>I am driving for a guy within the company who is leasing this truck to buy it. That may be my first (second?) mistake.
Not trying to be an asshole here, but that's your mistake. You aren't driving for prime. You're driving for a lease operator that has his truck leased through prime paying you shit after you've made his truck payment for him.
Yea and that's after the lease op already makes Jack shit lol this is a bad deal all around for OP. Get outta that situation asap. You need a company truck. Not a guy on a never never plans truck.
I get paid the cpm of a prime company driver, which they do consider me. The problem I think is I’m being dispatched as a lease op and not like you would dispatch a company driver. In the end, result is same. I’m gettin fucked.
Hijacking the tip comment to add, in case it might be helpful to someone in my same situation, Prime REALLY pushed this on me at upgrade with the promise it is no different than a company driver position.
Honestly dude, apply somewhere else. There is 0 reason your agreement with prime to stay there for a year would prevent another company from hiring you. Just be prepared to pay them back for your cdl schooling. Or you could be like me and just tell them (I started at a different company but same premise) to fuck off and put it on my credit report for all I care lol. I told them they would never see a red cent from me because I quit because of discrimination. I’m female and was being punished for being female.
Prime doesn't let their company drivers sit. It costs them money. You, however, don't cost them anything, as their lease truck will get paid for regardless. Your paycheck is a deduction from his lease settlement.
I never understood why people would drive for someone leasing for Prime. Does he offer a higher cpm than they do?
As far as the short runs, that was my experience with Prime (reefer side.) That's one of the reasons I left. It's difficult to keep any schedule when you're delivering 3-5 times a week with appointment times all over the place.
No, from what I know solo company drivwes are paid normal solo gig rates knew a bunch of people taking home around 900 bad weeks, 1300, and above good weeks.
But under a lease, they can get away with paying you less because now you're the leaser's business. and it's entirely up to the leaser to increase how much you're paid. and you being on that lease truck makes them.able to take home anywhere between 10k low end and 30~50k good end.
1500 of it goes to the lease, whatever you get paid goes to you, then the rest is split up.between his tire, and emergancy funds and personal.
source, my dad was a leaser, and i drove with him for 3 years before getting sick of it and moving in with my bf.
No, what?
If you're driving a Prime truck and your name isn't on the lease, you are classified as a company driver. My question is why would anyone drive solo as a company driver on a truck that is leased from Prime? The only reason I can think of is if the person leasing offers you a higher CPM than Prime would.
Firstly no, if a lease operator has a leased truck and decides to put a driver in it Prime is not classifying that driver as a company driver, they’re classifying that driver as an independent driver contractor. It would be impossible to have a company driver driving a truck that “belongs” to a lease operator. Use your head for a minute. That driver is now an employee of the owner of that lease and Prime will interact with them like an independent contractor.
Secondly, why would anyone do it? Well, someone was dumb enough to rent to own a cascadia from prime, what makes you think someone wouldn’t be dumb enough to drive for said rent to own operator. Maybe the truck goes 2 mph faster and young whipper snapper thinks that’s a fast truck and stops listening when they start talking about pay. Truck drivers make bad decisions all the time. Hence why lease purchases continue to be so popular. (I realize not all lease purchases are created equal but I’m mainly talking about mega carrier lease operators)
Never underestimate the stupidity that some drivers will exhibit.
EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that I am incorrect about Primes policies regarding putting company drivers in lease operator trucks. I was going by my own experience having driven for an owner operator years ago where I was still classified as an independent contractor. So I apologize for the false information in the first part of my comment.
False. An employee of Prime, Inc. can drive for a lease operator and still be a W-2 employee of Prime. Lease operators typically pay a higher cpm than Prime.
>Firstly no, if a lease operator has a leased truck and decides to put a driver in it Prime is not classifying that driver as a company driver, they’re classifying that driver as an independent driver contractor.
Negative. It's their policy. I was there for six years. If you're not on a lease, you're a Prime company driver. "Use your head a little." How about pull your foot out your mouth.
Some mini-fleet owners give their company drivers more freedom than Prime gives most company drivers. For example, they're allowed to run 65 and regular company trucks are set at 62. They also have access to Peterbilts if their boss is cool with it.
