Prime Inc Power Only experience? Where to go?

Are you buying the truck thru Prime?

 

Go out and buy a truck then ask everyone where their honey holes are. Sound good to me. Good Luck.

 

I wasn't disagreeing.

 

Oh no I understood you wasn't. Sorry for the misunderstanding

 

Power only for a brokerage that is also a carrier usually doesn't do well. They know what it costs to operate a truck. It's hard to compete with their fuel efficiency, low insurance rates/self insured, and low driver pay. I tried it for the first 6 months, although not with Prime. Give it a shot, you can always stop pulling for them if it doesn't pan out. Once you look past short term revenue and focus on growth or the wear and tear you put on your truck, you'll probably find it less appealing.

 

I just got my own authority myself and doing one of these power only deals was on my radar. I think you'll find running your own numbers, even under a power only situation, is more expensive than you think. I don't have outrageous interest or high personal bills. Running for 1.40 is profitable if you run under someone's authority, running your own you need closer to 1.65 to make it and even then, the profit will be lean at maybe .20cpm. I fully expect running power only on all miles you might see 1.60 - 1.65. Assuming your mix freight will come close to the 2.00 mark plus fuel and minus their percentage and averaging 10-12 percent deadhead. I decided to go all in and even being new to it I'm doing much better than that. This month I'm at 2.25 a mile all miles and 10227 miles for the month. If you choose the path of lower profitability at least use it wisely. Use it to get your authority established and money in the bank then go fully independent. You'll make more the fewer hands are getting a piece of your pie.

 

I'm interested to know how it works out at prime, what kinda truck did you buy

 

Look, here's a couple pointers for a startup. First, it's not the truck that makes the money. It's the trailer.

Second, you'll never see above $1.35 a mile running power only as a rookie o/o. Hauling brand new trailers out of indiana and arkansas are your easiest and best paying options. Otherwise, you're going to get $100 for a load-out trailer. Then, you'll spend a lot of time trying to match a freight load to the same destination as the trailer. It's a lot of extra work. Plus, you never know the problems with someone else's trailer.

If you don't have a trailer, then lease on with a pure O/O company and save up for one.

Lastly, don't forget to factor into your business plan the additional cost for unowned trailerinsurance. Plus you'll be spending a lot of time sending out insurance certificates to every broker, shipper, receiver on the planet.

This is all lessons learned from my own experiences, so this isn't just an old ornery guy messing with you. I want you to succeed, but I don't think you know all the realities of power only rates. Just do more research before you jump.