(New) Prime Inc. Springfield Mo.

Im due for orientation the 28th of this month... I hope that Prime turns out to be the place for me...... I was considering the lease program but after reading some of the threads im honestly quite confused.... I hope im not the only one..........

 

I wouldn't do the lease right now if I were you. You will do ok as a company driver they get preplanned alot more than the lease guys. Once the economy gets better you can always switch to lease then. Trust me they will let you switch that way. Funny they won't let a lease guy switch to company very easily.

 

Hey BigKid 2 Ive herd an equal amount of success and horry stories about leasing and honestly its extremely difficult to draw any real conclusions. Im a young guy just trying to make it like everyone else. I trained with swift graduated from the school.... Did the mentor program which I hated but finished and Im now running local with a different company delivering soda....(never get thirsty) I know my credit wont get me a truck even with a decent down payment and saw the lease program I guess as a real chance at eventually becoming and O/O

 

leasing a truck from prime does not make you a owner operator or even a owner .
a operator is someone who run their own authority, pulls their own trailer does not hand in their log book to anyone but the d.o.t and charges their own price to pull a load .
a owner is someone who holds title to their tractor.
the prime lease deal is not set up for the driver to own the truck at the end of the lease. when you reach the end of the lease you turn the truck back in.
listen to big kids advice and get yor feet wet as a company driver to test out the waters.
if prime had anything good to offer it"s drivers it would not need to adverise so much for drivers and except drivers with as little as 8 months experience to sign a lease.
when you go to other trucking company web sites like old dominion , yellow, wallmart,roadway, you will find the site is geared to the customer not the prespective driver looking for a job when you go to prime web site it is the other way around that should tell you something right there.

 

Somebody has to be willing to take new drivers on. If not, once the current pool of drivers dried up that would be it.

Will the new driver companies pay as well as the others? Not likely.

I love these boards. Full of information. They tell me company driver all the way. Never lease. And I've only been reading these boards for a week

If I want to be an O/O I need to learn the business, scrimp my pennies and Buy my own rig. Sounds like reasonable, basic business planning to me.

Now I just need Prime to hire me so I can start my apprenticeship and get going.

 

Taking on a lease requires you to run it like a business and efficiently. I started as a company driver, with the plan to start leasing in the Spring (after the typical winter slowdown)

Well, this next year could be anything but typical. I have yet to be mis-lead by my Fleet Manager and he has expressed that others on my board that are dismayed at the lower miles we are running. have been asking whether its a good time to go lease... he told them they really need to think long and hard about the uncertainty of things right now. Its alot more freedom, and alot more responsibility.

I have 3 friends who are leasing... all of which I met and spent my first week with as a Student. I talk to them on the phone and are not other Prime drivers Ive met over the internet. Two were doing real well, and now doing "alright" with the slow down...they are getting home less cause they have to stay out longer to make what they normally make. the other has and is struggling a bit, he had a slow week the week before going home, took a little too much time at home and had a slow week after coming back out thinking he would have a good week... He's in the hole and is digging his way out.

For me 2009 started off with a bang and gone down from there. 3k, then almost 2k (miles)... and it I will be 36 hours into this week before I pick up my first load for a total of 54 hours since my last load dropped. So about 800 miles total to show for Tues am to Fri am. Im going to hold judgement for another week on whether this month is classified as crap.

I wouldnt mind the waiting if I knew how long it would be, but its trucking.

 

I think overall economy is going to be bad this year.

Housing has a long way to go before recovery.

Industries across the board will be tightening belts.

I think if we're lucky the economy will begin recovery in the 2nd quarter of 2010.

Most likely will be 2011.

 

Hi, I was wondering ifd prime offer the lease programs with team drivers.

 

Sure, they will gladly take your money...

 

Just a thought. If you went to work at say a Burger King, would you lease the grill off of them? I'm not trying to be a smartazz, but 99% of these company leases aren't for your benefit.It's basically just a slick way for the company to push off all of the overhead costs and headaches involved in owning a truck onto unsuspecting people, (who then have to run like banshees and stay out for months at a pop just to break even,all the while making said company even more money.) Just my opinion,and if you do decide to do it, I wish you nothing but the best....