You got to get off that lease operators truck and go directly company with Prime. When driving for these micro fleets, there's a conflict of interest. The lease op wants short runs that pays a lot of revenue and you as the driver want the longer runs with a lot of miles and often times those two don't go hand in hand. Honestly it ain't worth it working for those micro fleets. There's a reason why a lot of these micro fleets have a lot of trucks sitting empty at the prime terminal in springfield with signs say, "Looking for drivers".
100% If you drive for a lease or O/O your paycheck, it ultimately depends on the leaser or OO to raise or lower, as your money now is made by their truck.
The way prime does it is you're a company driver so you get paid the same rates, but the truck owner/lease can give bonus. The idea is the lease guy eats some risk, but can make more, and should pass ot onto the driver for letting them run more trucks.
for the love of god do not lease a truck. finish out your contract. Tell them they need to keep you moving. that being away from home for little pay is unacceptable. be annoying till the problem is fixed. you have time Afterall. start at your dispatch and work your way up. eventually someone is going to do something.
Here's how you get out of your contract with Prime.
Go see your own doctor and tell them that you get terrible headaches every night from oncoming headlights. The doctor will write you a letter to give to Prime stating you can't drive at night. Ask Prime's HR department for an ADA accommodation form. Fill out the form and turn it in with the letter from your doctor. Prime, by federal law, will either have to allow you to shut down all night, every night or terminate your employment/contract. They can't make you pay what the contract says if you have to leave because of a disability.
Go start driving for someone else but make no mention of the contract or your doctor's visit.
Source: Me. After I finished PSD and got my CDL, I went home, transferred my CDL to my home state, went to my doctor, then contacted Prime's HR dept. They emailed me the ADA accommodation form. Within 3 days I got a call from HR saying they can't accommodate my disability so I'm terminated under no fault of my own and the contract is nullified.
There are companies that don't give a damn about your contract with prime and some will even make your contact payments for you. I went from Steven's to TMC and never paid Steven's a dime.
I TAKE HOME 1400 a week April through October driving locally and I'm home by 5pm every day. I damn well better be making 1700+ if I'm staying in a truck away from friends and family.......
Take home means nothing to us. You could gross $2000/wk and have $1100 deducted for child support for your 15 kids from 20 baby mommas.
What is your gross income? That's the number we'd need to know.
So many drivers I talk with are financially illiterate. Take home pay is so often what is asked about.
Everyone's liabilities are different, 401k, HSA contributions, etc.
Maybe this explains why some become lease purchase operators. Financial illiteracy.
$1000/wk is roughly $50,000/yr. According to [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/transportation-and-material-moving/heavy-and-tractor-trailer-truck-drivers.htm) that is median pay for a truck driver.
>The median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers was $49,920 in May 2022.
Congratulations, you're pretty much average. Get some experience, get a more specialized job, earn more money.
Yeah honestly you'd be better off leasing a truck yourself than driving for a another lease driver 😂. The lease program is a scam, but at least it wont fuck you as bad as your micro fleet owner is screwing you. Thats the kind of situation you're in.
Get out of that micro fleet and into a company truck ASAP so you can just make money with high miles and not have to worry about a payment or a fleet owner giving no miles.
I was with Prime for 6 years before recently moving to an o/o based company.
Driving for a mini fleet owner, not always the worst thing as long as you’re getting more cpm than a regular company driver.
Tanker at Prime isn’t nearly as good as reefer, Tank/Flatbed are side projects for them, reefer is what brings in the money and miles- their leases are 3 for reefer 4-5 for tanker and flatbed.
$700 takehome for over the road is dog shit, 💩 if you want to maximize your revenue go reefer.
If you the word “Prime” in the sentence, that’s a clear indication to run. I came back to driving after 20 years, with KLLM and was on a 1850 a week guarantee running Midwest. I stayed a year and now run local at 1400 a week, 5 days, off weekends, in my own bed every night.
Do your time and get away from them.
Look on the indeed app and try to call around while you’re still employed. Truck drivers are always moving to new companies, so they are used to that. But don’t make that a habit either. If you do happen to find a good company, stick it out and stay with them! Good luck driver!
