My Life As A 25yr Old Lease Operator With NO Prior Experience

Hey everyone! I wanted to start this thread as a way for me to document my time here at Prime as a Lease Op and for other driver to be able to ask questions! I'm a new driver eith no prior experience so I won't have ALL the answers, but I will surely be able to answer some and give my insight into what you're thinking!

I will be 100% open and honest with anything I say in this thread. This is NOT to sugarcoat Prime and make it seem like the best company out! I genuinely just want to be able to talk with other drivers, new and old, and gain some knowledge as well as give a little bit out!

I have been OTR for 8 weeks now. I'm a single 25yr old guy with no kids so I very rarely go home. The first month out on the road was a slight learning experience, I mean that in the sense of learning the way I THINK things SHOULD go while running my own truck. I genuinely love what I do and I have a true passion for trucking, always been interested just never got into it because of my other Career path of 12 years that I ended up leaving behind.

Being OTR is a ton of fun if you like to just be out and about! I absolutely LOVE driving so i felt trucking would've been good for me anyway. With Prime, ESPECIALLY as a Lease Op, you WILL be driving assuming you want to make your payments. Prime will 100% of the time give you the loads to make your truck payment AND put some money in your pocket, so if "Not being able to make the payments" is something steering you away, I promise you, they will give you the loads to make those payments. They gain nothing from you not paying on time, you'll just end up negative x amount of dollars the next week and will have to dig yourself out of the whole.

Let's talk about loads now. The loads Prime has supplied me have been amazing FOR ME! Remember, I'm 25, single, no kids, and barely ever go home so the money I'm making might not be good for you considering your situation, it varies from person to person. On average I drive about 2850 miles a week, some more some less. This is all dependant on how YOU run. My truck doesn't really stop moving. The longest time I sat (While Out on the road) was less than 24hrs and that was solely because a receiver messed up and made me reschedule. There have been times where I sat for a few days, and that's usually when I return to the Terminal in Springfield, that's mostly my fault and there being a lack of loads coming out of the Terminal sometimes. Usually, you can grab a load with no problem from the Terminal but weekends make that a bit harder and holidays aswell! This past week I'd been up in the Northern Central United States, Michigan and around that area and I didn't like it, mainly because I just genuinely didn't like the area. So I asked my fleet manager to get me away from there and bring me closer to Central US and work me out from there and sure enough, after I'd dropped my load up near Flint, I was headed back down to area I was more familiar with, no problems at all from the Fleet Manager.

Now I'll talk about what I feel like most people want to know and that's the pay. With the way I run my truck, I average just under 2000 weekly. This is with EVERYTHING taken out so that's 2000 deposited into my account. Prime Lease Ops take a percentage of every load, which is very nice in my opinion, BUT this can make for some bad weeks and good weeks as well as perceived bad loads and great loads! (AGAIN, what I am bringing home is great for me, it might not be great for you! I'm simply just sharing my experiences!) My best week I brought home $2652.57 and my worst week I'd brought home $600. The $600 pay week came right after I'd went home for the first time and was the first week back out from being home, so it makes sense as to why it was so low, I was a bit negative because I left in the middle of the week and had only done 2 loads which were decent.

I'd say, as a brand new Lease Op with no experience, this has so far been a phenomenal experience out on the road! The only real gripes i have are that I'm now learning, Shippers and Receivers do NOT value your time lol. It's honestly kind of crazy because most of them will have to pay out Detention Time, so you'd think, "If this truck is here AT THEIR APPT TIME, we should probably get them unloaded so we don't have to pay out of pocket for our negligence" But that is not the case hahaha, they don't care 🤷🏾‍♂️ Also, this is a given but my GOD are there some stupid people that are allowed to operate motor vehicles out there.... I have seen maneuvers pulled by people out on the road that I wouldn't even have tried in Grand Theft Auto, PLEASE BE SAFE AND ATTENTIVE!

This is really all I can think to type at this moment. I'm currently sitting at a Receiver waiting on my door and had the spontaneous decision to create am account and start posting. Hopefully this goes somewhere!

PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS AND SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE! I LOVE TO LEARN! Thank you all! And be safe out there drivers!

Oh also! Try to eat healthy! I was 120lbs when I started 2 months ago, let's just say i am NOT 120lbs anymore! 😅

Hi. Shoot me an email and i can teach you a few things about your settlements.

Truckingalongfun@gmail.com

Not to pee in your cheerios, but as a current L/O with Prime, I have seen a few hundred of you start the exact same way over the last three years. The real tragedy is that you aren't aware of how much you don't know, until you need to know it.

Keep up the optimism. You're gonna need it.

I read this through a couple times to be sure I was reading it correctly and not missing any points so I don’t sound like a crabby old guy.

I’m going to assume the OP already has the knowledge and skills necessary to run a business.

Make sure you save money because when, not if anything on that truck breaks you will need money to pay for the repairs. Even new trucks will breakdown. I hear folks preach about it being under warranty. That can help, but will not replace lost revenue.

I’ve lost count how many people I have seen go down this road and not have the skills, knowledge, or drive to be successful.

I wish the OP well.

Apex-One, we love your optimism!

One thing you have to realize is there are a lot of experienced driver/mentors here. The two ladies who responded already have volumes of knowledge that can help you. Pay special attention to anything they may say.

Also, there's not a driver here who would recommend jumping right into a lease program with zero experience. We've seen a lot of people do this with nothing but grand visions of success. Unfortunately most of them hit reality at some point. This isn't a business for the inexperienced to take on boldly. You've done it, and we welcome your reports. Just trust me when I say we will know when you're shooting straight.

You gave us a decent dollar amount that you referenced as being deposited after "everything was taken out." Are your taxes taken out? What about health insurance? What happens to that dollar amount when you have a major repair? To say "everything is taken out" needs some qualifications. To give out glowing reports of income when you first start a lease program is very misleading. After you've done this for a couple of years your math will be more realistic.

Keep up your posts, but understand that we will have a lot more respect for your commentary after you've done about 250,000 miles.

And to just add a tidbit I've seen and read around here. O/O's and L/O's when talking dollars NET in pocket. The proof is in their annual Tax Returns! lol......Great to hear you're currently doing well at it, and it continues to bring you success.

If we want to get nit picky, there is a BIG difference between the total cash into your pocket, and effectively the adjusted gross income that you are paying taxes on.

And to just add a tidbit I've seen and read around here. O/O's and L/O's when talking dollars NET in pocket. The proof is in their annual Tax Returns! lol......Great to hear you're currently doing well at it, and it continues to bring you success.

Ypu can definitely get hung out to dry on taxes. I'd recommend getting an enrolled agent that has experience with truckers. I'd also recommend you familiarize yourself with LLc formations, vs sole prop, also, I'd get an EIN, set up a business and ultimately het your checks made out to ypur business if you haven't already done so. I don't how prime works, but the carrier I had looked into running as an O/O would have done that.

Right now, all your revenue is going to be counted as income, you'll end up paying not only income tax but owing self employment tax as well. Without having correctly itemized write offs, you have nothing to offset your income.

Also, you'll have no social security contributions, no unemployment insurance, no retirement plan unless your contributing to one as well as no health insurance. Also probably no workers comp.

I don't know if it's possible as an l/p, but in my previous business, I used to pay myself a small salary, I was an employee of my own company, that way I had my benefits, fica, etc all taken care of. I had a payroll service and 15 guys though.

Just one thing to think about when deciding to lease is who actually benefits the most in a lease. The company. You are making their truck payments, you are paying for the fuel and repairs, you are paying all the taxes, and they don't cover you on their insurance policy. They hook you when they show you the revenue they say you can earn. But that is still contingent based on the fact they control the freight you have available. In reality its a win for the company.

Also, you'll have no social security contributions

Self-employment tax does cover social security and medicare. That's what it's for.

Not that I'm for being a lease op, just saying.