[JohnnyT]

I am by no means new to trucking, my father has been trucking for the last 20 years and still drives to this day. My summers and winters were spent finding the quickest routes skipping the scales and loading/unloading the truck so he could get some rest. I never really had time to get out and see all 48 staes I have been in so I am used to just hauling day & night. As a mater of fact he used to have me do his logs once I was old enough to comprehend the instructions.

I have come into a financial strain here in southwest Fl and The best way to make some money after weeks of research is to get in a truck. Now I have a little bit of cash and could possibly pay for my own schooling, but I would rather save that to pay my mortgage and help my wife out for anything unseen and upcoming. I asked my father about Prime and he like every other post here suggested that a company seat is a fair place to start out at but he forbid the lease option which seemed a little barbaric to me anyway. I am looking into this comapny to basically get 1 year or around 100k miles of experience and then see where my wife and I are financialy.

At after this time period if I still need to go OTR I will, if are situation is better I will look for a more local FL route maybe with Winn Dixie or Publix etc. I am not looking for a quick financial fix but my current take home pay every 2 weeks is only $800 it is this way every spring thru winter with lots of hrs cut due to slow seasons. There is no growth potential and very little chance of increase in pay for this area of FL. I believe I can do better in a truck (ofcourse after 2-4months where I start getting paid by miles).

In the long run after 1 year of experience I can confidently say that my income will be higher if I choose trucking and if fuel prices ever go down hopefully after Bush leaves and the middle east calms down for abit I might look into buying not leasing my own truck. At which time I would have my father who is looking to slow down abit come split the truck with me and just alternate 2 weeks out 2 weeks in but the truck is always making money.

I have looked into Prime primarily for the sponsored training program and pay during training. I understand that once done I will probably get to go home maybe once every 3 weeks but my wife and I have decided to give this a year and see where it could lead. Atleast I will have the oppurtunity to get a little extra money in by taking more runs which in my position is the best thing anyone can ask for is more work to get more money.
Can anyone here who drives for Prime or recently has let me know if this is a fair company ( I know enough about trucking to know great companies are few and far between and you cant get in because there is a line) so I am looking for Fairness for a starting point. please kindly advise.

[Uturn2001]

Prime's training program is one of the biggest jokes in the industry. I do not know how anyone can refer to it as training as you are dispatched as a team operation from your first day on a truck.

As far as the fairness issue goes, why would you consider a company fair that does everything it can to sucker people into leasing a truck from them so that they can collect as much money as possible from them in order to pad their profits.

You would be, IMHO, 200% ahead of the curve to go through Swift for your training than Prime, and I am not at all fond of Swift either.

[drzebra]

*sigh*

And now come the misconceptions and untruths about Prime.

Let me start by saying that I am a Prime lease operator and have been successful in doing so since May. Before that, I was a team driver with Schneider National. I know what many of you think of truck leasing, it's been hashed out many, many times on here and I have seen much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the subject with so precious little actual experience to back it up.

First, let me clear up Prime's training program. You are NOT dispatched as a team from the start. You are put in a truck to learn to drive over the road on a one-on-one basis, yes, but but you've got to progress to B seat status before you start operating as anything resembling a team. Generally, it takes 3-4 being out with a CDL instructor to graduate from C seat status to B. All told, though, the new nonexperienced driver should have 60,000 miles personally driven before being given a truck. This is all laid out on Prime's website:

http://www.primeinc.com/drivers/prime_career_path.html

I don't know why people keep making false assertions when the real information is available to anyone making even a cursory visit to Prime's website.

As for the statement that Prime does everything it can to sucker you into a lease, I call bulls--- on that, too. The pressure to lease on me consisted of my recruiter asking me if I wanted to lease or go as a company driver. Oh, and I had to mark the appropriate box on the application, so I guess you could say that they technically asked twice. Even at the Prime terminals there is not a lot of pro-leasing propaganda. Several of the people who attended orientation with me were going to be company drivers, and I never witnessed any pressure on them to do otherwise, and they never mentioned any such pressure.

And here's the thing that I really don't get: everyone hollers about the big, bad conspiracy that Prime is offering leasing only to screw the driver. Now let's think logically about this for a second. Prime's major source of income is moving freight. Drivers who are being screwed right and left tend to not perform well. Drivers who don't perform well don't deliver freight reliably, thereby screwing Prime's customers. This means:

Screw your drivers = screw your customers = screw yourselves

This doesn't even begin to go into the money that Prime invests in you as a new driver. So how does wrecking driver profitability translate into company profit when doing so erodes your revenue stream? Please explain this to me.

