Prime Leasing questions. Who's can help?

Stay away from the LP programs from a trucking company. If you have to do a LP, go thru third party companies such as quality, lone mountain etc.

 

No, no, and no.

 

i lease with prime and Yes you can walk away from the lease. In fact I am on a 10 month lease, finishing out a term someone else walked away from. yes I am always rolling. You are gonna gross $3500 a week and up average. my top grossing week was $6000 and I average about 4. quality leasing will offer you a better deal to lease...but Prime has been great to me for my first company in the trade. This is my first lease.

 

If i were you, i wouldnt do that. You need to work a lot and your hard work wont pay off. If you are grossing under $5k, you are wasting your time.

 

my fuel costs are around $0.15 a mile... in network discounts at the pump I usually pay around $2 a gallon....then there are fuel surcharge discounts added...if you can gross 5k + consistently somewhere else...like greatwide with a quality lease...maybe do that...I am sticking with Prime for my first year...then taking a few months off to decide what to do and where to go next

 

It is a walk-away lease .. Reefer is a 3-year term, Flatbed and Tanker are 4-year terms .. these terms are due to total expected miles by the end of the lease .. if you are a team truck it is possible to complete the lease early due to the total miles .. Prime Inc/Success Leasing/Pedigree Sales likes to sell those trucks with less than 400,000 miles to increase the resale value ..

There will be charges due at the end of the lease dependent on the condition of the truck .. if you turn it in with dents and maintenance that needs to be done you will decrease the amount of your lease completion "bonus" .. you also get the balance of your (mandatory) tire fund and any excess amount you have remaining in your emergency fund at the end of you lease .. it is not uncommon for the "bonus" to be over $15,000 if the truck is in good repair and maintained .. some guys have pulled of $20,000 completion checks (but those are rare) ..

Miles and money .. all dependent on your Fleet Manager and how you manage your clock (availability) .. if you consistently get to your final with three hours or less on your clock and have to complete a 10-hour break then you will run fewer loads for the week .. time management is a big deal .. team drivers don't usually face these issues .. and I am deliberately not including trainers in any of this ..

.. the fuel discount is pretty #### good .. period .. there has been an on-going debate at Prime from the drivers as to if you get 100% of the fuel surcharge or not (generally most folks believe that Prime keeps 28% of the fuel service charge .. I have never dug into it seriously .. if it was illegal then Prime would have been busted and sued/fined years ago .. so I don't freak out over it) ..

Lease Ops and Owner Ops get 72% of the total contract for each load .. you are dispatched with and "estimated" total revenue fro each load and that amount is usually pretty darn accurate .. you also get stop pay, detention, and tolls depending on the individual loads/routing and sometimes customer agreements .. almost always (as long as you can follow directions) you also are covered for Lumper Fees (usually billed back to the shipper or customer) ..

Rarely are you paid dead-head miles as a practice .. some fleet managers seem to fight harder for their drivers than others to get that added on .. I generally just calc the dead-head into the total miles and figure the $/mile on each load ..

.. if you manage yourself well you can expect to be hitting around $3,000 to $4,000 in total revenue ON AVERAGE per week .. less your expenses (which is why you see so many Prime LO/OO driving 58 mph) even though the trucks are governed at 65 mph for LO/OO .. some weeks will be better and some will be worse .. that's true just about everywhere at any carrier ..

"Intangibles" .. those things that are provided for you to keep your fanny in business .. (1) you can go "in the hole" due to maintenance or home time without penalty .. you will have to pay back that amount (also without penalty) before you make any money the following week (or two if it's severe) .. so have a savings account .. (2) Tires, Filters, Consumables, Load Locks, etc are all a helluva lot cheaper at Prime than any truck store/shop you will ever find .. period .. that includes things like Abloy Locks, extra seals, coffee (free), tea (free), and meals at the three main terminals are edible and pretty darn affordable also .. (3) Insurance, Permits, Paperwork, etc (fixed costs) are on par with the industry at about $200-250/week depending on what options you get extra (like the CPA, Navigation, etc.) .. and no, it is not mandatory to use Prime's Navigo, but it's pretty #### useful in addition to a Garmin/Rand McNally/MyOne20 gps with more features .. (4) Safest Trucks on the Planet .. this one's a hotbed of debate and a love/hate thing .. but yeah .. Prime's got every safety feature on their trucks you can have .. Roll Stability .. Hard-Stop/Rollover Avoidance and alert systems .. forward radar tied to cruise control and braking (if to close) and they may be adding forward cameras soon (since these are proving to be very valuable in proving that you didn't actually cause an accident (of course, the reverse it true as well) .. (5) Mfg Support/Warranty Support for any issues with the trucks .. top-notch .. and breakdown pay that will at least cover your weekly expenses/fixed costs but not your luxury hotel room (sadly) .. but you won't be dicking around filing paperwork and fighting with mfgs over warranty issues .. usually .. there's always exceptions if you tear stuff up and blow out a clutch or kill your Def system with abuse .. (6) Freight Network .. it's good .. it has it's up and downs just like every other company and the rest of the country .. you'll ##### when it's slow and make better money when it's strong .. it's seasonal like everyone else, and it's slow during most holidays (usually) ..

There will always be more money if you own your truck out-right or lease through a traditional leasing outfit (if you have good credit) .. used trucks are cheaper to pay for weekly but you will be 100% responsible for repairs and lost loads (insurance) if your truck breaks down .. no one pays for all of that for you .. ever ..

.. as with any mega-carrier and every other driver out there you make money going north and suffer coming back out .. same for Florida ..

.. there are (very) few dedicated anythings at Prime .. and pretty much no formal "regional" sort of thing unless you work something out with your Fleet Manager .. you can make some decent money running around up in the North East, but with that comes the added risk of tight docks, ####ty traffic, and those ####### that have already torn up equipment who seem to want to hit your truck (ever notice the sheer number of damaged or partially repaired trucks in the North east?? .. there's a reason for that) .. and Prime does not pay any bonus for North East runs .. period ..

.. another thought .. fuel .. most everything Prime can get 8-9 mpg without much effort .. the Internationals are the exception to that rule .. I have one .. even if I behave it will get about 8.3 mpg at best .. at 65 mph and going through West Virginia/Ohio (or any other hills) it's down to about 7.6 mpg .. the Cascadias will pull 9+ mpg easily but will also cost you about $1,000 per week for the payment .. yes .. you can still make money with them .. but my International costs less per week in my payment than the extra fuel I burn .. the guys who are real good at fuel management can save themselves about $8K to $10K per year in fuel expenses .. it's all in how you manage yourself and run your truck ..

.. best of luck in whatever you do ..

 

No debate ... you're getting 72% of the FSC. Don't confuse the FSC with fuel discounts.