Prime INTERMODAL - Questions/Answers

Ok. First question, are you with prime intermodal?

 

Check with RedOctober, he is running the Intermodal there.

 

Hey Knuckledragger,

I am currently running the PNW region. I have been up here since the end of Jan of this year.

Where did you find this job posting at? Some of the info doesn't match up with the PNW region. Like there is no raildeck program up here right now and there isn't a clean facility with def and diesel services with free parking here in the PNW unless you count the TA/Petro and Jubitz truck stop, lol. Do you live in either the Seattle or Portland area?

Do you currently work for Prime now? How much A seat experience or driving experience do you currently have? The 7 months experience is the minimum, but depending on your past experience exceptions are made sometimes.

To run the PNW region, you'll have to lease a truck, this isn't a company driver position. I'm basically working 5 days a week with some ocassional local deliveries on the weekend. I'll average about 2,000 miles a week out here. You get 100% of the FSC. The FSC rate chages each week. You do get layover pay if there is an issue with the load, but you won't get anything for the weekends. Prime has a pretty nice detention pay policy and they are very agressive at getting it for you. It just might be a couple weeks before you see it show up on your settlement statement. It's all no touch freight. You won't be loading or unloading the trailers at all. Most of the customers we pickup from are live loads but usually I get in and out fast; under 2 hours.

Back to your question about the trucks, you'll have to get a freightliner to run this account out here because of all the produce we pick up and needing to get as much weight in the box as possible. Plus you'll be glad to have the tighter turning radius when trying to drop the trailers at the rail yards out here. If I had a KW or Pete, there is no way I could park the trailer or pull one from the Portland rail yard with how tight they have everything. Prime's trucks come with APU's and 1500 watt power inverters. Since you will be leasing a truck, you can choose to not have the APU.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Good luck,

Redoctober

 

Hey Redoctober83 -- when you pickup produce, are those loads all shipper-count-loaded? If spoilage or damage happened in transit, does Prime still get their entire carriage fee or does the shipper shortpay/file claim against you?? Do you gotta worryabout destroying damaged loads or does receiver deal with that??

 

Prime intermodal is running all day cabs now, mostly KW Next Gen T680s, I've seen a few new Cascadia day cabs here and there. From what I understand it was because the rail got tired of them slapping those reinforced road trailers on the trains. That forced Prime's hand into buying day cabs and refrigerated containers. Full sized trucks were no longer feasible because of the weight prime wanted to haul so my guess is they were offered a day cab or to switch back to their previous division, and the old intermodal road trailers were methodically pushed back to Springfield MO so they could be sold. I have yet to deal with a claim in intermodal, definitely had my share of claims just doing regular reefer stuff over the years but, most is drop and hook with the exception of local live unload deliveries to places like Mclane. The cosmetics of the Next Gen T680s are nice but, performance wise...they suck absolute ### that ain't been wiped for weeks. Falls flat on it's face when going up even the slightest hill and dead in the water coming off stops. They're specced down to the bare minimum and as lightweight as the factory could make them which I understand but, it's insane how bogged down they are. They typically spec the full sized Peterbilts with MX-13s but again for weight savings and fuel economy - Paccar MX-11 430HP, Paccar 12 Speed Automated, Paccar 40k tandem axle, 2.64 gears, 72 gallon tank on driver side. They're using this plastic case and cover for the battery box that sits behind the DEF tank, not sure if that's contributed to stuff getting loose and blowing the mega fuse but, it's put me on the side of the road more than once. One of my biggest gripes is as lease operators, you're paying for the gas and the truck every week but, you don't have say in how the truck is specced and how well it's allowed to perform? We're maxed out at 80k most of the time and that 2.64 rear compiled with the horsepower/torque rating, it's so counterproductive in my opinion.