My experience in Prime's lease program so far.

Yeah I left CR England after my partner left they kept me at 21 cpm solo. Now I’m with a small company with about 10 trucks operating on own authority. Not to happy as almost a month in and not even a 34 reset, owner keeps messing with logs on carrier end. I bet I’ve been pushing close to 80 hours a week drive for past month or so and it’s been modified to under 65. Thinking of going to Summitt or CFI.

 

I don't have a month to month break down, but lease to date, Nov 15th I've done $114k to the truck. Of that I've made $36k. So I will easily do $60k my first year but most likely be in the mid $70k range. I don't think that's bad for my 1st year TBH, but some people will just hate because it's a lease.

Obviously if I had a regular truck payment more of that money would be in my pocket, but figuring I put no money down and pretty much just provide my labor I don't think it's bad for my 1st year.

With that said, I've been broken down since last Friday (a week now). I broke down Fri night, but had to wait until Sunday to get my load re-powered. Truck has fuel system issues, and probably wont be ready until Mon or Tues.

 

We get detention pay.. I've made $1,4k in detention lease to date. Company guys get paid like $12/hr (I think but might be off ) detention.. Lease gets 100% of whatever detention pays.

Also we get paid by the load, but deadhead/loaded are figured in at that pay.

 

Sorry to hear. Hopefully it won't put you way in the hole. So in this case, does the towing and cost to fix the truck get covered by the escrow fund? And was your truck a new truck or used?

 

Truck is new, 70 thousand miles. The tow was problematic because originally I drove the truck into the ####hole freightliner dealer in Laredo, TX and they wouldn't even check me in, saying there was up to a 7 day waiting period before they'd even look at my truck.

I figured sitting there for a week just for them to look at it then probably a 2nd week to fix it was no good. I decided to try to get the truck to a different dealer. I made it about 20 miles before it died on me. The problem with that is FL warranty will only cover a tow to the closest dealer which is the one I just left.

It's kinda ######## due to their wait time, but I had to agree to pay in order to get the truck towed to a different dealer. That was $1,200, but it was the better option to not sit 2 weeks at the other shop. Since then the truck has been in the shop since Tuesday but they didn't look at it until Wednesday, however now it's the weekend and the mechanic is off until Monday..

I didn't go in the hole last week because I had ran enough loads to cover everything. I'm getting breakdown pay now which will cover the truck cost, but I'm at a hotel so I dunno if Prime covers that for lease guys or not if it's a breakdown. I'm not 100% on that.

I can say I'm not real impressed with freightliners dealer network at this point..

 

Thats kinda scary that its that low in miles yet has this issue AND THEN having to wait a week for service of THEIR truck. I hope Peterbilt is better....

 

This type of event is a common component which contributes to most O/O/L/O failure.

Not only the costs of repairs, but the revenue lost in the interim. For the individual who is operating on a shoestring budget, it can produce a downward spiral that is almost impossible to dig out of.

I've seen it happen to guys, be careful.

 

Yeah, thats why I havent bought a truck yet. Something like this wouldnt put me out as lease, but had I bought a used truck and had no cash with no warranty that would be diffrent.

 

Actually, Ive talked to 2 lease guys at Prime who both had wiring issues on their Pete's and both were down for a week. Seems long waits at dealers is a universal problem.

 

Depends o

Depends on the dealer ... The only time I've ever been in an International dealer for more than 24 hours was waiting on parts over a weekend.