The fact of the matter is that it is less expensive for Prime to lease trucks to drivers because drivers do take on the costs of fuel, maintenance, and other risks. The idea is that the driver is trying to run his/her truck more efficiently than Prime could, and by doing so gets to pocket 100% of the savings. And it does so in a manner that is less risky and less of a commitment than becoming a full-blown owner-operator. Sure, you won't own the truck at the end of the lease, but that may not be the goal of this particular lease operator. And if things aren't working out, you're not stuck with a truck that may be difficult to sell. You just turn the truck in and settle up. It's a straight walkaway lease.

Now to address the original post, at this time of the year, I'd recommend that you start out as a company driver. By the time you get through the training, winter will be close at hand and you won't have time to build up financial safeguards against the difficult months of January and February. Being a company driver will provide a more consistent income that can help you weather that when you're just starting out. Besides, I really don't recommend that a new driver lease a truck to start out anyway. It's enough to learn how to drive the truck without having the added stress and headache of learning how to operate a profitable business, too.

[Mackman]

Originally Posted by JohnnyT

I am by no means new to trucking

Well if this is true then you should know to stay away from prime

[drzebra]

Originally Posted by Mackman

Well if this is true then you should know to stay away from prime

And what personal experience do you have with Prime to back this up? Or are you just another one who reads this stuff on a message board and takes the hearsay as the gospel truth? If you have a genuine beef with the way that Prime has treated you personally, that's one thing. But I just can't respect those who make such blanket remarks without knowing a thing about the subject at hand.

JohnnyT is asking questions about a particular company, and these kinds of unfounded and undefended remarks are of no use to anybody.

[Uturn2001]

Let me start by saying that I am a Prime lease operator and have been successful in doing so since May.

Two months and you have it all figured out. Bravo. :roll:

You are NOT dispatched as a team from the start.

Then explain to me the number of people over the years that I have talked to that went through Prime to get their CDL's who said that as soon as they had their CDL's they were running as teams. And I am talking about well over 30 people. With the last person I talked to was within the last 3 months.

All told, though, the new nonexperienced driver should have 60,000 miles personally driven before being given a truck.

Which equates as working for Prime as cheap labor for 4-6 months.

I don't know why people keep making false assertions when the real information is available to anyone making even a cursory visit to Prime's website.

That is because Prime's web site is the biggest source of misinformation that there is, with the exception of their recruiters.

The pressure to lease on me consisted of my recruiter asking me if I wanted to lease or go as a company driver.

Why would they have to work any harder at sucking you into their rip off program. Sounds like they had you before you even picked up the phone and called them.

[drzebra]

[quote="Uturn2001"]

Two months and you have it all figured out. Bravo. :roll:

Again, your PERSONAL, first hand experience is? Sounds like in this case, two months is an edge over yours.

Then explain to me the number of people over the years that I have talked to that went through Prime to get their CDL's who said that as soon as they had their CDL's they were running as teams. And I am talking about well over 30 people. With the last person I talked to was within the last 3 months.

Sure, let's talk about that. In Prime's training program, you spend 4-5 weeks out with a trainer learning to drive before you actually get your CDL. This is twice as long as Schneider takes to train you, and the B seat system equates to a longer version of Schneider's training engineer program. You actually have a problem with getting 60,000 supervised miles before being let loose on the streets?

Which equates as working for Prime as cheap labor for 4-6 months.

Ah, so then ANY apprenticeship program is a ripoff then? I mean, you're getting training at Prime's expense for crying out loud. Why shouldn't you be expected to pay your dues? Is Schneider a ripoff because you're not paid while training and only get $350/wk while with a training engineer?

I That is because Prime's web site is the biggest source of misinformation that there is, with the exception of their recruiters.

Don't say something like that without giving specific examples. Seriously, what is the misinformation on there? Sounds like you know enough to tell me what exactly Prime is lying about despite never having spent day one working for Prime. Put up or shut up. Without specific, verifiable examples, you've got squat. Prove to me that you're not talking out of your rear.

Why would they have to work any harder at sucking you into their rip off program. Sounds like they had you before you even picked up the phone and called them.

