Prime’d And Ready To Go

Im not going to argue lease with you, but will point out this....

1) that walk away lease is not truly walk away. You still need to pay any negative balance you owe PLUS any money they claim you owe to get the truck back to salable condition...that means $70 per drill hole for any TV brackets, CBs, speakers, game system brackets etc. and much more. My boyfriend was due a $20k completion and they kept $7000. So be aware that you are on the hook for thousands even without an accident. I know many drivers who went back to company after leasing and have had to pay thousands in payments. Before you turn tge truck back in, be sure to get an inspection done 30 days ahead. fix the issues prior to turning it in. it will be a lot cheaper.

2) You need to learn the freight lanes. find some KNOWLEDGABLE lease ops and learn that a $2.50 per mile load can put you in FL or AL in freight dead zones. that means you are looking at $1 per mile loads to get out, making that high paying load a lot less profitable.

3) Set up.an Efund immediately, put 25% in it for.taxes and dont touch it.

4) Understand that ANY damage to the trailers or truck will result in a full deductible. Have a $300 scratch? it will cost you $500 for the deductible. Get stuck in snow or mud and need a tow? you have to pay AND it counts as an accident. Have funds available to side step issues if you need to.

5) Do NOT take a team mate. Not only will you have to pay his salary, employer taxes and OWCP, but you will be on the hook for the deductible for any accidents they have. No rookie will be worth the risk and you wont be able to afford any experienced driver yet. the $700 the students make during training actually comes out to $1000 with taxes and workers comp. experienced drivers would be a lot more. Plus, paying cpm for excess miles means as a team you could.pay $1000 per week.for.the truck, and $500 per week just for.the miles. add $1500 per week for a team mate, all the other stuff and salary for yourself, you would.need revenues in the $6000 range at least.

6) Learn to run hard and take a 34 with the load. this will keep.your 70 fresh and keep you rolling. if you can drop.it 24 hours early at a yard, do that and take a 34.if possible. keep.in mind that fontana and denver require local runs to.do that.

7) Take the higher cpm vs the number of miles. "i got a $3000 load!!!" big deal, its 2950 miles. you made nothing and it will.eat your whole 70.so you wont make any after either. Take a $1000 load for 500 miles over the high revenue but low gross revenue load.

ask me if you need help. i know enough about prime leasing to give you pointers. and have plenty of friends i can ask.

good luck

Those are good pointers from Rainy, but I'm hoping you already had most of that figured out. I'm curious about this statement you made...

Putting my money in places other than they suggest, sees that I wouldn’t lose much if any large amount of cash in the event I walk away.

Is this a reference to the escrow accounts they set up for you in your lease? That sentence stood out to me in your response. Could you elaborate on what you meant by that?

I'll just go ahead and tell you, it sounds to me like more advice from that trainer who

had very little to do with my decision.

I know you feel like we're piling on here. I completely understand the lure of leasing. We all want to earn the most we can out here. I've been a business owner for years, and I actually wanted to start my trucking career as an owner operator. I never could get the numbers to work right on paper, so I finally ditched the idea. I'm totally convinced from my experience that being a good solid company driver is the best way to earn the most money.

I've watched some really good company drivers in my specialized fleet, who decided to jump on the lease wagon, get frustrated and quit the company because of it. My dispatcher and I were talking about this the other day. He reminded me that I had told him back when those drivers switched over, "You're going to lose those drivers once they realize what they've done to themselves." I had forgotten the conversation, but he remembered it because he thought it odd that I would make that conclusion, and these were drivers he did not want to lose.

What Brett said is a very typical response from folks who lease. One of those drivers I just referenced was going on and on to me about how he was "making a killing" during his first couple of months after leasing his truck. Six months later he was so frustrated he was quitting.

Once you start feeling the pinch, and decide you need to be a trainer, you'll know you're feeling the reality of it all. Then you're back to having to sleep while trusting someone else's driving. There's always the feeling of needing more revenues to solve the problems, but it's not what's actually needed. In a business where 3 - 5% profit margins are fought tooth and nail for, increasing revenues rarely alleviates the real issues.

