Prime Inc.
American trucking company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Prime Inc., doing business as Prime Inc.,[1] is an American trucking company based in Springfield, Missouri. The company operates across the United States and Canada and provides a variety of freight transport services, including refrigerated, flatbed, tanker, and intermodal.
| |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Freight transport |
| Founded | 1970 |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
| Website | www |
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History
Prime Inc. was founded in 1970 by Robert E. Low in Urbana, Missouri. The company moved its headquarters to Springfield, Missouri, in 1980.[2][3]
By 1990, Prime employed 1,250 drivers and maintained a fleet of 680 trucks.[4] The company outfitted its fleet with satellite communications and tracking equipment from Qualcomm in 1992 at a cost of $4.3 million.[5]
In 2004, Prime implemented a policy of only pairing new drivers with trainers of the same gender in response to complaints of sexual harassment by female trainees. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against the company in 2011 that alleged the policy was discriminatory, as a lack of female trainers made it more difficult for women to complete training. The company reached a settlement agreement with the EEOC in 2016, agreeing to pay more than $3.11 million in compensatory damages.[6][7]
In January 2019, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision against the company in New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, a case considering how the Federal Arbitration Act applies to transportation workers who are classified as independent contractors.[8] In 2020, Prime reached a settlement agreement in that case and a related lawsuit, Haworth et al v. New Prime Inc., agreeing to pay out $28 million to a group of drivers (largely independent owner-operators)[9] who said they were improperly compensated by the company.[10]
Prime filed a lawsuit against Amazon in July 2019, stating that the company's use of the Amazon Prime logo on its semi-trailers was "confusingly similar" to Prime's own branding.[11][12] Prime sought injunctive relief against Amazon for the alleged damage to its business.[13] The lawsuit was dismissed in 2022 after the two companies reached a confidential settlement agreement.[14]
The company launched a hopper division in 2024, with an initial order of 25 hopper trailers for the transport of corn, grain, and other bulk commodities.[15]
Operations
Prime Inc. is a privately held company that operates across the United States and Canada.[16] It provides a variety of freight transport services, including refrigerated transport, flatbed transport, tanker transport, and intermodal transport.[17] The company employs about 1,700 drivers and 7,400 independent contractor drivers as of 2024[update].[18]
