Trucking | 8 Tips Before You Lease a Truck with Prime Inc | LoShawn Parks

all right so are you interested in getting into lease at least we're priming do you some tips things for you to think about for you jump in that doing it your first lease coming up [Music] I just wanna feel liberated I didn't wanna feel liberated yeah welcome to another edition of trucking with love shop barks you guys could have been anywhere so well but you're here with me and I do appreciate that so in today's video I'm gonna talk to you guys about some tips some ideas some educational thought for those that are gun hold on getting a lease with priming in their first year alright so I have eight steps for you guys to follow here are these in any particular order mmm not really but I will say that the top four to me are the best for now you can situate it how you want to but like I said at the top four are the best four to me number one try to find a short-term lease I impecable that you do this especially on your first lease out and the reason why that you should do this on your first lease out is because everything that was put into the truck prior to you having it so let's just say the person that had it before you they ended delayed so they stopped doing the least two years into it and it's a four-year lease okay everything that they put into it as far as like tire funds the escrows everything like that is still rolling onto that truck it rolled over to that truck so when you get that truck on a short term lease let's just say the two-year one that you might even get lucky and find a one-year one that means that you will benefit from that at the end of the term of the lease okay and this is solely for those that are looking to get the lease bills okay now it's totally different from the lease purchase I'm talking about the lease deals where you're looking to get a payout at the end of the lease alright when you get that for two years once your two years is up it's basically like you have been in the truck for four years but you've only been in it for two you have taken on everything that the other person has put in for two years and it's going on to your end of the term lease deal and you profit off of that a lot of people want to go there and they want to get the brand-new truck they want to get in they want to jump into a brand-new lease four-year lease three-year lease what have you the smart move to do is go there try to find a used least truck already that only has two years left on it and jump in that one and take up all of the benefits that the other prior person that has at least two you put into that truck it pays off for you at the end when it's time to turn in your lease number two start at a fund all right this is important as well a lot of people don't understand what in fund is a fund is basically an emergency fund prime offers this emergency fund to you but you have to contact the payroll or contact your dispatcher and let them know that you're interested in getting this in funding this Aoife now is basically a savings that you're that you have started the whole time that you are in that lease okay what I recommend is seven cents per mile for a solo driver and if you are a team operation or you are training I recommend that you put fifteen cents into that at the end of that term you pull that money out that ends up being thousands of dollars that you can also use in your pocket to line your pockets too if you want to at the end of the lease you want to go out and now purchase a truck or say like your lease is up with prime and you want to get into the lease purchase now you will have the money from the end of your lease purchase and you have your a fund money as well that you can use towards purchase during a lease purchase or you can you know leave if you decide to leave prime and go outside of time and get a different truck or get another truck you have that down payment money so once again a fund stands for emergency fund I have a lot of people who ask me what is a fund mean it means emergency fund basically no different than a savings and prime does offer that so if you're planning on getting in the leasing make sure you sign up for that a fund seven cents per mile if you solo and put fifteen cent per mile away if you are a team operation or if you're training alright so the third one is get yourself a good CPA outside of front now they're going to try to sell you on this okay they're going to try to tell you to get the CPA that's in prime use them they're good they do payroll deduction where they'll pay the CPA test and prom so basically you would have to worry about it I think it's something like I don't know a hundred bucks if they have to do your quarterly taxes for you right which quarterly is every 90 days don't don't do it okay you're better off getting a CPA that is not within the carrier they are at prime okay and once again I'm speaking solely about prime I don't know about anybody else's leases I can't speak on anybody since this is a video strictly for the people that are interested in getting to at least a prime get yourself the CPA that's either a in your hometown that deals with trucking okay and that's another important thing make sure that they deal with trucking you can't go to Jackson Hewitt you can't go to H&R Block and expect to them to be able to handle your taxes especially with you being at least operator they don't know okay they don't know about the per diem that she's supposed to be getting they don't know about anything and the best way that you can figure out if the CPA knows about transportation you go in there and you ask them what is the what is the per diem per day for truckin if they can't give you an answer or they got it like I got to get