Prime's lease deal. The math gets done.

And to expand on what Lonesome said.
If you don't have the credit to get a truck, that means you have been making bad life choices. What makes one think that their choices will get any better?

 

Not always.
There are plenty of circumstances where people get bad credit as a result of no fault of their own.
All it takes is, say, a medical issue like a broken leg.
No work (therefore, no income) for you for a good 6 weeks.
Durn it all! Now your car payment is 60 days late!
Plus, your insurance only paid a small portion of your medical bills... you still owe the hospital almost 15 Grand!
Pay up now, Buddy. Fifteen thousand dollars... right now!
You deadbeat!
Now your credit report is shot....
I guess that means you have been making some bad life choices.

 

It would be a bad choice, if someone who went through all that, and ends up with bad credit, to say "well, I think it's time I become my own boss, and lease purchase a truck."

 

But "good life choices" includes things like having disability insurance, adequate health insurance, and an emergency fund.

 

Good life choices are great... as long as you have a choice.
With the typical driver's salary being so meager, about the only choices left are.... "What will it be this month, Honey? Rent or food"?

 

rent or food or lease purchase mega scam!!!

 

If u got that much debt, get out of it before u buy a truck. A truck is a huge risk

 

I went into the lease program with over $100k in debt and it was only because I was an independent contractor making what I was making, which was more than a company driver I was able to pay all of that debt off in 2 years.

Granted, I am single, don't have a mortgage or rent payment and my personal expenses were low outside of the debt payments. When I went home it was to my parents place.

I did this with a plan and knowing the numbers I would need to make this work, both the good and bad numbers. I was willing to sacrifice a couple of years to get out of debt and now this year is about saving up money. Target is $50k saved, which I am pretty sure I can hit. Even if I only save $35k I'm still happy. For all you nay sayers, that's saved above and beyond my other expenses, my business expenses, taxes, and health insurance. That also includes taking a total of 2 months off each year this year, 2017, it'll include a 2 week cruise.

Please remember, your results may vary and past performance in no indication of future performance.

 

thats not really true. all of my bad credit is 100% hospital bills that i couldnt pay. but thats not going to make me get into a lease. i've paid everything i owe off (minus phone and internet and fixed bills) and im devoting this entire year to paying off that bad debt while using secured credit cards to build credit.

it might take me 1.5 - 2 years but it's easier to fix credit and give a 20% down payment on a used but decent $70k truck than to pay insane amounts of money to give yourself a $300 raise from company driver to lease driver. it doesnt make sense.

 

This thread is OLD but the last post is pretty recent so here goes.

I'm training at Prime now. I went into this expecting that I would be a company driver and possibly purchase a used truck in the future. Both of my trainers so far and a majority of the drivers I've talked to at Prime have done Prime's lease deal and had it work for them. Several folks started out company, went lease, and never looked back. My current trainer feels so strongly enough about the advantages of lease vs company for himself that he's gotten me convinced to at least consider the lease deal.

Things I've heard about Prime's lease deal (check me on this if you know different):
+You can walk away from the lease at any time - the truck has to be turned in at Springfield, MO.
+You have much more freedom in regards to home time, driving out of route, where you purchase fuel, etc.
+Because Prime wants the money for the lease payment and you have the freedom to terminate the lease, Prime tends to keep lease operators running. (May be dependent on FM.)
+Lease completion bonus is usually pretty sizeable and can be used as a down payment on another truck.
+With all costs factored in, lease operators are still bringing home significantly more than company drivers. (I've heard "twice as much" but I doubt that's really true.)
-Lease payment plus insurance is a BIG expense (~$1000/wk).
-No health insurance, life insurance, 401k, worker's comp, etc.
-Driver is responsible for maintenance and non-warranty repairs. (Prime can take this out of your settlement in installments.)
-Driver needs to be responsible with accounting and should have an accountant well versed in trucking do their taxes.

Drivers say that, week by week, the first load pays for the truck, the second load pays for fuel, and subsequent loads pay the driver.

Can anyone confirm/deny this? At this point I'm still planning on going company after my loooooong training period is over, but the benefits of lease (the big one being freedom to take time off whenever) look pretty attractive. If I save money, I could conceivably take time off to go on a bike tour, record music, etc. without much worry. Or am I just dreaming?