L/O preferred truck?

Ya sure you were.

 

Dang. That must really suck being an average lease operator bringing in only $3855 in gross revenue and only keeping $1076. That's an operational ratio of 0.279... piss poor results.

If I were only mediocre, I'd want to be hanging with anyone doing better (especially those doing a lot better!) so I could find out what they were doing. Something about bringing home $2000 instead of $1000 is just so... appealing!

Of course, telling someone who is doing much better than you are that they're some kind of lying BS artist probably isn't going to convince them to part with any words of wisdom.

 

No worries I wouldnt ever do a fleece deal...

 

Ya i had a buddy who was a lease op on the flatbed side here at prime. Anytime i asked about how he was doing he would only speak in terms of weeks though he was not here a full year he would never speak terms of quarters, 1/2 year, project yearly income, or even just months even if i asked, he would just always speak in terms of weeks. He told me he made $2000/wk also. Then tax time came around and he found that he had made $28,000 in six months and would need to pay $3,000 in taxes so take home pay was $25,000 in six months or $960/week not the $2,000 a week he had previously thought he was making. While he's a respected friend of mine, what that tells me is that he didnt know his numbers. He didnt lie about his pay he just didnt know the numbers he really thought he was making 2k/wk until he sat down with the accountant at the end of the year and found out what he should have known all along. Ive been with prime awhile now ive spoken with alot of lease op's over the years and very very very im mean very rarely do i speak with one that knows what they make or any numbers involving their business, fuel mileage, maintenance, fixed costs, anything they just dont know. You can tell that they dont know by the way they answer questions. They often give answers that indicate they dont know like say i ask about the year what did you make last year they reply last week i cleared $1500. Or if i ask wow thats a sweet truck how does it do on fuel whats the lifetime fuel mileage they reply well last week i think i got 7.9mpg and the week before i think it was 8.2 or was it 7.5 i cant remember but lifetime i think its about 7.5 and im thinking for christ sake man its on the ecu you check it in ten seconds. My point is you can tell when youre talking to someone that doesnt know what they talking about by the answers they give and they always revert to giving numbers in terms of weeks man thats a tale tale sign. We call that marco(being the big picture or the year) and micro(being the week) in business and my experience those that only talk micro are those that arent doing as doing as well as they say. These are the guys that just like my friend while they arent lying they just dont know their numbers well enough to describe them to anyone else accurately. Im sure that in your time with prime that youve experienced plenty of folks that dont know their numbers well enough to be capable of describing them to anyone else accurately. Yet your trying to paint me as some guy who's just jealous and i dont know why but i cant help but think your just doing because you and i have been in a far share of arguments before. By the way Ip if your trying to say to that you were making 2k a week or $100,000/yr in your lease op days are you?Then why in the world are you still working on paying off that 2009 cascadia that you have a two year note on. What does that ole girl have on her now 700kmiles. Youve been out here 7yrs how long does it take to pay off a 700kmile old truck when youre makin 100k? Does it take a decade? How long?

 

Running a business open loop until an accountant tells you about things isn't running a business. He was just pretending... and hoping he was making more than he was.

Yep, if you listen to people they'll usually tell you what's going on. For instance, going to Larsen and having a discussion that involves him pulling numbers that are "average" usually tells you about where the individual talking to Larsen is at. BTW... ECMs are notoriously unreliable for providing accurate fuel economy figures.

Your words, not mine. I'd rather think that you're overlooking an opportunity to do better by blowing Reycer off.

I've posted my numbers before, and they were significantly better than $3855/$1076.

I believe you've answered your own question there. If you know anything about how things work at Prime, then you'll know that anyone buying a tractor from Pedigree would have significantly less than 700,000 on it. Right now I'm a bit over 591.000, and it's titled as a 2010. As to whether I'm paying it off now or a couple of months from now, that's a zero-sum game, isn't it? It's also a matter of whether you want to trade your cash reserves for increased cash flow. BTW... if all I could do is just what Larsen posits as "average," I'd have been long gone some time ago.

 

You should never go negative no mater what happens. I could blow a motor tomorrow and not have any trouble paying for it. You proved my point by saying you were only 1 paycheck away from going negative. If you make enough revenue, you should never run your business paycheck to paycheck.

No i havnt leased to prime. Im just daying 3rd paty finaincing is cheaper anf gives you more options. If you can make prome leasing work for you, then great. Im happy you are gonna get your truck. Im just saying, 3rd party leasing gives you more options and is a less risky business move. Taking a few days off for an emergancy should never put you in the red. Also, its clearly cheaper to lease or finanace outside of prime.

 

those numbers are half way decent, but primes now offering 0 down deals according to their website. The site also says 4 years. There is no disadvantage to going with a 3rd party though and you have more options if prime does decide to screw you. was your truck used? Those numbers just dont seem right for a new truck, unless it was the base striped down modle.

 

i think he is talking 2000 gross, not profit. Either way, you should never be one paycheck away from going neg. My trucks cost me over 200 a week for plates, insurance, workmans comp, etc. My truck payment is 1800ush a month. My other truck is paid off. I could sit on my butt for months and i still wouldn't go negitive on either truck. If you cant save enough to have a decent cashflow, you may want to wait to be come a lease operator. You cant tale all the money you make and spend it. Some needs to be invested back n your business. Some needs to be saved for a rainy day. If your not PROFITING (after all expences) double the amount you did as a company driver, your not in a good spot.

 

lone mountain is a 3rd party leasing company. You lease a truck through them, then run it under prime or any other company with prime's sticker on the door. Lone mountain is not a trucking company. they dont have freight, all they do is lease trucks. You can still work for prime, but instead of paying your payments to prime, you pay them to loan mountain. You have the same freght and options as someone who leases through prime, but you have more flexibility, options, and its cheaper.

You could still pull prime freght, but with out the conflict of interest.

 

That's not what he's saying... "going negative" on one settlement means for some reason means one just didn't have enough revenue to cover his fixed costs for that particular week. It doesn't mean one necessarily doesn't have cash reserves.

That depends on a lot of things... one's credit rating for instance. Arrow will take someone with less than sterling credit, and put them in quite a dumper of a tractor. As far as risk is concerned, there is far less risk with Prime than most other carriers simply because they're not running a used truck lot disguised as a motor carrier. If one is buying their tractor, you can move it from Prime.

"Zero down" would be for a straight lease. If you're buying a tractor from Prime, they require $13,000 down discounted by $1000 for every year of service driving for Prime. While those numbers may seem to indicate a "stripped down" tractor, its more indicative of the discount that Prime gets buying their equipment in quantity.