back to you that's not the CPA person that you want you want to make sure that they specialize in trucking or transportation those people that specialize in trucking and transportation they are the ones that you want to have on your side doing your taxes trust me I know those are the ones you want to have but do not use in my opinion from these the three and a half years that I was their prime and yes I did use the CPA their prime for quite some time they're not the ones that have your best interest I just put it like that they don't have your best interest edit and I hope they don't take it as a shot I'm just being honest get yourself a good CPA outside of prime that's number three all right number four is pretty it's a broad area but I'm going to pretty much simplify this for you number four is know your expenses to know what you need to revenue so I'm saying it's a big one what you need to do is you need to figure out what your expenses are at home you need to calculate everything that you have at home are you need to calculate it on a monthly basis okay monthly basis and I know people are going to say but at prime doing the least and everything like that you get paid weekly and the prime expenses come out weekly so this is why I tell you to do you calculate your expenses at home on a monthly basis okay you calculate your your prime expenses on a monthly basis and I know I'm gonna get hell on this one too but i'ma say it you want to divide it by four okay what do you mean LaShawn you you're moving too fast here calculate your home expenses you have a number total for the month for your home expenses calculate your monthly expenses for prime truck payments things that are been a churn now you know you're not you can and you can't add in variable costs for fixed costs okay it's what a lot of people will make the mistake on doing is adding in a variable cost with a fixed cost what I mean by variable cost is that's fuel okay like fuel will vary just depends because fuel fluctuate so much fuel prices go up and down just depends on what time of the year it is when it is in the year so that's going to fluctuate so what you're going to end up having to do is trying to figure out within a two hundred dollar range about what fuel is going to run you okay so if you know that you spend anywhere between eight hundred to a thousand dollars a week and fuel like I always say take the high-end just take it a thousand dollars okay if it is only a hundred dollars then you got extra two hundred dollars that you got saved up but you want to pretty much do is find out what your fixed costs are as far as home goes as far as your operation as far as your expenses with prime goal you want to get that all together you have a monthly number for home you got a monthly number for prime you have those two numbers you'll bring them all together okay you're dividing by four because you have four weeks in a month sometimes you have five weeks in a month it just depends on how many months is how many weeks is in that month so you're going to need to know that all right you divide that by you the four or five whatever it is for that month and it comes back with a number with that number that lets you pretty much basically know what you need the revenue okay you need to focus on hitting that number okay now when you hit that number you have to realize that you only had a break-even point right so if you come back and say okay I need four thousand dollars a week okay to take care of my expenses at home or take care of my revenue all my trucks stuff like that or expenses on my truck you come back say I need to make four thousand dollars a week revenue need to understand that's only breaking even people okay that's only handling your expenses at home that's only handling your expenses for Prime you don't have no extra you know I'm saying you don't have no extra so when you don't have no extra so then you need to be thinking like you need the revenue but like five thousand right so that you can have a little bit of extra that goes into your savings account that goes into your checking account how are you whatever account you have set up whether it be that or a business account but if you come back and say the total is four thousand and you want to and you revenue four thousand then you only had a break-even point understand easiest way to do it I don't want to get too technical in the numbers because that's not what this video is really about is breaking down numbers I'll do that in another video this videos is pretty much some steps that you need to understand so you need to understand what your expenses are home expenses our operation for trucking with the least and you need to figure out what those two numbers are add them together divide them by however many weeks is in a month and let you know what you need the revenue at a break-even point pretty simple all right let's get to the next all right so the fifth one is get your services done on schedule what I mean by get your services done on schedule that means get your p.m. done as per manufacturer recommendations or perb with the shop or whatever shop you use recommends that you get your services done so get your p.m. done as scheduled if you know that which a Freightliner every 50,000 miles you need to get a PM done you need to stay on top of that okay don't be doing it 2,000 miles past at 4,000 miles past that stay on schedule with it because what you do when you stay on schedule with that is you keep the life or the longevity of your truck running without having issues so stay on top of your PMS and your scheduled maintenance on your truck very important number right there all right number six number six should have been number one to me all right