Leasing at Prime

I'd probably say you'd have better luck with a Cascadia, however there are other considerations. First, anyone can run the fuel economy of one of these trucks into the ground. As much as 30% of a given truck's fuel economy is dependent on driver technique. You wanna be a hot truck driver in a 680? Good luck... it'll hit you in the bank account real quick.

Any driver contemplating a first lease at Prime would be well advised to ask for the truck with the lowest weekly payment. You need all the help you can get in the first year. That means you're looking at a Cascadia. $300 to $500 extra in fixed payments every week just so you can stroke your ego with that name... Peterbilt or Kenworth... is a good way to make sure you are really struggling to stay out of the hole. Another thing is the reliability of the truck, and there are two components to this. First is that Paccar products tend to spend a lot more time in the garage... at least from what we are observing. That doesn't mean there aren't very reliable Pete's and KWs, and Freightliners that are real pigs. There are very profitable load boards at Prime where the fleet manager will not accept you if you are driving a Pete or a KW. The second part of this is that Paccar does not always honor their warranties. That means you may end up paying for things that you wouldn't with a Freightliner. While Prime will pay you dealer downtime pay after the first 24 hours your truck is in the shop, it doesn't make up for lost revenue. What you need is a truck that is on the road.

 

They just released some numbers that showed a week with 101 trucks over 9...

 

No... you're leasing an asset to generate revenue, which is a reasonable business proposition assuming the revenue projections and your costs are in line to generate enough profit to make it a reasonable deal. However, the value of the asset is spelled out in an addendum in the contract, depreciated by total mileage on the tractor per month. You can choose to buy the tractor at any point in the lease at the price set in the contract. In my case a 2009 Casacadia in the 164th month of the contract was quite a bit more valuable than market for that make and model year because of the decreased production numbers due to the recent economic unpleasantness.