Prime's lease deal. The math gets done.

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I think training time should depend on the student that is being trained. Not the cookie cutter approach that is employed these days.

When I started I went to a 8 week school, did hardly any driving went to a company 4 days later and pu my first load running teams from CA to GA. No orientation, no lets wait till we get to the interstate and see what you got. Here is the keys and lets get er done. Solo'd out 3 weeks later.

To bad many company's don't see it like that. After 2 years with KLLM I bought my own trucks and ran Intrastate 4 over 5 years. When I came back OTR I had to go to another school for 4 weeks at a Vtec 2000 miles from home because the schools in my area charged a arm and a leg. Went out with a trainer for a week and Solo'd out.

Luckily in both cases training time was not set so I was able to solo out when I was ready, not when some manual said I was.. Some people learn faster then others. A friend of mine trained at May trucking and was in a truck solo 2 weeks out of school. Has not had any problems since.

 

This is not a job where you spend 3 weeks in a classroom at the terminal and drive around the parking lot for a month... If you can't handle driving YOU SHOULD NOT BE DRIVING.

It cracked me up all those years ago when I went through school seeing people that were "nervous about driving". Um get over it, your new job IS driving, not doing paperwork... Paperwork is just a part of your job, driving IS the job.

 

Wonder if they would get on an airliner thats pilot had 4 days actual flight time before going SOLO

 

He didn't go solo after 4 days... but if you CANNOT get into a truck and drive then no amount of time riding in the passenger seat is going to help you. This job is driving, make no mistake about it, if you can't jump in the drivers seat and do it, then how long do you think you should be able to sit in the passenger seat and collect a paycheck?

The only real way to learn how to drive is to actually do it, just like when you got your learners permit so you could drive a car, you have already been a passenger with your parents for 15 - 16 years, how much did it help you?

 

My recruiter didn't lie to me, was very up-front and helpful. Who was he/she/it? Gotta say that your experience is not typical of the feedback I get from most who go with Prime.

 

I started reading the first few pages of this thread, don't have time to read the rest for now. But I find it really amusing that the guy who started this thread forgot to mention how his trainee ratted him out for driving down steep grades # 85mph+, driving while watching a movie on a laptop on the steering wheel, etc. A lil more than just disconnecting a speaker. Not a personal attack, but let's put this in perspective.

Ok, back to Prime leasing. The lease deal is a ripoff. No duh. But some people can't see past that. I guess I'd ##### too if all I could see was a $900 truck payment per week. My gross to the truck was $8900 last week, and my check was $4k. I'll just say that not every load out there pays like crap, my dispatcher is good, I stay on top of maintenance and fuel mileage, etc. And being able to count one on hand the number of people who can outrun me, that helps too. Of course that was a stand out week for me, but I've had plenty of $3500+ settlements in the past. Ripoff lease and all. And at the end of the lease, I'll have a nice $15,000 to $20,000 completion bonus waiting on me too.

There are people at Prime who do very well, and can't be bothered to log on the internet to tell all. I'll just say this. There is a lot more to learn at Prime to be successful than what they tell you. And the information is not in their Friday meetings or posted online or shared in some smoky trucker's lounge.

I have some thoughts on O/O vs Lease-op and other things, but time to drive now. C ya.

 

Ok... everyone is entitled to an opinion, I'll get back to this shortly...

Ok... sounds like you're doing ok. You had a $4000.00 settlement check recently, and you're looking forward to a big completion bonus. Why then do you say the lease deal is a ripoff? I'd be interested in knowing...

Duh! No ######! I've been saying that for a long time. Anyone who thinks their going to sign a lease, hop in a truck and get rich quick has another thing or five coming!

Be Safe!

 

To make a long story short, basically all he is doing is pawning off ALL of the expenses on the driver so he doesn't have to pay it out of his own pocket and collect putting more in his pocket. When offered to buy at the end of the lease well, you just put 3 year's of miles on the #### thing by then isn't worth a #### and you end up paying twice what it was worth brand new. That's why I didn't lease but they were trying everything to get me to. Even as a company driver I was getting screwed that's why I left so now I'm gonna give Marten a shot and see if they are what I hear they are.

 

HE who?? You talking about the mouse in your pocket!!??

You're spouting truckstop BS out of your &&& here, and you know it. First, class A trucks are designed to have millions of miles put on them. Three years of miles at say 150k per year is only 450,000 miles. If you do a good job with the maintenance and don't tear it up, you're probably going to be able to run it another 3 years at least and perhaps more like 5 years before needing and in-frame. So how do you get a machine capable of a million miles at least to be a piece of #### in three years - you drive it like you run your mouth!

As far as paying twice what it's worth - maybe at some companies, but I have seen a financial analysis of their lease with buyout option, and its pretty close to a wash when you include all of the costs that buying a new Cascadia run you.

Unless of course you're such a bad driver that you run the beast into the ground in 3 years.

There are plenty of lease-ops doing well at Prime. Plenty of company drivers doing well too. If you can't make it as a company driver at Prime, it's because you're a really lousy driver. I've never felt any pressure from Prime to switch from company to lease... not even once has anyone even mentioned it to me since the discussion about it at orientation. The only changes in my status as solo driver that have been mentioned at all are that you can make more money teaming and training. Neither option has been pushed on me, and I don't see that my miles were affected by not opting for them either.

If by being "screwed" you mean that they got PO'd at you for late pickups and deliveries, then maybe its better you go somewhere else. If that's the case I'd be PO'd at you too, simply because in this environment we need to do everything we can to keep every shipper that we do business with us. That equates to money in your pocket. If you mean that you can't manage to hit the fuel economy targets - that just means you have a lead foot. And probably why you say that a 3-year-old truck is a piece of &&&& - because of the way you drive. But that's just my opinion.

So... you're going to go tear one of Marten's trucks up now? Good luck!

 

For one I was only late one time and that was because my alarm clock took a #### but was only an hour late. Did everything to the "T" even with their fuel milage BS when they asked. So you tell me. Now question is, and I say this from reading the ad in the "Pedagree Truck Sales" (Prime's lot) away from leasing for a moment, but are you going to pay $64k for a 3 year old truck that has 450k miles on it when you can get one in better shape, less miles and half the price? Now on leasing, so your going to pay those high ### truck payment's everyweek for something that's not even your's with a buy out option to make it your's and from what i hear the buy out is somewhere between $50-60k at the end of the lease. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Seem's like your paying double what it would cost new to them. And no, when I turned in the truck I had I returned it in better shape than it was in (except the motor) and no I didn't tear #### up so you should get your #### straight before and know the story before automatically assuming and blaming people for #### you know nothing about. No wonder a few of the guy's on the Prime site said you were an #######. At first I found you to be pretty cool people but you just showed your ### then.

Kinda funny but in the end we are all getting screwed in some small way by any company we work for. And by the way, I was refering to Robert Lowe.