real honest with you because a lot of people fail at number six okay but it is what it is number six on my list okay number six is know when to take home time Wow a lot of people don't know when they take home time okay a lot of people will continue to run the operation check by check and then finally when they do go home or it when they're ready to go home and they want to take a few days off they don't have any money saved up to handle their their cost for once again expenses at home for the week and the expenses for the truck for the week because you got to understand something expenses are going to continue to go okay when your lease when your leasing the truck your expenses at prom are going to continue to run the only thing that's not going to continue to run is what variable cost fuel because if you're not putting fuel in the truck then it's not going to cost you anything right but the rest of your expenses fixed costs are going to come out period takes cost at home that's going to come out you don't mean that that numbers just still roll rolling your truck payment at prime still rolling okay regardless if you move in that truck or not still rolling so the issue that a lot of people end up doing is they go on home time and they don't have that expense saved up to cover them for the week and what they find themselves doing is being in the hole alright like you don't know what the hole is basically that means when you come back to work you're in a negative and it's really really hard or difficult to get out the negatives once you come back to work it could take you anywhere between two to three weeks just to get back to that point because you got to understand you're going to be in the hole eleven hundred dollars or so whatever the cost is going to be you're going to be in the hole eleven hundred dollars and that's just not something that at prime that you can just get done in one load because you know you got to start factoring in the fuel you know so fuel is going to start cutting back on that cost so that could take a couple of weeks to get back out of the hole so what you need to be doing is you need to be saving money and before you take home time you need to be able to cover your expenses for that week or that time that you're at home so that when you come back to work you're not in the hole okay starting off on a fresh slate all right you have the money that's going to cover your expenses for your truck for the week you have your money that's going to cover your expenses for and home for the week so you're not in a na bond you're not in a funny situation so make sure that you know when to take home time you have your money saved up in order to do it it just makes life so much more easier in your lease trust me all right so number seven is get into training if possible to make more money now this may be subjected to some people okay so people are going to feel like they don't want to Train some people are going to you know want to do things solo they don't want to train and that's clearly understand that okay some people are just loners they don't want nobody else in a truck because they like their truck run a certain way but at prime the key way to make money is to either a train or either be have a team truck the reason why it's that way don't ask me okay the answer I give you is because a it's a training carrier okay that's what they special day their training carrier okay they that's what they do and B is that a lot of their Freight that they do have that pays decently or that pays pretty decent travel distance okay a lot of the agents shippers know that prime is a training company so they get a lot of the team Freight and in order for you to get to the money where people say that they're making money at prime or making good money at prime is most of the time nine times out of ten they're training the other ones that make their checks that are twenty five hundred and better or three thousand dollars of better it's really rough to make $2,500 to $3,000 a week being a solo driver a prime just being honest you're probably going to average anywhere between twelve to sixteen hundred and that's on a standard now anybody that makes more than that they're there they're the exception okay they're the exception but coming in you need to understand in your first year you're going to make anywhere from could be average of 1,100 actually 1,100 to 1,300 you need to get that number in your head so don't be thinking that you're just in your first year and it's you solo driving that you're just going to be making all kinds of crazy cash it's not going snack on fly okay you're not going to see that good money until you get into you're capable of training and if you ask my homeboy Tucker Brown he'll tell you don't leave the truck until you're able to train which he has a very valid point on that because being solo it gets really really rough in your first year of you trying to lease a truck make all of these payments you got expenses at home yet expenses on your truck it's really really tough for you to make more money technically than the company driver does it prime and that's just being speaking on his true fact to you for the most part in your first year the difference between you as a lease operator that's just so low running and a company guy in his first year that's just solely running probably is the difference of no more than 100 to 200 dollars but you're taking on full responsibility so the way to the money at prime and your leasing is when able go ahead and train or if you have a significant other spouse and go ahead and team with them and you'll see the money roll in it I and the last but not least one on my list number eight is don't worry about CPM worry about