Leasing at Prime

1. Yes

2. ? Not sure. Should be in the lease details. For what it's worth, redoctober83 just left us & is taking his leased truck to another carrier. The devil is in the details, examine them well!

3. Yes & you can get copy of lease before signing. In your best interest to do so & be intimately familiar with every detail.

4. & 5. ? Not sure for flatbed

6. Yes

7. Yes

That said, I would highly, highly discourage you from going directly to lease after training, coming into this industry with absolutely no experience. Training period alone will not give you the prerequisite knowledge & experience of driving itself, freight lanes, operating truck efficiently, your costs & expenses, maintenance requirements & issues, regulations, etc, etc.....

In short, there is a heck of a lot more involved in the actual operation of a business in this industry, with elements that are totally unique compared to any other business. Whole 'nother ball game. It is way, way more involved than just driving the truck. No way around old fashion experience to head off a sure disaster/failure.

I believe in stacking the deck in my favor well in advance, rather than taking the luck of the draw card, hoping it will all work out. Most of us would recommend at least a year on the company side to gain all this experience on someone elses dime & equipment, while maintaining a steady, predictable paycheck. You can learn to run the truck as if it was your own ON PAPER, and see how you do well in advance of taking the leap. Even after a year, you will still have so much more to learn, but you will at least have a bit more solid ground to stand on.

We tell everbody new this, yet it is still prob the #1 reason why more than 90% (or higher) of the guys that leap to lease right away wind up failing. Not trying to discourage you in any way, just trying to lay out the facts of life out here. It just gets so old seeing all the failures that would probably have been successful had they gone about it in a sensible manner, rather than rush things.

Like how you have forethought & a gameplan. Shows you have been doing your research and seem to be trying to carefully plan this out. Wonderfull trait that will do you well if you decide to get in this business.

I wish you the absolute best in whatever decisions you may make.

PEACE



Edit: Love the handle! Completely fits what I speak of above.

 

Maybe some of your Prime people can answer this...
I'm looking at several Prime trucks to buy. They are all 2012 Cascadias with around 400 kmi. One thing I'm concerned about is what seems like a low dyno readings. Trucks are rated at 455 hp. One is showing 336, another one 350 hp output. I was told by Detroit service advisor that output should be at least 80% from the engine hp. These 2 trucks are at 74% and 77%. Does Prime tune down the hp that can result in lower readings?
Trucks are clean, have APU's and Super Singles which is what I'm looking for. I can also read a complete service history, and there is some warranty left for another 8-9 months.
Does anybody know how long these super singles should last if properly inflated? It seems like they use Michelins but install new Continentals before selling.

 

Personally, If the APU's are Rigmasters I would have them pull them and not take them, they pretty much are a POC, I had nothing but trouble from them.
As far as tuning them down, pretty sure they do in order to keep the fuel milage up.

 

These 2 both have TK's. I've read some complains about Rigmasters and wouldn't want one on my truck.
I can't find any record of tuning down. And if they were tuned down, they should be re-tuned before they sold them.

 

I thought they removed the APU's when they were turned in. If you can go for the TK, it's more reliable IMO and less choking exhaust fumes.

 

All of the Prime trucks I see for sale at Pedigree and Kordell have either A TK or a Rigmaster. I read some service records and it says APU was removed then installed. Maybe they swap them.
Yes I want a TK for reliability and it's more quiet.

 

Do they have any lease driver on any dedicated account? Like walmart or so ? If so how the pay?

 

King, I do know for a fact that there are at least 6 Lease/Ops currently on the Walmart dedicated account out of Olney. I haven't had the chance to talk to any of them. I've been told that they usually pick the dedicated accounts for the consistency of work and because they live close to the terminal, which means for increased hometime. Since they're staying on this account, I assume that they're making enough to pay the bills every week, but I can't imagine you'd be getting rich with this account.

I have been debating trying the lease program out myself, but I'm a company driver on the Walmart account, and I don't want to have to go OTR to make a lease work.

 

Funny how that works with all business's grumpy. Take for example, when I got out of trucking somehow I made my way over to 1099 contracting for Cable, Internet, and Phone. In all of those years I have seen just as many come and go as I did in trucking. The main issue they had over here was the same as in trucking, they did not have any business sense, and no, just as in trucking, Management did not, and still does not "hold their little hands". Yes, I have seen my share of "idiots" at both Cable work, and in Trucking, that just could not make a living at either.

 

Ohk. I don't have to go over the road unless I want that's why I'm going with schneider choice. Where you don't have to run far unless you want to..