My experience in Prime's lease program so far.

I dont want those high weekly payments of a lease truck. My credit is good and I have down payment money, so buying a truck shouldnt be a issue.

My biggest thing is I want to take this winter off, I have another business I put on hold to go truck driving. I either want to jump back into full time or wrap it up. (I flipped stuff on ebay and Amazon)

Im kinda mixed as what I want to do.. I can do well on ebay/Amazon but I dont really have a place to operate from. (I need a small warehouse) When I ran that business before I was living in Boulder, Co so I had a very good region to source items (all of Denver) and now I have my inventory stashed in FL so I'd have to rent a place in FL but Im not certain I can get items I sell in FL like I did in Denver.

I dont really like FL but most of my family is there which makes it hard to go back to CO or elsewhere, which is why trucking kinda worked because I could stay gone most of the time... lol

On flip side I know I can make good money trucking and if I ran hardcore the next 5 years I could save of a sizeable amount then sort of early retire and sell cars or equipment on the side. So Im really not sure what I want to do, lots of options but none are exactly what I want... lol

I do know Im tired of traveling all over the place but never getting to go do or see anything. I hate being stuck with a truck all the time. I toyed with getting a sprinter van to do expediting because then I could work when I wanted and still go see and do stuff but insurance for that costs as much as for a big rig yet you make less money...

One of the other things I was looking at was buying something like a M2 business class with a sleeper and using it to hotshot. I was looking at Horizon hauling RV's with a flatbed trailer, but havent talked anyone or looked serious into that. I was thinking about them because I could use that as a bridge to get into it with my own numbers later. They claim to have back loads for the flat bed guys and you can pick your loads via their load board. I know of a M2 with a sleeper and a APU that has a rebuilt motor I can get for $10k so I was looking at that option as well and just do it sort of casually for a while.

 

Lease isnt a problem to me other than it being expensive. It served its purpose to get me where I wanted to be. With out the arm injury I would have been much better off, but thats with out saying.

I don't think Id ever be a company person.. Im not a long term employee type, which is why I dont like traditional jobs where seniority and time worked plays a big role in my income. I prefer incentive based pay because I like to work really hard for short periods of time then take a few months off at a time.

 

I don't live to work.. Prior to getting my CDL I traveled around the country for 4 years in a vw van... I took random temp work to make a living..

As stated at the start of this topic, I wanted to get my CDL so I went with a Mega to get it rather than pay some crappy CDL school $8 thousand to get it.. I then used the lease to get me where I wanted to be...

Barring nothing crazy happening between now and the 1st week of January I end up in the exact position I wanted to be in. The lease and me running hard fulfilled what I wanted it to do..

The only negative is due to the lost revenue from my 2 months off from my arm issue I'll be about $15k short of my orginal goal of how much money I intended to save. Not much I could have done about that so it is what it is.

The only real change from my orginal plan, is Im likely going to try to buy a truck before I end my current lease. I was orginally considering buying a used truck with cash, but after looking at all my options I think its a better idea to buy a newer used truck while Im still running at Prime so I can show income to my company. (Not buying a truck from Prime though)

I was going to take the winter off, but if I did that, there is no way Id then get financing for a truck. Due to this, Im going to start the ball rolling with one of the 2 owner op companies I'm looking at, get my finacing set up and make the switch in Jan. I dont really like switching in tne 1st quarter, but I'll make it work.

I'm not quite there yet, but all in all the lease worked out pretty well for me, for what my goals were.

Edit.. one thing I will say, if I was starting fresh again, I'd do what I did on my second go around, and that is to skip a new truck and take a short lease on a used truck. The new truck was nice but the used truck is more profitable and I shouldnt be out any money for repair when I turn it in due to the lease completion bonus.

 

As far as buying a used truck from Prime its really 2 things. I dont want a weekly payment and the average truck price on their used is 70-80k last time I looked at the webpage. For that amount of money I could buy one of the last year 379 Pete's with out all the DEF emissions crap which will be a much heavier duty truck than a Cascadia or the 386 or what ever it is Prime uses. Could probably get a decent used Coronado Glider.

Mainly I want to get a pre DEF truck.

As for the $12k thing on the freightliner, had no idea it was that much, I thought it was in the $3k range.. lol you make me want to turn my truck in now.. lol

For the record though as far as I understand on something like that they would charge me based on the miles I ran, unless it was due to neglect or my fault.