revenue all right a lot of people get tied up in CPM what a CPM stand four cent per mile a lot of people will get tied up in this they have started saying what they need to run for and you'll find yourself rejecting loads when it doesn't hit that number okay so if you have in your mind I don't want to run for anything less than a dollar forty a mile I'm gonna reject the load okay and then your first year you're learning anyway okay so you don't technically have that leeway or that room to say all I'm only going to run for forty with prime the thing is revenue revenue revenue like I said on number four knowing your expenses to know how much you need to revenue it's all about revenue a prime okay and pretty much anything that you do at least operating if you start getting in the cent per mile you're going to start confusing yourself honestly okay because when you don't hit that revenue number you're going to be wondering well damn I only took all the lows I took this week was a dollar fifty but you only ended up revenue in thirty five hundred or three thousand and then you start wondering how does that possible well that's because you got tied up in that cent per mile oops I just said a cuss word it is what it is you got tied up in that cent per mile alright and uh when you get tied up in that man it's going to confuse you okay because there's so many variables I use like I said you may want to only take a load that's pays a dollar fifty but if you know that you need to hit a revenue mark to hit your even market for thousand and then you just sit around and wait and wait and then this day you just reject lows and you lose a day okay tomorrow comes around and then finally it's like you know I got to get rolling I just can't sit and the only thing that's in the area or the rate market in the area where your head there's only averaging out to be a dollar twenty and you're looking for a dollar fifty you'll be sitting there for weeks so at that point in time you need to grab and go okay you need to say okay I am a thousand dollars away from meeting my revenue mark so what you should be looking for is possibly something that can get you a thousand dollars so if it says it's going 800 miles and you have three days left to finish revenue on what have you we're just playing with numbers right now you have three days left the revenue and you need to grab that because by the time you get it off you have a day left and you made that revenue of four thousand but see if you sit then you wait for that dollar $50 $50 top dollar fifty you're never going to hit your revenue mark so that's why it's important to me that you it's more on revenue understanding your expenses so you know what you need the revenue then trying to focus on cent per mile because you get over there and you focus on something from out and you will be behind the curve you will be angry your expenses will will not be met your truck note and stuff like that will because you got to understand probably gonna get day money first okay before you see your cheque so they're going to grab everything out and pay they sell first then they're going to pay you now if you know that your expenses back home is two thousand dollars and your expenses that Prime ie is twenty two thousand dollars we just playing with numbers once again and you only at twenty-five hundred and revenue because you sitting around waiting for the dollar fifty mile load when they take day money out le leaves you at five hundred but you need to you know you need to you short fifteen hundred outs what I'm trying to say and the reason why you shorts because you sat there and you focused on that cent per mile you focused on simple miles FML focus on the revenue it's the easiest way to do it focus on the ribbon all right so that's my eight tips on how to be successful on or just or how to have how to have success in your first year and your prime lease okay don't get all caught up in a lot of things okay and people going to have sorry am I still at prime answer to that is no I'm not a prime anymore but I was there for three and a half years in the lease so I can pass this information along to you guys and hopefully it helps you guys to be more successful and you're at least if you choose to do at least with prime just some things to think about alright as always don't do that not one do like being safe and winners focus on winning and loses focus on winners and we went in right here on truckin with LaShawn Parks make sure you guys check me out on Instagram love Sean parks check me out on Facebook love Sean parks send me a friend request also you can come join the group's ytt a network on Facebook and also white ETA affiliates alright hope to see you guys again in the next video next video we actually go I'm actually going to be breaking down some numbers I did put a video out nine months ago that had some numbers in there that was a little complicated so what I'm gonna do is I'm into breaking the numbers down using those same exact numbers and showing you guys a complete breakdown and everything that you need to that you will be spending as far as you've been at priming your lease all right and if I don't mention it you don't pay for it at prom just put that out there all right next video [Music] I just want to feel liberated I I didn't want to feel liberated I'm fine [Music]

Channel: Trucking with LoShawn Parks

Views: 81,764

Rating: 4.8911686 out of 5

Keywords: Trucking, trucking info, trucking videos, Truck driver, truck driver training, prime inc, prime inc trucking school, prime inc psd training, prime inc trucking, prime inc reviews, prime inc lease, pri

Id: AR4t9eTK6p0

Length: 23min 31sec (1411 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 10 2017