Leasing at Prime

3.25's will have you downshifting a lot sooner, than the sooner we're already downshifting at. Oi Vey!!

What happens if you blow a turbo in BFE, and have to spend two weeks in a hotel room while you're getting repaired? That hotel bill and your meals come out of your empty pocket. You'll have no cushion for the up's and down's that your settlement may take. The good news... if you can find a 3-month truck, you'll only starve for 12 weeks! That's the downside. BTW, do you have any idea of what you're looking at when you pop the hood of one of these things?

Upside: Sometimes the trucking god takes pity on the unprepared, and sprinkles a healthy portion of good-luck dust on them. You may luck out, and have lots of money packed away in 90 days. Nahhh! 3 to 1 against.

You're taking quite a gamble straight out of the gates. I really don't recommend anyone trying that - there's way too much to learn in order to be successful - its not just having the spare jack in the bank to keep you fed. OTOH, you don't have a mortgage, wife and kids to feed, so the only person you may hurt is yourself. I still really recommend running on the company side for at lease a year, and pack the cash away while picking up enough knowledge to make yourself successful.

Sometimes people do beat the odds. If you're going to try this, make sure you keep in touch with us so we can help you out.

 

What this is all about are ways to minimize the risk associated with starting a new business aka leasing a truck. If you want certainty, the comfort blanket of a paycheck, then one needs to be a company driver. If you want to roll the dice and gamble on your future, then its time to start a business.

There's a reason why many call this a "fleece deal" - because at many carriers that's what it is. The house has the deck stacked, and you don't stand a chance. Now in my opinion, you get a fair chance at Prime. But that doesn't eliminate the risk involved when you step up to this. Prime is a business, and the owner wants to turn a profit on his investment, and that's a darn good thing. Just because he offers you an opportunity, that doesn't mean this is a social welfare plan. It's not. You can crash and burn, and many do. Or... you can prevail, and succeed.

The idea is to manage the level of risk that you're exposed to. One way of managing the risk is to figure out the business. Yeah, you can team with a lease op - and figure out how the business works from the team side if that's your bag. Or you can prepare yourself by driving on the company side solo - because that is a completely different business from teaming. Stashing back the cash is another way of managing risk. Cash in the bank is how you survive a run of bad luck, lousy freight, etc. Spending some time running a class 8 CMV is another way of managing risk - the more you know about big trucks and diesel engines, the more likely you will be to survive the mechanical curve-balls that chance throws at you. This one comes through experience. Getting some business education is another way of managing risk - getting some proven strategies for how to operate a business can mean the difference between having dead presidents in your pocket, and being in the hole. So is real experience with the HOS rules, and how to take advantage of them. Hopping straight into a lease out of training in my opinion isn't a good plan, but you might do well just the same. It's harder though, and your luck better be all tuned up.

Far too many people let their greed become the driver for decisions - in all phases of life. Just because people can make good money doing this - better than what you might do on the company side, doesn't mean you will.

"Failing to prepare is preparing to fail." - John Gruden, NFL Head Coach

 

So here are a couple of thoughts...

First it's almost the first! The first of September starts the Colorado chain season which means we need to have enough chains on board to meet the state legal requirements for travel west of Denver on I70. CSP is serious about this, and I don't even want to be paying a ticket for no chains trying to go over Vail Pass. Personally, my opinion of the cables is that they are crap. If you're going to have to chain you really need to have real chains for your drives... leave the cables for the trailer. There's a good thread on this site for chaining by Otter...

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...ers-advice/158771-chaining-are-you-ready.html

You can get chains or cables at any of the terminals, and the Denver drop yard has them as well. It's a lot cheaper to get your chains at one of our places, than having to buy them on the road. Bungies are something else you need to have to tighten them up... by the time the new year rolls around, it's nearly impossible to find them in any of the cold-weather states.

Tire pressure. The cold weather affects tire pressure a lot... filling up your tires on a nice warm afternoon to your cold pressure setting beats being out in the cold doing it, but your not doing yourself any favors. Air pressure in your tires is proportional to temperature - in other words, when the temp goes down, your tire pressure goes down. Getting out in the morning when its butt-kicking cold is when you need to make sure your tires are at the right pressure. Under-inflated tires will affect your fuel economy bunches, and not in a good way. I don't think you want to be relying on the tire pressure monitoring devices for this either... they can fail. Blowouts occur from two major reasons as well... damage from road debris - watch out for thrown chains, and under-inflated tires.

It's getting down into the 50's at night in the northern part of the US, so make sure your bunk heater is working. You should run it for a bit once a month during the summer in any case. Also, when you get ready to roll after using the bunk heater turn it off with the controls in the sleeper, and allow it 5 minutes to go through its shut-down sequence. This will burn-out all of the residual fuel left in the burner, and keep it from building up a residue that smokes when you are running it. Cough, gag, choke!

The company guys don't have a choice in the next one, but for the lease operators consider getting a PM done before winter hits at an APU dealership's shop. Our guys are good enough for PMs and minor stuff, but they don't go into serious preventative maintenance on these units. Nothing like getting into some serious -10 degree weather and having your APU fail. The last time I took my TriPac into ThermoKing they found a pinched fuel line, the air cleaner was filthy, the leads up to the batteries had just about completely broken at the alternator terminal lugs -- all missed by our shop folks. If you're having trouble getting the belts tightened on a TriPac, there is an aluminum frame that holds the alternator in place that gets worn over time. You won't get our shop guys to replace it, but its $150 to get it replaced if you need it by TK, and that will end all of the belt chirping.

Anti-gel. You're going to need some, but not for awhile yet. This stuff cost $17.99 for a 64-oz bottle in the truckstops last winter. You can save yourself quite a bit by visiting a farm supply store. I've been getting mine - the same Howe's anti-gel, for as low as $10.95 a bottle. You're going to use a lot so grabbing up 10 or a dozen bottles isn't going to be overkill. The fuel lines back to the APU will get clogged with wax if you're not putting anti-gel into your tanks.

Getting your fuel filters changed more frequently as it gets cold is another good idea. The normal crud is going to get helped along by parafin in winter-blend fuels, so getting them changed between PMs isn't a bad idea. Take a look in your fuel tank, and see if you have any black crud in there. It could be asphaltine or bacteria - its better to get these problems taken care of while its still warm than finding out about it on a cold night.

 

Detention is set on a case by case basis in the contracts with the shipper/receiver, and it varies quite a bit - I've received as much as $200 or so from a single instance at times. Generally it kicks in after being delayed for two hours after your appointment time, but the driver must be at a minimum of on-time at the appointment. You need to have the arrival and depart times written on your bills - you can do this if the shipper or receiver won't. Whatever the company collects is passed on to you, and generally they are fairly successful at collecting from the customers. That being said, it is only passed on after being collected - it's not automatically on the next settlement.

Prime uses BCBS of Missouri, and it's available to lease operators. You get to pay for the entire thing however - there's no company contribution.