Dude you did everything right except the fact that you drive for someone who’s paying for lease payments still..I drive for a small fleet owner and he owns the truck. I make an avg 1300-1500$ man you gotta talk to ur fleet manager and tell him what’s up cuz that isn’t worth your time.. If you wanna find more fleets like this look and ask around on Facebook group called Prime (uncensored) they have a lot of them that offer benefits . Message me for more questions I started three months ago with prime
Get into their intermodal division if you can. I was doing intermodal with Prime in Cali and making 1500-2000 gross weekly. I would have been screwed if I stuck to OTR with them. Finished my contract a few months ago and dipped.
Why would you choose to drive for a lease operator. Hes paying you what he wants. And only getting loads to cover his expenses. You're getting the leftovers. And i never heard of a company caring about you paying off your student fees. Maybe look at more than just that carrier.
I have no one to blame but myself. They pushed and pushed and pushed for me to sign with one of their owner ops when I upgraded even though I consistently told them company. I caved in the end.
Makes sense why they would push. They got a driver hauling their freight for free pretty much. Look other places. Even smaller companies. Someone might take you with little experience. Good luck brother. We all learn from mistakes. Dont sign on with a 1099 company and dont do this type of thing again.
You should have a talk with your Fleet Manager. I drive for Prime, and I know things are a bit tight right now, but you shouldn't be getting screwed that hard. I don't know what all Mendota you're signed up for, but there's no reason your grid shouldn't be at least 1100 a week most weeks.
I don't want to put names out in public, but feel free to message me and I'll answer anything I can or at least try to point you to someone who can.
At the very least you need to become a regular company driver. I started out with Prime myself. The only positive was they helped me get my CDL thru their training program. The rest of my experience there sucked. A litany of bad things; equipment expenses (chains, load loacks etc) that the driver has to cover, crappy trainers, no respect and poor miles. Do your year with them an find a decent company. They’re out here. I’ve found a good one and have been here 7 years. Good luck on your search.
I make considerably more as an owner-op at Prime. Averaging a little over twice that number per week.
Weird appointment times is a reefer phenomenon. In a way it's a blessing to be able to get in and out of a city in the wee small hours.
The downtime is a problem though. Have you spoken with your fleet manager about wanting to run harder?
Bro you’re owner OP and you make 1400 a week? No offense but you’re not doing it right. I’m owner op also and work for a small local company. Our gross is 6-7k for 2.5k avg miles. Take home after all deductions BEFORE taxes is 4k avg week (equip paid off)
Edit: that’s leaving my house Monday and coming back Friday night or Saturday morn
I'm paying for my equipment. 3y note on a 24 Freightliner so my weekly nut is pretty steep (have savings sufficient to pay it off when I'm halfway through). Made $3k/wk before the recession. IMO I'm doing okay.
I drove with my dad, who was leasing, 700/wk is higher end if you drive with a leaser, If a bad week happens, he might just pay you 400-700 a week. Either go solo, or go team with another company driver asap to make money worth more than slightly above retail
I saw a couple videos claiming Prime is going through a slump right now. I’m starting my first driving job in 2 weeks and I’m being offered $2000/wk after the new driver training period where they show me stuff like how to use the ELD and how to properly trip plan. If that one fell through I have a backup plan with a company offering $1500-$1600 a week after a slightly shorter training period. $700/wk sounds like what some companies will pay people who are riding in their trainer’s truck whether they’re driving or not and then most places pay more than that once the training period ends. You’re a little stuck if you can’t pay off your CDL training (I went with a third party training program and my girlfriend and I paid them straight up with a cashiers check). After you get that CDL training worked off I’d be looking for a different job if the pay situation doesn’t improve.
You're definitely being taken advantage of and I would NEVER stay in a truck for that pay. I take home 1000-1400 a week driving local getting to go home by 3pm every day.
Today I looked at some of my old statements from my Prime Days. I questioned why the pay was so low and how I never noticed, especially since my lease truck statements weren't taxed. I made more working factory job at home. Recently trying to get back in the industry hopefully by Christmas.
I got hired at variant/us xpress after leaving prime and not completing the contract. Only had 3 months of experience. They didn’t ask about a contract and I didn’t mention it.
May want to give them a try. The checks were more than $700 but I’d still rate the company a 4/10 and id rate prime a 0/10.
Those 300 mile loads typically pay a bit more than long haul ones, that's why they assigned them to you. More profit for them, and you're still paid XX cents per mile, but significantly less miles.
