you too. What does a mile-per-gallon increase in fuel efficiency buy you? I get around 6.3 mpg running at 78,000 lbs (a reasonably typical load for us) and 65 mph - but can easily achieve 7.8 mpg running at 55. If you were to run 150,000 miles with a 1.5 mpg increase in fuel efficiency at $3.80 per gallon that's $17,000 per year in your pocket. What would you do with $17,000 Dan from Windsor? So yeah, a guy who watches how much fuel he's burning will definitely do better than someone else who is hammering down the highway as fast as he can go chasing miles.

There are a lot of benefits here for folks who know what they're doing, and have a plan for doing it. I'll submit, there are different benefits where you're running at as well. As we used to say, different strokes for different folks. I like where I'm at, and at the end of the day - I'm making money doing it.

 

I never said Prime leased ragged used trucks. I just said they leased used trucks also when it seemed you and a couple others were trying to insinuate they dont then went in to mention how I was leasing a used truck. My lease term is 4yrs. My truck had very low mileage and its been maintained well by me. Do I plan to purchase? Nope but if I did it would have not many more miles,if any at.all,compared to the trucks Prime sends back to Freightliner at the end of their lease. Prime has nice trucks,Ive never denegrated that. IP you are the exception to the rule at Prime when it comes to solo drivers. Ive never doubted you work hard and make money. Ive only stated that this lease costs more than most average drivers can do and make a living on. The thread asked about good and bad so I put my input out there. Its a fact a vast majority of solo operators fail at Primes lease. Some may be lazy but most Id venture decided they were doing better on the company side and quit. I looked at the numbers,saw that to make what I wanted Id have to have all the right loads all the time and thats a pipe dream. Like Ive said,Primes a good company,their lease is just expensive especially trying to go solo. Nothing more,nothing less. Just the facts.

 

Dont recall "worryin about" the fuel bill remark,but Im gettin old lol. I do get good mpg's though and yes it will definitely make or break you.

 

Might ask to borrow IPs cane... its real nice.

 

Hey ip and dreamer. How many miles you getting running solo on average. I'm still debating company and lease. Everyone I run across is lease and haven't heard any complaints banking 1000-2000 depending on the week after all expenses which is enticing cus its not just one or two its been almost everyone I talk to at prime and dreamer I changed my mind on flatbed because as ip said people always have to eat and its hard to argue with that and that's primes bread n butter is reefer

 

Also trying to figure out the hot spots reefer wise for those 2 dollar plus per mile loads. My trainer loves Canada runs and when I go solo I will definitely be open for it