Prime's lease deal. The math gets done.

Prime's lease program? I was with Priime back in the early 90's, started right out of school with a lease driver. I had many miles in the military, but that really matters not.

Anyway, the first guy I drove with was an idiot - big time. After 4 months I left him to drive with another guy, excellent driver and very smart businessman. Both had leases, and different dispatchers.

With the first guy we sat around a lot - kinda sucks as a team. He was a real loser. Ran out of fuel waiting to be unloaded... Didn't want to spend any more money out of that trip, so was going to wait until after to fuel up... How did that work out? Well how much does it cost to have 5 gallons of fuel delivered? He paid $125 - to me that could have been $125 in the tank, not in the tow truck drivers pocket.

Second guy - we ran hard... and I made money as a second seat $7 - 800 a week. The truck only stopped because we ran out of hours.

How you say? Dispatcher. period. With the second guy we ALWAYS told the dispatcher how many hours we had left, and he ran us until we ran out.

I was just about ready to get into a lease when legal issue that I had no active role in became an issue. That's what you get when a "friend" is pretending to be a lawyer - big bad story.

Many moons later, I am going back into trucking - older now, no issues and I'll take care of number 1 - me.

Bottom line - if your dispatcher sucks, or you don't get along, you or he/she will not last long. The firsts guy dispatcher was primarily the company drivers (they have some) and was just getting into L/O group - he needed work.

Second guys dispatcher used to be a L/O at prime and due to health issues went to work as a dispatcher.

And YOU have to be a smart business man to make it as a L/O. but you can make money... I did and as a second seat.

The ugly truth is, not every driver can be an owner, they just don't have the discipline it takes to be in business for yourself. The driver I met that were not making it, I saw at the truck stop A LOT!!! If you don't want to run and nearly use all your hours every week, don't bother.

And don't think it takes a team to do it either. I met 1 guy doing it single and he was very happy with the money he was dragging in. But he ran out of hours every single week. It takes planning and drive. If you can't do either - forget it, stay a company driver.

But if anything remember this - As a Lease / Owner at Prime the dispatcher works for YOU! not you for the dispatcher. If he won't run you - fire him. Get a new one. Keep track of what and when to CYA and they won't argue with you at Prime.

See ya in a couple months.

 

Using the CB shop analogy, if you're "leasing" the building for your business, and the roof starts leaking, or the furnace goes out in a Minnesota December, should you, as the lessee, have to pay for those repairs? Or are they for the owner to take care of?

Why then should I have to have a maintenance account for engine repairs, or trans repairs, to a vehicle I do not own? Shouldn't they also be the responsibility of the owner?

 

Hey an $810 payment for a truck? Sweet!

oh... a WEEK???????????

No, yeah they can pass that right on...

 

You forgot all the hidden charges...........

 

If your roof, or furnace is under warranty then your not paying for the repairs...

Using your analogy... maint. fund is used for garbage removal, lightbulb replacements etc...

As I understand it, lease ends at the end of the warranty period... years or milage, whichever comes first.

 

wondering if i could take two of these 200000 $ trucks i mean what a deal and maybe when i do bigger question is do they take checks post dated and maybe for a little over the sum due
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Do you remember any of the hidden charges that you recieved that were not listed in your lease agreement? I can ask my buddy what he knows bout them.

I got about 2 minutes to "peruse" a friend of mines agreement and they seemed to have layed everything out in there... QC charges, pre-pass, etc... with a breakdown and each page was either signed or initialed by him if I remember correctly.

The thing I posted earlier mentions "an additional approximately $150.00 per week in fixed costs. (i.e.: License/Permits, Performance Bond, Operating Statements, Fuel Card charge, Occupational Accident, F.H.U.T, TruckStop Scanning) "

-the excess milage charge, etc..

it doesnt mention that you can have an APU installed, I think it was 50-60 dollars extra per week if I remember correctly from my trainers truck (dont quote me on that charge amount)


I know for a fact there are things they require you to have/purchase before your first dispatch... 2 load locks, 2 pulp thermometers, Air-Cuff lock and a specific heavy duty key lock for the trailer door and a smaller one for the inspection door. Lease guys have to purchase chains too... Company drivers have to buy all that stuff too, but our chains are given to us.

 

It is hard to make out the settlement. They take something out. Turn around and credit it, then take it out again. There is all kinds of charges. Even if you use their accountant who is set up in their building. He takes out a set amount each week, but he charges so much a year. You start after the year begins or quit before the year ends they take it out. If you use his service for 6 months you should be billed 6 months not a year. I would have to look at the settlements, but there is always something on there you are not expecting to come out. The truck I got was not even clean when I got it. Not even close to being detailed. I noted all of it on the inventory list. The carpet was stained etc. They washed the truck free the 1st time, but did not detail it. I turned it in 30 days later and was billed for detailing. The truck was cleaner when I turned it in then when I got it.

 

Am I wrong here, or ...

ok so if you could break even every month or even make a little money on a lease with that high a payment, if you could bring your own truck financing with a payment half that high, wouldn't that automatically increase your monthly income by a couple grand??

They have you paying over $3400 a month on that trruck and insist you can make good money. You should be able to finance a truck for $1500 I would think... a GOOD one.

Seems there's still some chance even in this economy to do ok.

 

Oh yeah, I know what you mean about the settlements. I was confused at first with my company one, cant imagine what a lease settlement looks like.

NoTarps, I will give you an example on mine...of a deduction then re-imbursement

Lumper fees are paid for company as long as you submit a reciept (I wont get into all the crap you have to make sure is ON that recipt)

Lumper fee is payed by comcheck, which we request the amount put on our Comdata card to write said check. That amount plus the 1.00 comdata charge is in the deduction column on my statement.

Having submitted my reciept. I am re-imbursed the amount of the lumper fee but not the $1 comdata fee. It appears in the Re-imbursement column.

I have yet to be stiffed with a mistake, but sometimes you write a check at the end of the pay week, and you didnt get the trip scanned in by cutoff... so it gets deducted but not re-imbursed until the following week.

You probably didnt stick around long enough for ACE II class... from what I hear they let you run a few weeks and then you can come in and they teach you in a class how to read your settlements and how to calculate where you were profitable and what you need to work on with your variable costs etc... Apperantly its too #### confusing to the new lease guys to teach this before they first go out, but better understood when applied to what they have done over the past couple weeks.

I think the class is something they have to be proactive to take... its not something they require them to come in for