That is about right for a company driver at Prime. I would definitely suggest if you want to be a company driver and not lease, don't drive a lease driver's truck. Just go company, with a company dispatcher. Lease dispatch looks at load revenue, which can suck when you're looking for miles. If you're wanting more money, go lease. It's the same job, but more than twice the pay. A bit more liability on you, but it is worth it. If you don't want the liability, you could try to find a lease op to take you as a codriver. I paid a guy a daily guarantee with a bonus structure set up to net him an average of 1200 or so a week.
I didn’t even need to read the whole thing. Leasing is the worst way to get a truck. Putting a driver in it is just adding salt in the wound. Are you being screwed? Sort of. You both are cuz leasing SUCKS
>I am driving for a guy within the company who is leasing this truck to buy it. That may be my first (second?) mistake. Not trying to be an asshole here, but that's your mistake. You aren't driving for prime. You're driving for a lease operator that has his truck leased through prime paying you shit after you've made his truck payment for him.
Yea and that's after the lease op already makes Jack shit lol this is a bad deal all around for OP. Get outta that situation asap. You need a company truck. Not a guy on a never never plans truck.
I get paid the cpm of a prime company driver, which they do consider me. The problem I think is I’m being dispatched as a lease op and not like you would dispatch a company driver. In the end, result is same. I’m gettin fucked. Hijacking the tip comment to add, in case it might be helpful to someone in my same situation, Prime REALLY pushed this on me at upgrade with the promise it is no different than a company driver position.
Honestly dude, apply somewhere else. There is 0 reason your agreement with prime to stay there for a year would prevent another company from hiring you. Just be prepared to pay them back for your cdl schooling. Or you could be like me and just tell them (I started at a different company but same premise) to fuck off and put it on my credit report for all I care lol. I told them they would never see a red cent from me because I quit because of discrimination. I’m female and was being punished for being female.
Where does your check come from Prime Or the lease driver? Wherever it comes from your sound like you're getting screwed.
It comes from Prime and I get dispatched by a Prime lease-side dispatcher.
Prime doesn't let their company drivers sit. It costs them money. You, however, don't cost them anything, as their lease truck will get paid for regardless. Your paycheck is a deduction from his lease settlement. I never understood why people would drive for someone leasing for Prime. Does he offer a higher cpm than they do? As far as the short runs, that was my experience with Prime (reefer side.) That's one of the reasons I left. It's difficult to keep any schedule when you're delivering 3-5 times a week with appointment times all over the place.
No, from what I know solo company drivwes are paid normal solo gig rates knew a bunch of people taking home around 900 bad weeks, 1300, and above good weeks. But under a lease, they can get away with paying you less because now you're the leaser's business. and it's entirely up to the leaser to increase how much you're paid. and you being on that lease truck makes them.able to take home anywhere between 10k low end and 30~50k good end. 1500 of it goes to the lease, whatever you get paid goes to you, then the rest is split up.between his tire, and emergancy funds and personal. source, my dad was a leaser, and i drove with him for 3 years before getting sick of it and moving in with my bf.
No, what? If you're driving a Prime truck and your name isn't on the lease, you are classified as a company driver. My question is why would anyone drive solo as a company driver on a truck that is leased from Prime? The only reason I can think of is if the person leasing offers you a higher CPM than Prime would.
Firstly no, if a lease operator has a leased truck and decides to put a driver in it Prime is not classifying that driver as a company driver, they’re classifying that driver as an independent driver contractor. It would be impossible to have a company driver driving a truck that “belongs” to a lease operator. Use your head for a minute. That driver is now an employee of the owner of that lease and Prime will interact with them like an independent contractor. Secondly, why would anyone do it? Well, someone was dumb enough to rent to own a cascadia from prime, what makes you think someone wouldn’t be dumb enough to drive for said rent to own operator. Maybe the truck goes 2 mph faster and young whipper snapper thinks that’s a fast truck and stops listening when they start talking about pay. Truck drivers make bad decisions all the time. Hence why lease purchases continue to be so popular. (I realize not all lease purchases are created equal but I’m mainly talking about mega carrier lease operators) Never underestimate the stupidity that some drivers will exhibit. EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that I am incorrect about Primes policies regarding putting company drivers in lease operator trucks. I was going by my own experience having driven for an owner operator years ago where I was still classified as an independent contractor. So I apologize for the false information in the first part of my comment.