Huh? Is this really the logic that you're using? Seriously, you never even addressed the larger question at hand, how the heck does Prime make any money by screwing their drivers?

You've got me condemned by virtue of being a Prime lease operator. I tell you that and you assume that I'm a moron or a sucker. But you offer exactly zero support for your position except more snide insults of Prime and of me, by extension. Show me that you truly know something about Prime beyond the vitriol normally spewed on these boards.

[continental]

:roll: Great. That's all we needed. A friggin' Prime recruiter. :roll:
So, you buy the truck from Prime, or rather Suck Ass leasing, but Prime keeps it. Great. Prime does not have to buy workman's comp for you or match your taxes. No benefits either. You maintain the truck.
You buy the fuel. Pay taxes. Etc.
It sounds to me that YOU are the winner in this.
BTW, if you get sick, and can't work, you're still liable for those highly inflated
payments.

[drzebra]

[quote="continental"]

:roll: Great. That's all we needed. A friggin' Prime recruiter. :roll:

:roll: Great. That's all I needed. A friggin' accusation of being a Prime recruiter based on nothing other than my statements that I'm happy there and trying to clear up misunderstandings and outright lies about the company. Another astounding leap of logic. :roll:

So, you buy the truck from Prime, or rather Suck Ass leasing, but Prime keeps it. Great.

HUH?? There is abolsutely NO pretense that you're buying the truck. You're leasing the truck.

Prime does not have to buy workman's comp for you or match your taxes. No benefits either. You maintain the truck.
You buy the fuel. Pay taxes. Etc.
It sounds to me that YOU are the winner in this.

So? It's the same arrangement offered by any company to any independent contractor or owner operator. I didn't realize that every owner operator out there is getting screwed right and left by the companies that they lease onto because they have to get their own workman's comp, buy their own fuel, pay their own taxes, maintenance, etc. See what I'm getting at here? Your logic is severely flawed.

BTW, if you get sick, and can't work, you're still liable for those highly inflated payments.

Now this is patently incorrect. You get sick and can't work, you turn the truck in and the payments stop. When you get better, you go back and pick out another truck. Why do people keep ignoring the WALK AWAY LEASE part of it?

Besides, what happens to an owner operator who finances his truck and then gets sick and can't work?

Look, I'm not a recruiter. I'm just a driver. I'm not paid to endorse Prime and I'm not trying to sell the company or leasing to everyone. I'm just trying to set the record straight because the vast majority of what is said about Prime on this board is flat wrong and propogated by those who have absolutely no idea as to what they're talking about.

Now let me ask you a question? Why are you so hostile to those who are curious about Prime? I step in and rebut accusations and then get attacked as a lease operator. I rebut those and am now accused of recruiting. How about we let the people who actually have driven for Prime answer the Prime questions? Good or bad, those with real experience are the only ones truly suited to talk on the subject, don't you think?

[Uturn2001]

Seriously, you never even addressed the larger question at hand, how the heck does Prime make any money by screwing their drivers?

Ok lets see if you can follow this:

Prime buys a truck and in less than 3 years of leasing that truck the truck is paid for. However the trucks Prime leases to drivers are leased for longer than 3 years total and for every year after that 3rd year Prime makes $30,000 or more per year. Then in either trade equity or by selling the truck outright Prime makes at least another $30,000 or more on the truck that is now 4-5 years old. In essence they make $60,000 or more in pure profit by leasing a truck. If a driver completes a lease of 3-4 years (depending on division per Primes website) they have more than paid for the truck with high interest, and if they actually want to own that truck they still have to cough up "fair market value". So if a lease op actually ends up owning the truck they, in essence, just bought 1 1/2 to 2 trucks by the time it is all said and done.

Next if a driver, for whatever reason, fails to complete the lease and turns a truck in early, Prime has a major history of keeping all money a driver has in the maintenance account for "repairs" to the truck regardless of the shape the truck is returned in. Even if a truck has been fully serviced just prior to being turned in the lease op still finds themselves charged for new tires, an oil change, paint restoration, among other things, even though the truck may not need such work done. Then when all is said and done, if there was not enough money in the maintenance account to cover all these charges Prime will keep your final check and if that still does not cover it will bill the lease op for the balance. The real screwing here is that many times the work that is being charged for is never done.

I could go on but there really is no point is there, since as mentioned above, you are most likely not even a driver for Prime but a recruiter. If you are a lease op then be sure to come back in a year and tell us again how great things are.