Its a different company, just as the maintenance is different. Very common, there are several companies on every USX property for comparison. The trucks are actually pretty cheap, my friend said a grand a month... and he had like 200k left on his warranty. Personally, I dont know if I would trust any truck except the one Ive had from the factory myself. I train, so I get a new company truck each time anyways. I got the chance to drive some trucks that other drivers had used... and drivers floating their gears just tears up the trannies. I had a truck nearly to 300k that still shifted like new, and Im seeing petes with 200k with stripped gears and stuff. The clutch is there for a reason, to save the $15,000 tranny... and morons be like "Well, if you check the clutch, itll be like brand new...." Well great job my friend, you just ruined a $15,000 permanent tranny to save a $1,400 replaceable clutch. So ya, thats why I dont like the idea of buying a used truck... If I had the truck from the start and babied it... I would absolutely think about leasing it... if I could get out of the lease before maybe 700,000 miles... The prime guys get a new truck every 500-600k... but they pay for the new truck. A bit offset by the APU and that new trucks get better mpg, but still...
Just called them up about it, its not a lease... the pay period is 2 years and thats it. For a single guy who trains, not so bad. But they keep trying to get me into a pete or international... no thanks. The pay is OK, its better than training pay. Most of my runs were 725-750 miles, so the pay would be 89cpm plus 44cpm fuel surcharge... and a truck costs about 89cpm solo. So for training, the pay is 44-55cpm for all miles. Now I understand when these Prime guys tell me they are making $2000 a week... prime pays like $1.50-1.68 a mile on average, but their trucks cost twice as much, so the math works out to about the same. The difference is that Prime has new trucks... so its like having to choose between a new one with longer payments and a used one with half the payments... From what I can tell, most repairs are about $300-400 and up to $3000... which would take a year for a solo driver to save up, and a few months for a trainer. So no wonder people fail their leases... you need a good $3000 in your pocket at any time, just to be safe! Pretty much, only a single guy or someone with a working spouse is going to have $3000 in their savings account... I banked $8000 this year while training, despite a few grand on some new teeth hahaha.... and I have no bills. So I cant see a family man being able to save a few grand for emergencies unless he saved like mad for a few months... To feel comfortable, Im going to try and keep my account at about $6-10,000.... to be able to cover a pair of failures, like the time I had a computer replaced and the turbo went... $3000 each, but the turbo was covered. Still would have stung....