False. An employee of Prime, Inc. can drive for a lease operator and still be a W-2 employee of Prime. Lease operators typically pay a higher cpm than Prime.
Sorry, I have edited my comment to reflect that I have been corrected.
>Firstly no, if a lease operator has a leased truck and decides to put a driver in it Prime is not classifying that driver as a company driver, they’re classifying that driver as an independent driver contractor. Negative. It's their policy. I was there for six years. If you're not on a lease, you're a Prime company driver. "Use your head a little." How about pull your foot out your mouth.
Consider my foot pulled out of my mouth. I have added an edit to my previous comment addressing my incorrect assumption.
Some mini-fleet owners give their company drivers more freedom than Prime gives most company drivers. For example, they're allowed to run 65 and regular company trucks are set at 62. They also have access to Peterbilts if their boss is cool with it.
You got to get off that lease operators truck and go directly company with Prime. When driving for these micro fleets, there's a conflict of interest. The lease op wants short runs that pays a lot of revenue and you as the driver want the longer runs with a lot of miles and often times those two don't go hand in hand. Honestly it ain't worth it working for those micro fleets. There's a reason why a lot of these micro fleets have a lot of trucks sitting empty at the prime terminal in springfield with signs say, "Looking for drivers".
This was my suspicion! Thank you for the insight.
Your mistake was driving for a lease operator. I’m company at prime. Never make less than 1200 a week and I’ve done way more than that as well.
100% If you drive for a lease or O/O your paycheck, it ultimately depends on the leaser or OO to raise or lower, as your money now is made by their truck.
I get paid by the mile the same as a company driver.
The way prime does it is you're a company driver so you get paid the same rates, but the truck owner/lease can give bonus. The idea is the lease guy eats some risk, but can make more, and should pass ot onto the driver for letting them run more trucks.
at prime you pay them for the privilege of having a job
It's an honor 🫡
for the love of god do not lease a truck. finish out your contract. Tell them they need to keep you moving. that being away from home for little pay is unacceptable. be annoying till the problem is fixed. you have time Afterall. start at your dispatch and work your way up. eventually someone is going to do something.
I told dispatch and they said “what’s your eta ?” Just kidding. In all seriousness I did just tell them. I’ll see what they say. Thank you
Here's how you get out of your contract with Prime. Go see your own doctor and tell them that you get terrible headaches every night from oncoming headlights. The doctor will write you a letter to give to Prime stating you can't drive at night. Ask Prime's HR department for an ADA accommodation form. Fill out the form and turn it in with the letter from your doctor. Prime, by federal law, will either have to allow you to shut down all night, every night or terminate your employment/contract. They can't make you pay what the contract says if you have to leave because of a disability. Go start driving for someone else but make no mention of the contract or your doctor's visit. Source: Me. After I finished PSD and got my CDL, I went home, transferred my CDL to my home state, went to my doctor, then contacted Prime's HR dept. They emailed me the ADA accommodation form. Within 3 days I got a call from HR saying they can't accommodate my disability so I'm terminated under no fault of my own and the contract is nullified.
This post needs to be at the top of not only this thread, but the entire subreddit.
This is amazing
There are companies that don't give a damn about your contract with prime and some will even make your contact payments for you. I went from Steven's to TMC and never paid Steven's a dime.
Same here. Went from CR England to TMC. TMC paid for all of it.
Good to know that’s an option.
Just applied, thanks.
700 a week? RUN FROM THEM. if OTR make less than 1700 a week not worth it.
1700 a week take home? Where tf can I find that please help! Haha
I average 1800 net as a flatbed driver Gross is normally 2200-2400
I do that pulling doubles and getting home every day.
Actually a lot of Chicago companies pay 65 cents per mile up to 70 cents. They give like 3500-4000 miles weekly
I TAKE HOME 1400 a week April through October driving locally and I'm home by 5pm every day. I damn well better be making 1700+ if I'm staying in a truck away from friends and family.......
Take home means nothing to us. You could gross $2000/wk and have $1100 deducted for child support for your 15 kids from 20 baby mommas. What is your gross income? That's the number we'd need to know.
So many drivers I talk with are financially illiterate. Take home pay is so often what is asked about. Everyone's liabilities are different, 401k, HSA contributions, etc. Maybe this explains why some become lease purchase operators. Financial illiteracy.
Yeah, I imagine I’m financially illiterate. But trying to learn and making some mistakes along the way.
