Prime Inc Pros And Cons

My name is Kody I have been driving for Hogan for the last 8 months. I have been looking on getting on with prime’s lease operator program for some time now and have been doing my research. I am looking for any and all recommendations about the program the in and outs and how they work. I have ran a business before so I have a business mindset and am trying to provide for my family the best I can and as a company driver have not been doing to go lately.

Thank you all

Kody

Then my recommendation is to avoid leasing. Why on Earth would you want to subject your family's financial stability to all those potential losses by leasing a truck and taking on all those expenses?

The overall result is to end up with a small fleet but we all have to start somewhere and our credit is not good enough for me to go and buy a truck.

The overall result is to end up with a small fleet but we all have to start somewhere and our credit is not good enough for me to go and buy a truck.

Bad credit plus a company lease purchase? Not a good move Cody! You are just inviting disaster to your already precarious financial situation. I hope we can talk you out of this!!!

Welcome Kody.

Do you really want honest, sincere, truthful advice? Or do you want us to tell you what you “want to hear”? We get many inquiries on the L/O subject. Most people do not want to hear or attempt to understand the truth...

Before even considering this, you need more than a year of experience...at least a year of top performance with Hogan. Cause here is the dirty little secret; unless you understand all that it takes to be a top performer and can consistently deliver that level of excellence, the though of becoming a lease operator is futile. Are you a top performer Kody?

The second dirty little secret? If you learn how-to be a top performer your income potential is well north of $70,000 annually. Can you effectively support your family on that income?

As follows: Top Performing Truck Drivers Operate Like Successful Business Owners

We can definitely help you become a top performer...tons more of information and experience available through this website.

I’ll leave you with this article written by Old School if you still want to know when is the Right Time to Become a Lease Operator?

My name is Kody I have been driving for Hogan for the last 8 months. I have been looking on getting on with prime’s lease operator program for some time now and have been doing my research. I am looking for any and all recommendations about the program the in and outs and how they work. I have ran a business before so I have a business mindset and am trying to provide for my family the best I can and as a company driver have not been doing to go lately.

Thank you all

Kody

Prime is a great company. I did the lease thing for about 6 months before my father had a heart attack. Was home with him for 3 weeks, that payment never stopped and put me 3500 in the hole. I wish I would have never signed up for the lease program and stayed a company driver.

As a Prime company driver I can say for certain that I make the equivalent of most lease ops if you add in my insurance and 401k. I even have copies of their settlement sheets to prove it.

Leasing is bad, and you will NEVER get home. If you did so much research you will see that every bad review of Prime was written by a lease op. Yhe glowing ones are company drivers.

Get your credit in order. Figure out how to manage your time and trip plan for the most availability and the miles will come. If you arent making it as a company driver with NO expenses, how do you think you will do as a lease op?

If you want to make good money and miles at Prime...go for a lightweight reefer. They average $6k more per year than the full size cabs and get paid vacation every 85,000 miles vs 125,000. Seriously think about this...a lightweight starts at 49cpm plus bonuses. 2800 miles is $1372 plus bonuses and you still get 401k and insurance for your family.

The average lease op net revenue is $1800 BEFORE taxes. They get no insurance or 401k. By the time they pay taxes our take home in pocket is the same....but i have medical, disability, life, vision, dental etc.

I hope we can talk you out of this!!!

I certainly do too.

Here's my first question. If you can't figure out how to make really good money consistently as a company driver how on Earth to you expect to do it as a business owner? You're going to have 10 times the amount of problems to juggle. As a company driver all you have to do is show up on time, manage your clock well, be really ambitious, and communicate well with people. If you can do all that you'll make great money as a company driver at any major carrier.

To make it as a business owner you'll have to do all of that and then add a long, long list of obligations on top of that to run your business. Then, in the end, even if you do it all perfectly you're going to realize that the profit margins are so tiny that you're not making any more money as a business owner than you were as a company driver but now you've gotten yourself deep into a major long term commitment involving a ton of financial risk.

Forget about it. You can make fantastic money as a company driver. Focus on learning how. Start with these:

What It Takes To Be A Top Tier Driver

Top Tier Truck Drivers Operate Like Great Business Owners

Welcome Kody, Your plan is flawed from the start. Lease programs are designed to make the companies money, not the driver. They lease you a truck, give you all the financial risk, and tie your hands with do’s and dont’s mostly dont’s. IF you want to do well owning your own truck you MUST buy it then you can lease onto a carrier. You told me alot with your statement of not having the credit to do that. That also indicates you probably don’t have startup cash either. Both are reasons you will enhance your potential for failure. I am leased onto a mega carrier. I came into this with not only purchasing my truck, not from the carrier, but with a decent amount set aside for maintance from the start. I have income outside of trucking and am single. I can assume more risk if I choose than alot of others. My carrier offers a lease program and I see people failing on a regular basis. They think they can make alot more money than being a company driver. They don’t realize how much more they are responsible for. Then they find out they can’t alter the truck in any manner. If it breaks, the company fixes it and charges them. They will provide a low interest loan if necessary, which now gives you an additional payment plus paying more for that repair. Next thing you know they are so under water they will never get out. Plus the payments don’t stop when you take time off. Here is an example that actually happened. I took alot of time off during the holidays. I planned ahead and worked out pulling some regional loads and stayed close too home. I made enough to keep my payments current and put a few bucks in my pocket. Every Dec. we get pretty slow with OTR loads. I knew after new years we would be back up and very busy OTR which is where our good paying loads are. Another driver I work with choose to take time off. He went in the hole and it took him the entire month of Jan making really good money to get out of the hole. Ask yourself if you can make it a whole month without a check. Most folks can’t. I tell you this to get you thinking about the reality of what you want to do.

Kody? Are you still with us?

You got some great advice to ponder here...hope you are seriously considering it.