Leasing at Prime

Its a weekly statement of your business account... exactly the same sort of thing you'd get if you were managing a retail store. There's 4 sections... 1) Revenue, summarized by trip, and totalled, 2) Reimbursements, 3) Charges to your account and 4) Recapitulation... showing your escrow account status, revenue standing vs the minimum revenue guarantee and the settlement check calculation. Appended to that is the detail for any charges out of the ordinary, such as repairs, and an optional statistical breakdown by week, year and lease-to-date.

Its paid to the lease operator to defray the cost of fuel. You get 100% of the weekly surcharge rate per mile calculated from the fleet average fuel cost. Anything collected from the customer above the surcharge rate is split 72%/28% between you and the company. That's one of the things I don't appreciate about Prime these days.

The per diem program is for company drivers. As an independent contractor, you will take advantage of the per diem deduction on your tax return.

Yes, all of the above. All of the in-network fuel stops accept COMDATA, which is the easiest way to pay for fuel. If you go out-of-network, you're paying cash or by credit card. You have to get a PO number to have it included on your settlement.

The fuel card works like a credit card for fuel and additives, that's funded by Prime. Your costs are detailed on your weekly settlement. Yes its a good idea, because that's how you take advantage of the corporate fuel discounts that Prime negotiates with the truck stop chains. BTW... you can get a better deal on additives at Walmart or a farm store than at a truck stop.

There are also two debit card accounts tied to the same card... a personal account used to route a part of your settlement check to you that you can access via ATM usually a day before direct deposits are available. There is also a corporate side that you can write Comchecks against to pay for legitimate business expenses. Usually you use this for things the company will reimburse you for, like paying lumpers to unload your trailer.

As a new commercial driver, you are for all purposes uninsurable. If you could find an insurance carrier to cover you, the rates would be astronomical. As a new entrant owner-operator, I'm looking at around $20,000 per year. Prime's insurance a good deal, and its very cheap.

No, you can use anyone you like to provide maintenance. Most things will be under warranty from the truck and engine manufacturer. I recommend you use the engine manufacturer's shop for everything engine related. For general truck stuff, Primes shops are good, but quite often there can be a long wait especially at Springfield. I'll often go to Freightliner for general stuff to get it done in a timely manner. We also have national accounts through TA, Petro and Speedco.

The advantage of using these shops instead of Joe's Truck Repair is that you won't have to shell out thousands up front to get a repair done. Its electronically transmitted to Prime, and gets put on your settlement. As a lease operator, Rob Low takes it easy on y'all, and finances anything "large" at no interest, and $100 per week payments. Joe wants it all now unless he's your cousin.

You will want to use Prime's tire shop to take advantage of the corporate tire discounts.

I'll get back to you on that... time fer bed!