Prime and life on the road

Hi U2Exit , I'll be heading down to Prime next week for school , getting my bus ticket later today. Have a question for you , I know we talked about places in the Chicago area that Prime drops their loads at, You said down in Aurora is one, can you tell me if they drop loads up in Fargo ND. Last week as I was in Fargo visiting my boys in college and on my way down from there to Minneapolis , I saw some Prime trucks heading up there as well as tankers. Do you know if there are deliveries up that way??

 

I'm a company driver for Prime... my impressions are it's a good deal IF you know what you're doing. A lot of people loose their ##### on this because they just don't have a clue to begin with. Best advice... drive company for a year or two until you figure this biz out. Once the economy turns around and there is enough freight to support something like this I plan to go to the lease side. If you can get Sirius or XM satellite radio, Ken Rutherford's show at 11PM Central is a great resource for anyone wanting to try this out as a biz.

First, as a lease op, you need to treat it as a business. Settlement checks aren't the same as a paycheck - that's revenue into your business. You need to pay yourself a fixed wage - and this is where most lease ops go wrong. They get a big settlement, and BINGO!!!! it's off to the mall!!! Learn how to run a business before you jump in the deep end on this.

Second, this is a game of pennies and nickles. Every time you save a penny, it's one you can put in your pocket. Too many people ignore the pennies and just try to grab the dime or so they see. That'll kill you too! You need to know how to read and use a profit/loss sheet - how to minimize your costs. Currently I run in the neighborhood of 6.8 to 7.5 mpg depending on a lot of variables. When everything is going my way, I get great fuel mileage - remember the pennies? - one of those deals is scaling every load so I can get the best ballance and maybe pick up 1/2 mile per gallon in costs, not to mention avoid overweight fines. Many drivers can't be bothered - many drivers watch the dead presidents fly out of their exhaust stack, for example. There are a million other little things like this, and you can't expect to know any of them just starting off. Drive company for a couple of years until you get it figured out!!!

The lease is a true walk-away lease. If you owe the company on one of the escrow accounts (tire fund for example), for advances, etc., you may have to repay some debt at the end of a lease. If it doesn't work out, you can turn in your truck and walk away without penalties, and recieve any excess in the escrow accounts with interest.

You recieve 72% of the linehaul revenue for each load, plus 100% of any fuel surcharge received as payment for each load. You foot the bill for the costs - fuel, reefer fuel, lumpers, tolls, any costs incurred on the road, except you are refunded 28% of tolls. Fuel is discounted by Prime's contracts with truckstop chains. All of the trucks are under warranty for the entire drivetrain throughout the course of the lease - you pay for consumables (tires, wiper blades, etc.) and routine maintenance (PMs, etc.) - however, you take it in the shorts for lost revenue if your truck is down. Prime does pay detention, layover, extra stop pay.

A lot of the formula for success is having a good relationship with your Fleet Manager (dispatcher) - not to mention having a good FM! He's your business partner in this, and most of his paycheck is based on your success. You don't make money, he doesn't make money. If you decide to do this, you should have a basic business plan, and your partner (FM) should sign on to support you in this. To help you do better, the company does provide some education on the business aspects of this called ACE II - they will analyze your operating statements with you, show you how to do this on your own, and try to help you find areas that you can do better in. I found it useful to audit this class just as a company driver.

Best advice is to visit the company website - Google the company name, and I'm sure it will come up. Sorry - the moderators won't allow us to post it here. If you have any questions after checking the company propaganda out, please feel free to ask.

 

also,prime trucks are speced for resale after lease completion,poor fuel ecomomy,you are better off with your own truck speced different,plan on being out 6 weeks min,and you will hardly ever get a run where you will stop by the house for your break,it aint gonna happen,i liked prime and thought of going back,but the last half a year has the lease less desirable than before,when l/o who have been sucessful in the past for 8 or 9 years are turning in their truck,you know something aint right.if you lease expect loads that are HEAVY,your fuel consumption and speed are critical,the eaton 10 is not the best choice,but it resales higher.Prime is set for other carriers to go under during this down turn in the economy,with an expanded fleet,this has yet to happen so l/o's are suffering with several getting less than 1000 miles a week,company drivers i assume do fair i also assume that they may not see the heavy loads or long deadheads to the next 01,since they are required to maintain a 6.5 mpg fuel average or have their trucks turned down to 58,thats right 58 mph,which i believe is a safety hazzard bearhunter,i see your from wisconsin,you hunt over bait or with hounds?i seen you are on the company drivers site so you probally have read the trials and tribulations most arwe experenceing there.good luck and be safe.

 

Any looser can run the fuel economy of a truck into the ground.

Maybe. In this economy a heck of a lot of folks have hanged up the keys simply because they can't run efficiently.

I've never had a problem getting home time...

Scared of heavy loads are ya?

Difference is having a good FM. Teams are doing fine, solo loads are tough all over...

What universe do you live in? I drive company, don't see loads under 75k GVW often, and just did a 300mi deadhead...

Nothing hard about that! I've been getting 7 or so regularily, and only loosers get their trucks turned down.

You guys who can't deal with reality crack me up!

 

explain .54 cpm including fuel surcharge for a l/o?you are company.i have been 1099 my entire life,base everything on the revenue after cost,my time is money,i liked prime while i was there but had to leave due to more money,if the rates were where they were i would go back,but not company.reality

 

They pay l/o's 72% of the linehaul revenue and 100% of the collected fuel surcharge... at least that's what they're doing now - sounds like you worked for Prime awhile back! That being said, with rates as low as they've sunk and everyone and his brother trying to pull a reefer these days, it's not a good time to be either leasing or owning! Amazing how many reefers are being pulled by tractors with headache racks... what's up with that?!!

I'm company because I started with Prime. Have every intention of eventually being an owner/operator, but you have to walk before you run. Somewhere you need to learn this business. For me, that's Prime. And if I'm going to sink the money into a truck, I need for there to be enough of an economy to support it... ain't happenin' this week!

 

Prime screws the L/O's here with the fuel surcharge it's only 14 cents when the industry average is 19-22 cents right now and don't let anyone tell you that's just the minimum. 99% of your loads will be 14 cents, we saw 7 cents a couple months ago at Prime. I've had and seen several drivers pull loads lately for under 60 cents with the fuel surcharge. My average this year so far is under $1.00 per mile. I'm really starting to believe they are skimming more then 28% off the top.

 

Oh yeah teams get loads from CA to NJ that pay 75 cents per mile and the student cost them 14.5 cents per mile with taxes. L/O's are turning in their trucks everyday about 200-300 a week from what I'm being told.

 

Prime is going Paperless Logs soon they already started outfitting their company trucks. U2Exit on here is one of them and he is complaining on their own drivers web blog about it. It's costing him money he is looking for a driver to team with him already and he's only been on it for 2 weeks. Imagine how slow it will be if lease ops are only getting 1000-1500 solo per week now.

 

I'm a lease op at Prime "unfortunately" Last couple years did very well with Prime, but the owner Rob Low choose to purchase 800 new trucks in the last two quarters of last year, he was expecting Great Wide to go out of business and he was told by Tyson that he would get those loads, well we all know Great Wide got a big investment and their still in business and here at Prime we are not really slow just way way way to many trucks in the fleet and he has made it clear he will not sacrifice a dime but we can as lease ops and thats fine with him. Keep in mind Irony Pony and U2Exit are on here talking about how great it is hoping you'll contact them and give their name as a referral so they make money off you.