My experience in Prime's lease program so far.

Honestly, I see no reason to leave Prime until I'm ready to do so. The lease is not the best deal in the world, but I'm making money. I see no reason to leave what I know just to maybe make the same money somewhere else but also have to go through their training process where Id make less.

If for some reason I stop making money, then of course I'd leave but I really do not think I'd match or make more than Im making now as a 1st year company driver somewhere else.

When I'm closer to getting a truck, then I'll look more at my options but even if I had a truck today, I couldn't even put it at a company like Landstar or Mercer because both require a year of experance.

It makes the most sense to me to stay where Im at to get my 1st year in and continue to save. After I have that year experance, I open up much better options, but until then I really just have to get my time in.

 

I was a company driver and I wasn't making what I make now. What I always find funny is when you guys compare company vs lease as a way to say lease is bad, you guys always use the very best numbers for company and worst for lease...

I made over $1k one week as a company driver. I was taking my truck back to turn in because I wasn't staying on the road to not even make $1k/week. I decided to give lease a try before quiting as I had invested several months in training..

I have actual experance here as lease and company and company was no where near what I make now and benefits were not even worth considering because I wasn't gonna pay $3k a year for heath insurance that had a big deductible on top of that...

 

Reefer sadly.. I came to Prime to do flatbed but I couldn't get a trainer.. Money wise reefer is better here than flat from what everyone tells me.

 

Thats probably as company you get crappy trucks..

 

Well here is diffrence in company and lease..

I called a shipper as lease to try to pick up a load early. They said the load had been shipped via another company. I sat rest of that day picked up another load next day..

I was paid a fee of $70 for not having a load but also later collected $280 on the cancled load that I never ran. In fact I never moved my truck after hitting a truck stop from the previous load.

Now same experance as company..

Show up to Joplin, MO for a load only to find out that load had already been shipped. I was supposed to go to our terminal 60 miles away with this load to get my company truck fixed and do some stuff for HR..

Dispatch made me sit there for 3.5 hours not getting paid ( couldnt even drive to a truck stop) because I'm not under a load and finally I had to force the issue to be "approved" dead head miles so I could get there in time to see HR before they left..

They were trying to make me sit there another day to pick up a diffrent load where Id get paid $35 to hual it to Springfield from Joplin..

You can keep company BS and forced dispatch.. as lease, if I decide I want to sit a day because I'm tired or maybe I happen to be near a friend's house, I tell them not to get me a reload yet.. As company, you get told when to drive and you better plan those 3 days off 2 weeks out and hope they get you home and then when they do, half your 1st day off includes dropping your load at 3am and dropping your trailer at a yard..

Company nonsense is not my cup of tea..