Squirelly how is it going out on the road? I dont want to get into too much about your decision just curious how your first few weeks solo have gone. Just because many dont agree with the approach you took doesnt mean they wont be willing to offer help.

Hi, I will be going to Prime in about a month. One question, before getting on the shuttle to go take the permit test do you have to get a residency paper from the people at Prime ?

Indeed, I’ve been eyeballing it while reading up, can say no one else in my class have I seen even go over n look at it yet.

One question, before getting on the shuttle to go take the permit test do you have to get a residency paper from the people at Prime ?

Yes, they'll go over that with you during orientation. Basically you'll establish temporary residency at Prime for the purpose of obtaining the permit. It's a simple form they give you to fill out. Nothing to it.

. Great ! Thanks ! I'm sure I will have more questions,,,lol

One question, before getting on the shuttle to go take the permit test do you have to get a residency paper from the people at Prime ?

Yes, they'll go over that with you during orientation. Basically you'll establish temporary residency at Prime for the purpose of obtaining the permit. It's a simple form they give you to fill out. Nothing to it.

One thing I didn’t see in Rainy’s last post was to watch your fuel prices from state to state, along with the taxes. It’s wiser to fuel at a higher fuel priced station only enough to get you to a more reasonably priced one along you’re route.

Watch those tolls!! There’s lots of local routes to take that don’t have tolls but will eat your clock cause of lower speed limits & traffic signals.

I will repeat one thing she said, make sure you take care of your quarterly taxes as they come due. Before the new tax plan, I would only pay a penalty of $50 per year if I didn’t pay my quarterlies throughout the year. This year I had to pay $600!!! With that punch to my gut along with more penalties & interest, it added $1200 to my tax bill. I was an independent contractor before coming into trucking.

Keep that rainy day fund flush with money from weekly settlements. My friend was just layed up for nearly a month without work with her truck in the shop 3 times for the same problem. Wouldn’t go into gear from neutral & freightliner couldn’t figure out the problem. Make sure your contract has breakdown pay & use of a loaner truck if you’re in the same boat.

You made your decision. Have a go of it. If it doesn’t pan out. Go company. Just life lesson you chalk up to experience. Good, bad or indifferent.

. Great ! Thanks ! I'm sure I will have more questions,,,lol

One question, before getting on the shuttle to go take the permit test do you have to get a residency paper from the people at Prime ?

Yes, they'll go over that with you during orientation. Basically you'll establish temporary residency at Prime for the purpose of obtaining the permit. It's a simple form they give you to fill out. Nothing to it.

William, welcome aboard. Just a suggestion. I would start your own thread on any subject you need advice on in the general forum. If you feel so inclined, you can start a diary of your own where we can follow your progress. Everyone has their own issues that come up in their process. That said, good luck with Prime. I’m very happy here.

So just wanted to touch base as I have been out about a month now. Is the money great? No. Did I set myself up saying it would be? No, but the money has been a lot better than my last job, and I have a great dispatcher who keeps me running. Yes some of my loads have paid great, and a couple that haven’t. As for my money in other places, no I didn’t use anything from the Company except for the “emergency” fund that will be my tractor/trailer issues fund should/when/if they occur. I route my pay outside the Company and move it thru a couple accounts I have to use or store as I need or can. Now as I stated above, I have a really good dispatcher who actually works with me helping ensure I’m actually making some money and I very rarely sit between loads. I have tried controlling my own fueling myself and using our fuel macro to see how well either works and so far I can say that 90% of the time, the macro saves me more money in fuel costs. As for the good n bad loads, SO FAR (knocking on dashboard) I haven’t been stuck in a bad zone yet but close enough I was able to see it and thankful that my dispatch was able to get me out with a still decent load. That side, my load is done, time to roll out! I’ll continue later

Thanks for the update Squirrellyguns. I hope you continue to let us know how it's going from time to time. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we wish you the best.

Is it everything you thought it would be?