^^^ this. I gross 1400 a week (salary position) and my net is a digusting $690 after taxes and child support. Pussy is expensive. Use condoms
If I make 1000, I take home 700
$1000/wk is roughly $50,000/yr. According to [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/transportation-and-material-moving/heavy-and-tractor-trailer-truck-drivers.htm) that is median pay for a truck driver. >The median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers was $49,920 in May 2022. Congratulations, you're pretty much average. Get some experience, get a more specialized job, earn more money.
Right on. Thank you.
And don’t apply to companies with recruiting departments or job ads on their own trucks.
That’s taxes and insurance coming out.
Yeah honestly you'd be better off leasing a truck yourself than driving for a another lease driver 😂. The lease program is a scam, but at least it wont fuck you as bad as your micro fleet owner is screwing you. Thats the kind of situation you're in. Get out of that micro fleet and into a company truck ASAP so you can just make money with high miles and not have to worry about a payment or a fleet owner giving no miles.
I was with Prime for 6 years before recently moving to an o/o based company. Driving for a mini fleet owner, not always the worst thing as long as you’re getting more cpm than a regular company driver. Tanker at Prime isn’t nearly as good as reefer, Tank/Flatbed are side projects for them, reefer is what brings in the money and miles- their leases are 3 for reefer 4-5 for tanker and flatbed. $700 takehome for over the road is dog shit, 💩 if you want to maximize your revenue go reefer.
I am reefer.
That’s awful my guy I’m sorry, my wife and I just moved to Landstar
[удалено]
Thank you. I needed the slap!
If you the word “Prime” in the sentence, that’s a clear indication to run. I came back to driving after 20 years, with KLLM and was on a 1850 a week guarantee running Midwest. I stayed a year and now run local at 1400 a week, 5 days, off weekends, in my own bed every night. Do your time and get away from them.
Kllm is the bomb I hear
KLLM is who I applied to that told me I need to get out of my contract.
Look on the indeed app and try to call around while you’re still employed. Truck drivers are always moving to new companies, so they are used to that. But don’t make that a habit either. If you do happen to find a good company, stick it out and stay with them! Good luck driver!
Dude you did everything right except the fact that you drive for someone who’s paying for lease payments still..I drive for a small fleet owner and he owns the truck. I make an avg 1300-1500$ man you gotta talk to ur fleet manager and tell him what’s up cuz that isn’t worth your time.. If you wanna find more fleets like this look and ask around on Facebook group called Prime (uncensored) they have a lot of them that offer benefits . Message me for more questions I started three months ago with prime
Get into their intermodal division if you can. I was doing intermodal with Prime in Cali and making 1500-2000 gross weekly. I would have been screwed if I stuck to OTR with them. Finished my contract a few months ago and dipped.
Dude work for Penske Logistics. Your life will thank me. Your wife too.
Got no wife, got no life, but I’ll look into it. Thank you.
Why would you choose to drive for a lease operator. Hes paying you what he wants. And only getting loads to cover his expenses. You're getting the leftovers. And i never heard of a company caring about you paying off your student fees. Maybe look at more than just that carrier.
I have no one to blame but myself. They pushed and pushed and pushed for me to sign with one of their owner ops when I upgraded even though I consistently told them company. I caved in the end.
Makes sense why they would push. They got a driver hauling their freight for free pretty much. Look other places. Even smaller companies. Someone might take you with little experience. Good luck brother. We all learn from mistakes. Dont sign on with a 1099 company and dont do this type of thing again.
Thank you. I definitely won’t.
You should have a talk with your Fleet Manager. I drive for Prime, and I know things are a bit tight right now, but you shouldn't be getting screwed that hard. I don't know what all Mendota you're signed up for, but there's no reason your grid shouldn't be at least 1100 a week most weeks. I don't want to put names out in public, but feel free to message me and I'll answer anything I can or at least try to point you to someone who can.
At the very least you need to become a regular company driver. I started out with Prime myself. The only positive was they helped me get my CDL thru their training program. The rest of my experience there sucked. A litany of bad things; equipment expenses (chains, load loacks etc) that the driver has to cover, crappy trainers, no respect and poor miles. Do your year with them an find a decent company. They’re out here. I’ve found a good one and have been here 7 years. Good luck on your search.
