Leasing at Prime

Certainly not aggravated, but if you want a good answer you need to post it somewhere that the company guys will see it.

 

The Cascadias get about the best fuel economy that I've seen. Keep in mind that any driver with a lead foot can easily take a great 8 mpg truck and turn it into a 5 mpg truck.

The only time they get Kenworths is when the production lines at the other manufacturers are maxed out. Currently, there's a rumor going around that all acquisition of Paccar products will stop due to unresolved warranty issues. That being said, these trucks are much more expensive to lease than a Cascadia. The Pete's can be leased by a new lease operator, but I'm pretty sure that if you want a Kenworth, you'd have specifically order it - and that requires having at least one 3-year lease under your belt.

 

'09 Cascadia (no DEF,) DD15, 3.42 rears, 10-speed, Michelin XZA3+ steers, X-One XDA Energy wide single drives, Centramatics dynamic balancers all the way around.

Considering buying the beast to keep me out of the SCR technology.

 

Less EGR means more power for the fuel injected in the cylinder. Yup, they get great mileage - in the 8's. For my perspective, its another fluid to mess with, another system to break, and if I were to lease one of them next summer there would be yet a different set of "better" technologies in trucks three years down the line. I'm more interested in the overall health of the truck at the end of the lease... if it's a winner, I think I'll stick with it.

The standard first lease trucks right now are Cascadias and Pete 587's. Rumor has it that there is a kerfuffle between Prime and Paccar over the warranty, and we're suspending acquisition of more Pete's for the time being. We did get some Kenworths this spring, but I imagine that was just to fill the gap because of production problems with Freightliner and Peterbilt.

Lease ops can obtain their service and supplies wherever they like, as long as it meets the manufacturers spec's. Equipment like chains and load locks are available through the company shops; locks, thermometers, maps, etc., are available through the company store. Generally this stuff is priced at a discount over what you see at the truckstops. The lock set is priced at a hefty discount over the manufacturer's online price for example.