Prime Leasing questions. Who's can help?

Do you run under your own authority?

 

What was your experience like with Quality? How much down, what other fees involved, monthly payment etc.?

 

Here's what I'm thinking: yes I can gross more running under my own authority, but I can also take on a lot more responsibility and work. And I don't get a fuel surcharge. And without a nice fat Rolodex, (millenials Google it) I'd be setting myself up to fail. To me, leasing is a short-term arrangement to dip my toe in the water and see if I want to take on more. Definitely not a way to buy a truck long-term. (I did the math, assuming a brand new truck costs $150,000. The five-year lease with prime, at the end of which I would own my truck, costs $95,000 more than buying the truck out right with proper financing. With a little delayed gratification and some hard work at getting my cash and credit in order, I could buy two or three more trucks with that money!) Leasing with a walkaway lease at Prime gives me the opportunity to run a truck in a low risk scenario before buying one. And if I get good at running a truck under somebody else's authority, I may venture out into my own authority and make even more money. Eventually I do want to buy my own truck. I'm thinking I'll probably go through Lone Mountain. I was also looking heavily into joining Crete, and they don't lease at all. They sell you a truck straight up--a lot like lone mountain or quality. Point is…leasing is an educational opportunity. I'm hoping to make more than I would as a company driver along the way and save up for a down payment sooner. I plan to buy one truck, pay it off, then save up and pay cash for the next one. But I definitely don't want to risk any of my own cash or credit if I don't know I know what I'm doing running a truck.

 

$7000 divided by 2700 miles equals $2.59 per mile. Just checked the great wide website. Looks like they pay 75% of linehaul plus a fuel surcharge. Sounds very similar to what Prime offers. Market conditions should dictate that prime and great wide get the same contract rates with shippers, so if you are grossing $7000, which is on the high-end of what I have heard, it sounds like it probably comes down to fuel surcharge and/or your ability to run your truck versus what the next guy can do with his.

I guess what I'm asking is: what is the difference between what you're doing and what somebody leasing at prime is doing to yield that much higher gross?

 

So you get a higher percentage, which gives you a higher gross. But you say the company doesn't deduct anything? How do you operate your truck? You still have expenses, don't you? I'm not trying to criticize… Trying to learn here. You say gross doesn't matter that much, but I think both gross and expenses matter. Buy low and sell high. If you can do both at the same time, you'll make money. That's the theory. $7000 still sounds high to me… Meaning even if you and someone leasing through Prime have the exact same operating costs this week, you would make more money than the other guy would because you have a higher gross. What are you doing to get your gross that high? You say you get 85% of the load. That's 13% more than Prime pays...a significant difference, but from what I've heard, your gross is more than 13% higher than what prime is paying. Do the loads you carry just pay that much more? Is it some kind of specialized freight?