What Is My Punishment?

So if you are a company driver at Prime you HAVE to follow the route given? Most of the time the route I take is close to what my company gives me, but....I am free to make my own way. I only get paid the miles for the given route. There are limits. We are not supposed to be more than 10% difference in miles, yet.... I have done routes that ended up with more and nothing said. Then again the reverse is true. I have been given routes where I know good truck approved short cuts. I take my shortcuts. We are given fuel stops, however If the route I want to take will not take me by the given fuel stop, I just send a message and have it changed.

Idk, I guess it never dawned on me that some companies make you follow a "suggested route" to the letter.

Not true. I'm a company driver and the routing always tells me to go the GW on I 95. I never do. It always tells me to take 95 to new england, i take 84. No one says a word. We have two Macros, one for fuel stops and one for direct route from shipper to customer. The fuel stop one usually keeps you off of toll roads and on US routes. The direct route macro usually has interstates and tolls. Most company drivers run the fuel macro when we get close to the stop we want and it changes the route to where we are. If it doesn't I message dispatch to open my Comdata card and tell them how many gallons and at what stop. The QC tells us the price per gallon for nearby stops so its easy to know which it will pick if I run the macro.

Its no big deal. No one asks why I'm out of route. No one brought it up at my "annual review" which only entailed asking me how many tickets I got that year. In the winter I stay on the interstates no matter what for safe parking availability and no one questions. I used to send messages "detour at X, going out of route" "accident at..." Or whatever. I don't bother anymore.

As a matter of fact, the macro says "thiis is only a recommendation, check your atlas for clearances and restrictions".

Lease ops keep telling me I'm not allowed out of route, but until my FM says it is a problem I'm doing what I want hahahha. One lease op told me the other day that he went lease cause " Prime ain't telling me where to shutdown at the end of my day"

OMG I spit out my tea. Sooooo not true.

I dont know but I honestly consider your information and experience with this extremely valuable. It puts it in a little different perspective when its not just talk from someone. I think this coming to light could be a good words of wisdom learning tool. So just from me thanks.

I would like to second that

I dont know but I honestly consider your information and experience with this extremely valuable. It puts it in a little different perspective when its not just talk from someone. I think this coming to light could be a good words of wisdom learning tool. So just from me thanks.

I would like to second that

Guys, don't let Daniel's little foray into leasing give you encouragement that it is the way to make money at this. He didn't even lease for a full year! He didn't get anywhere near enough time in to experience the downfalls of the leasing programs. Did you hear what Ernie said? He's been doing this for a lot longer than Daniel...

most Lease drivers at Prime do a little better than company drivers.

I would even have to challenge Ernie on that word "most."

There are some real risks involved, and we had an excellent driver in here who was charged back some large fees on his lease that he thought were not fair. "Bud" told us a while back that every thing we had warned him about leasing came true in his experience at Prime.

There is a slight chance that you will make a little more money as a lease operator, but the risks far outweigh the reward in my opinion. I really got a kick out of this person's comment earlier in another thread on leasing...

There are many lease drivers on our highways making a terrific living. Some people understand business and succeed, others don't and fail miserably. Just because you or someone else belongs in the latter category doesn't mean the O/P and many others fall into the former.

What is funny about that statement is that the majority of folks who do have an understanding, or a background in business, can see right through the smoke and mirrors of those magical numbers that entice most people into leasing a truck.

All this stuff about fuel macros and company routes is completely foreign to me. Guess I'll have to learn all that one day

I dont know but I honestly consider your information and experience with this extremely valuable. It puts it in a little different perspective when its not just talk from someone. I think this coming to light could be a good words of wisdom learning tool. So just from me thanks.

I would like to second that

Guys, don't let Daniel's little foray into leasing give you encouragement that it is the way to make money at this. He didn't even lease for a full year! He didn't get anywhere near enough time in to experience the downfalls of the leasing programs. Did you hear what Ernie said? He's been doing this for a lot longer than Daniel...

most Lease drivers at Prime do a little better than company drivers.

I would even have to challenge Ernie on that word "most."

There are some real risks involved, and we had an excellent driver in here who was charged back some large fees on his lease that he thought were not fair. "Bud" told us a while back that every thing we had warned him about leasing came true in his experience at Prime.

There is a slight chance that you will make a little more money as a lease operator, but the risks far outweigh the reward in my opinion. I really got a kick out of this person's comment earlier in another thread on leasing...

There are many lease drivers on our highways making a terrific living. Some people understand business and succeed, others don't and fail miserably. Just because you or someone else belongs in the latter category doesn't mean the O/P and many others fall into the former.

What is funny about that statement is that the majority of folks who do have an understanding, or a background in business, can see right through the smoke and mirrors of those magical numbers that entice most people into leasing a truck.

Yep, now we have a bunch of new drivers here that are interested even after I said multiple times go company. When you get a few years under your belt I don't care what you do but as a rookie leasing is a death sentence.

Oh what have I done?

Actually the opposite in my case. You were not a lease driver for long from my understanding. There's probably many reasons for that. But you telling new guy not to do it with a back ground in it has more weight than me or another experienced driver that has never done it.

Actually the opposite in my case. You were not a lease driver for long from my understanding. There's probably many reasons for that. But you telling new guy not to do it with a back ground in it has more weight than me or another experienced driver that has never done it.

Exactly. I did it for 7 months very successfully and made great NET profit and would have continued if I didn't land an hourly gas tanker local job, that may or may not be more relevant experience to some people than Old School who owned box trucks 75 years ago when the wheel was first invented (sorry OS) or Brett who has never been an L/O from my understanding. No disrespect to my friends mentioned above but me being where I am definitely strengthens the core group we have at TT which will help us a lot more with helping people going forward - and thats what its all about.

Its just very risky, and you need to "align the stars" to make enough profit for it to be worth while. I could write a book about why I think most people don't cut it as an L/O but I'm not wanting to talk much about it due to TT policies.

Daniel, You opened Pandoras Box. What else do you think you've done? You uttered the magical phrase "made great NET profit". Now, every rookie is gonna be seeing dollar signs and blinded to anything else.

Daniel, You opened Pandoras Box. What else do you think you've done? You uttered the magical phrase "made great NET profit". Now, every rookie is gonna be seeing dollar signs and blinded to anything else.

If rookies want to follow dollar signs that they'll never see, against the experienced advice from multiple drivers and completely ignore everything they have read then they are too stubborn to be influenced by any source and they will make the mistake of leasing no matter what. I can't fix stupid. Unfortunately, a lot of drivers are stupid - just go visit your local terminal and listen.

"I made $5,000 in a week!". My response: No you didn't. $5000 -1000 truck payment -1200 fuel -300 taxes, permits, etc -250 E-Fund -50 T-Fund

=

2,200 -1000 TAXES (something a L/O rarely ever thinks about)

=

1200 NET

Having to figure your taxes and pay your Quarterly Estimated Taxes suck!! One of the reasons I stopped Barbering. I made great money, but the headaches involved wasn't worth it anymore after 3 years.