I have to disagree with a couple of your points ... How did you come up with $750,000 costs on a three years lease? Most O/O are "leased" (even though they own the truck outright) to a company and it works quite well for them. You fail to note the difference between a Lease and a lease puchase, in some cases a staight lease makes sense, some have no money up front leaving more in your pocket and the whole cost of the lease is tax deductable. If you go to the trouble to get your own authority why would you want to go through brokers for freight ? Most O/O selling their trucks are broke and need the cash and can't afford to finance the sale. I do agree with buying a truck on your own with your own financing, that way you are not tied to a company and if things don't work out you can move on to another company (I've done it), but if you have leased or lease purchased from a company you're stuck there until the commitment has been met.

This is the main reason I havent gone with ATS's lease ot lease purchase. Despite the urging of many drivers, not the co., it just feels like they have WAAAAYYY to many of the cards.

ATS,s lease is only 12 months is that right? I think thats not a bad deal seeing it's a staight lease with no obligation to buy at the end, plus it's giving you the chance to get your feet wet in the O/O arena with out the full commitment of locking into a truck (or carrier) for three years, I do realize you will have expenses you don't have as a company driver but you're more in controle of things also...

This is when you lease-purchase a truck for 3 years, Do the math, start with diesel Fuel then add on the rest.......And I guess anything is tax -deductable as long as you don't get auidted and if you do you better make darn sure you don't have those receipts with the dissapearring ink.
Yes your common burned out individual o/o is broke, but the Amish sell their trucks as well as farmers........Run under a broker until you can get your own authority is what I meant.

So you are saying I am going to lease a $100,000.00 truck, pay $750,000.00 for that $100,000.00 truck and only make $510,000.00 over the life of the lease leaving me $239,000.00 (somewhere in that equation $1,000.00 got lost) in the hole? Didn't you forget to mention that I would probably have a huge balloon payment at the end?

And if you are telling everyone to never lease purchase, doesn't that make you a hypocrite since in another post you said you called Prime and they turned you down because you were such an over-qualified, long time driver? I assume you weren't actually trying to go to work there, you were just seeing what they would say to you on the phone.

Just for the rest of you, holding a steering wheel for 21 years may make you a better driver who can back better than others, but it most likely won't qualify you to give business advice. MOST fail, and this not only comes from me but from some well-respected industry consultants, because they fail to run the lease truck or even a purchase truck as a business. They run 75 mph, blowing dead presidents right out the stacks, pile the chrome on and then wonder why they aren't making ends meet.

And now is the worst time to try to run independent of a company, especially if you are just starting as an o/o. Leasing on to a company gives you a guarantee of freight and the probability that you will get a good fuel surcharge. Many of the bankruptcies today and the trucks that are filling the lots of dealerships around this nation are from independents who cannot compete with the companies.

Besides, the best thing to do is start off leased on to a company to learn the business end of trucking. As you become successful in that situation then you can begin to work on building a client base. Talk to some of the people in your local area to see if you could work out a deal hauling freight for them. If you have hauled freight for them under the company you are leased on to and treated them well, they may be willing to talk to you. I know people who haul directly for shippers and don't have to pay a broker for the freight. And they are pretty secure in the operations even in today's climate.

Shows how much you know, Amish don't own vehicles, unless you are talking about buying a horse-drawn buggy.

Good point. Problem is you are dealing with someone who understands the driving side of the industry but doesn't have a clue when it comes to the business and accounting side.

I agree with you pawpaw, it takes much more to run a sucessfull trucking business then the ability to drive the truck. It may be that Mr Solo got some bad information. Heaven knows there's a lot of bad info out there...

Never drove for them, but did consider hiring on. Decided to go TX, LA, MS, AR regional. Found very few serious complaints on them. Recruiter seemed very honest and was forthcoming with any info I requested. I never had to ask twice either. As a whole I laugh up my sleeve at lease deals though. If you don't have a 10% down pay and the first full tank of fuel and either the cash or credit card stroke to tolerate a 3000 dollar break down the first week out you got no business in the business. Very best of luck to ya. At least you are looking at the right kind of company. Milage pay scheme companies will screw you so many ways, that if you don't like one or two you just don't like sex! Dave

I will be starting with Ats lease program on Aug 4 flatbed. Is there any over head cost that I may need to know about?