Originally Posted by pawpaw

You make some good points but I stated I could buy a NEW Cascadia for $127,000. At JCT you are "buying" a truck with anywhere from 100K to 300K miles on it and still paying more in interest than a new one. PLUS, any time you want, you could move that new Cascadia to a new company, not so with the JCT lease, you are stuck there until the end.

And, in today's world of companies closing their doors, what happens to my lease truck if the unforeseen happens and the company shuts down. If I am buying my own truck the company can shut the doors and I hand them back their base plates and permits and move to another company. AND I haven't lost all the payments I put into that company. Bottom line is, until you hand Mr. Christner that $1.00 the truck is his and if anything happens to the company the truck becomes an asset that will be liquidated to settle outstanding debts. If the lender folds on the purchase deal folds the NOTE is sold NOT the truck and I keep my truck with a new lender.

JCT may be a good lease deal. I know it is one that Kevin Rutherford does not speak bad about yet buying is still the better way to go. Wells Fargo has approved me for 10% down and $60K max purchase price for around $300.00 a week. I can buy higher if I want to make up the difference in a down. And as Kevin said the other day, now is a great time to buy as truck prices have never been as low as they are now. Yes the interest may be a little higher (they do that mostly with first time buyers) but I can put that truck on with any company I chose and move it when needed AND only the lender can take it away if I don't make payments. Also, in a year or so I can refi to a much lower interest rate. That is a safer investment in my book.

Originally Posted by GrizzlyMan

IF the company were to shut down, what is the difference between being a company driver and a lease driver? You can get screwed bad by a company folding. I work for a company that's hanging on by a thread right now. As for paying more in interest for a used truck than a new truck. That is entirely typical. If you go buy a car at a dealership, you can get these really low interest rates on a new car, but you will usually pay more for a used car. As I said, I don't look at the lease programs as being a way to purchase a truck. I look at them as a glorified company driver with perks. It's simply a way to possibly make more money. If I can run smart, why should the company profit? Someone who is able to make the truck make money can make good money on a lease program. There are people who will lose out. And it really doesn't matter how good the lease is. There are company drivers that will fail miserably. It doesn't necassarily have anything to do with the company.

Originally Posted by runningonempty

Hi!

If you read my other posts ty, but if not I will give the run down for this company in a nutshell. My husband drives but I am with him. I navigate. God bless Google and Mapquest lol.

1. This is what was said by Mr. Christner himself in my husband's orientation. Please don't be late for loads. The things he said he could understand what would cause you to be late is the bad weather and truck breakdown. But if you go to a casino or overslept or just like to hang out at truckstops then there would be a problem. Which is understandable. He commends the drivers who are always on time. He just commended a man a week ago for doing a million miles. Mr. Christner is more than a fair man. He backs his drivers up 100%. He sees you're doing a good job for him, he's there for his drivers. Thanks to the help of Mapquest and Google, hubby and I were never late. My hubby is a solo driver and this past load we were 16 hrs ahead of schedule and the load before that we were 24 hours ahead of schedule. Our DM saw that and said to us, "You guys are awesome." That's such a great feeling. My hubby was grinning from ear to ear on that one. We were no less than 4 hours ahead of schedule. You plan it just right and it can be done. JCT gives you enough time to get to the DO1 so there isn't no reason to be late.

2. Mr. Christner doesn't put with liars and neither does the staff. Please be honest with them. The staff are a great bunch of people. The planners see how you're running and if you're doing a great job, no sooner you drop a load you have another one when you do your macro 10 (empty call).

3. Tolls. JCT does have an IPass, EZPass, and PrePass. If perchance there isn't a toll one of those 3 covers, you send in a Macro requesting for toll and they send you an AR number for an EFS check so it can be covered. Mr. Christner doens't mind at all he said as long as it gets the job done. Just be sure to send in a toll receipt.

4. With JCT you can fuel up anywhere you want. If you need fuel and the only place is Joe Smith's little gas station on the corner you can fuel up there. If they don't take the Fuel Card, then it will come out of your pocket, but it beats calling Breakdown. Mr. Christner has an account with Flying J and if you fuel up there you get back either it's 2 cents a gallon or 2% a gallon. Not sure. We usually gas up at Loves for the fact of the points you get free showers and soda for the month. You get points at Flying J and TA too with their Road King card but I'm sure you knew that lol.