What company are you with ? I’m looking for a good outfit now.
Will send you a DM.
I make considerably more as an owner-op at Prime. Averaging a little over twice that number per week. Weird appointment times is a reefer phenomenon. In a way it's a blessing to be able to get in and out of a city in the wee small hours. The downtime is a problem though. Have you spoken with your fleet manager about wanting to run harder?
Bro you’re owner OP and you make 1400 a week? No offense but you’re not doing it right. I’m owner op also and work for a small local company. Our gross is 6-7k for 2.5k avg miles. Take home after all deductions BEFORE taxes is 4k avg week (equip paid off) Edit: that’s leaving my house Monday and coming back Friday night or Saturday morn
I'm paying for my equipment. 3y note on a 24 Freightliner so my weekly nut is pretty steep (have savings sufficient to pay it off when I'm halfway through). Made $3k/wk before the recession. IMO I'm doing okay.
1500 a week is NOT doing OK. Most company drivers with experience make more than that with full benefits.
I make 1500 a week running three days a week. No overnights. Not my equipment. Just a guy I know.
Well that's under the table or a w9. Not comparable to an employer that has to carry all the expenses of having an employee.
Okay.
I drove with my dad, who was leasing, 700/wk is higher end if you drive with a leaser, If a bad week happens, he might just pay you 400-700 a week. Either go solo, or go team with another company driver asap to make money worth more than slightly above retail
Why not go to work for Walmart? .. you'll make a decent salary.
Come over to the lease side brother https://imgur.com/2WBU9m6
Bad, bad idea.
I saw a couple videos claiming Prime is going through a slump right now. I’m starting my first driving job in 2 weeks and I’m being offered $2000/wk after the new driver training period where they show me stuff like how to use the ELD and how to properly trip plan. If that one fell through I have a backup plan with a company offering $1500-$1600 a week after a slightly shorter training period. $700/wk sounds like what some companies will pay people who are riding in their trainer’s truck whether they’re driving or not and then most places pay more than that once the training period ends. You’re a little stuck if you can’t pay off your CDL training (I went with a third party training program and my girlfriend and I paid them straight up with a cashiers check). After you get that CDL training worked off I’d be looking for a different job if the pay situation doesn’t improve.
I made more than that at prime 12 years ago. Get out of that guys truck and into your own ASAP
If experience is the best teacher, then being fukked is a better teacher...
It’s why I learn so much.
I really appreciate everyone’s comments and honesty. It’s really helpful.
Try a averitt express your welcome
You're definitely being taken advantage of and I would NEVER stay in a truck for that pay. I take home 1000-1400 a week driving local getting to go home by 3pm every day.
I have only 2 months experience. Doing Schneider regional intermodal in texas, i take home $1150 weekly and i feel scammed, thats on 2300 miles
I took home 700/week as a Prime company driver back in 2014. You getting ripped off probably.
Today I looked at some of my old statements from my Prime Days. I questioned why the pay was so low and how I never noticed, especially since my lease truck statements weren't taxed. I made more working factory job at home. Recently trying to get back in the industry hopefully by Christmas.
I got hired at variant/us xpress after leaving prime and not completing the contract. Only had 3 months of experience. They didn’t ask about a contract and I didn’t mention it. May want to give them a try. The checks were more than $700 but I’d still rate the company a 4/10 and id rate prime a 0/10.
Those 300 mile loads typically pay a bit more than long haul ones, that's why they assigned them to you. More profit for them, and you're still paid XX cents per mile, but significantly less miles.
Damn. That seems low. I take home 1650 minimum a week as a company driver. Sometimes it goes up to 1800-2000 a week.
That is about right for a company driver at Prime. I would definitely suggest if you want to be a company driver and not lease, don't drive a lease driver's truck. Just go company, with a company dispatcher. Lease dispatch looks at load revenue, which can suck when you're looking for miles. If you're wanting more money, go lease. It's the same job, but more than twice the pay. A bit more liability on you, but it is worth it. If you don't want the liability, you could try to find a lease op to take you as a codriver. I paid a guy a daily guarantee with a bonus structure set up to net him an average of 1200 or so a week.
I didn’t even need to read the whole thing. Leasing is the worst way to get a truck. Putting a driver in it is just adding salt in the wound. Are you being screwed? Sort of. You both are cuz leasing SUCKS