5. You do have a medical and dental plan with JCT haven't looked much into that yet.

6. Weekly deductions from your paycheck is as follows: 234.00 (under other deductions), your fuel and your truck payment. That's it. Mr. Christner pays for all highway/road taxes, permits, and the other whole nine yards.

7. If you request home time, just let your DM know two weeks ahead of time so they have time to plan. Same as if you want to take a couple of days off or time off, let them know two weeks ahead.

8. Some of the bennies with JCT is you get paid holidays. Every quarter if you don't have no accidents or traffic tickets you get a $900.00 bonus. If you conserve fuel you get a fuel bonus. If you recruit someone and they mention your name to the recruiter at JCT you get $1,250.00 which is paid in installments.

9. After orientation when you go and get your truck and it's not the one you want, just tell a man named John there what you want and you will be routed back to the Sapulpa, OK yard to get the truck you wanted in 90 days. I can't stress enough to get an APU on your truck because JCT does a lot of runs to California and there is a no idle law in that state. You get caught idling in that state and it's a nice fine, but I'm sure you knew that lol. We go back in 57 days to get our truck. The one we got now stinks. We want an International with an APU. The room in these Freighshakers stinks. You have to be twiggy to move in them.

Well, that's pretty much all I can think off. If you have anymore questions I will be more than happy to answer them. Thanks!

Running

Originally Posted by pawpaw

My understanding is they are fairly late model. Since trucks are designed to go in excess of 1 million miles, book value may not show much but you could still have a good tool to use for years. Especially since JCT is reported to have an excellent maintenance program.

Originally Posted by pawpaw

You make some good points but I stated I could buy a NEW Cascadia for $127,000. At JCT you are "buying" a truck with anywhere from 100K to 300K miles on it and still paying more in interest than a new one. PLUS, any time you want, you could move that new Cascadia to a new company, not so with the JCT lease, you are stuck there until the end.

And, in today's world of companies closing their doors, what happens to my lease truck if the unforeseen happens and the company shuts down. If I am buying my own truck the company can shut the doors and I hand them back their base plates and permits and move to another company. AND I haven't lost all the payments I put into that company. Bottom line is, until you hand Mr. Christner that $1.00 the truck is his and if anything happens to the company the truck becomes an asset that will be liquidated to settle outstanding debts. If the lender folds on the purchase deal folds the NOTE is sold NOT the truck and I keep my truck with a new lender.

JCT may be a good lease deal. I know it is one that Kevin Rutherford does not speak bad about yet buying is still the better way to go. Wells Fargo has approved me for 10% down and $60K max purchase price for around $300.00 a week. I can buy higher if I want to make up the difference in a down. And as Kevin said the other day, now is a great time to buy as truck prices have never been as low as they are now. Yes the interest may be a little higher (they do that mostly with first time buyers) but I can put that truck on with any company I chose and move it when needed AND only the lender can take it away if I don't make payments. Also, in a year or so I can refi to a much lower interest rate. That is a safer investment in my book.

Originally Posted by mr.chisum

Originally Posted by Eskimo6804

If you think you are going to get a better interest rate than 8.5% on a truck note with ANY credit level, you are dreaming. With you being a first time truck buyer you will be lucky to do better than 10-12%.

MOST traditional banks won't touch a note on a truck. The only chance you may have going that direction is at a credit union which you have been a long time customer, have a 750+ credit score, and at least 20% down payment.

I own a company and have 16 company owned trucks. I trade every 4 years on solo trucks and 2 years on team trucks. I buy an average of 5 new trucks a year. I put normally 50-60% down on each truck. I have a credit score near 800. I am barely able to beat that 8.5% rate that you think is high.

As for the truck being used; The first 100,000 miles you put on a truck's odometer is always the worst. It takes that long to break it in, work out the bugs and glitches, and start getting optimum fuel mileage. If I were a single truck owner operator, I would never buy new. I would be looking at 1-2 year old trucks with 150,000-300,000 miles on them.