You can't pay me enough to haul a can out of those ports.

No doubt! Why in the hell would anybody in their right mind, want to pay the high amount the companies want, and the slow speeds the company wants as well. Completely retarded.


Notice how I said "in their right mind"

I couldn't agree more. The thin air part? Perhaps in regard to Knight's payment structure and requirements. At them, I have not looked.

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When you start thinkin' you're a person of great influence, try orderin' someone else's dog around.

Old news, but back in the late 90's, early 2000's, I went with a l/p with ATS, Inc. out of Minnesota, and paid for a brand new (12 miles) Freightliner Century. At the end of the lease, the truck was mine. So it can be done, at least in the old days, and with this particular company.

Of course, I drove a company truck for them for 5 years before entering the l/p program, so we were a know factor to each other.

Why do people still lease trucks? Everyone gets screwed, yet everyone still does it. Such brain dead truck drivers. If you want to own one ride over to the dealership and buy it, then it's yours.

....Then it's the banks.

First off to the person who started this thread, if you DO NOT have an operating agreement with Knight, you have no business posting second hand information on this site.

Yes I am a lease operator, Yes I am leased to Knight, Yes I have completed the lease and have the title for my truck. Now Knight is not by any means the best company in the world to lease a truck from, but they were the best comapny FOR ME.

Yes the original poster was partly correct, Knight did drop pay back to the base rates our owner/operators are paid. But they will NEVER fall below that amount. They are the same rates I have getting for 3.5 years as an owner/op here.

To everybody else who thinks that a lease purchase is a scam, you are partly right, you just have to find the lease that fits you and ask some very tough questions to the recruiter AND to yourself. I could write a book on this, but a few quick ones.

1. How much will your nut (break even point) be. Mine was 1600 miles per week, that paid fixed expenses for my truck, expenses at home, and the fuel to run those miles based on 6.5mpg. If your nut is 2500 miles or more per week, DON'T DO IT, I don't want to see your post next week about how ABC Trucking screwed poor innocent you.

2. The shorter the lease/loan the better, the sooner you can pay that truck paid off and get the title. The sooner you can move on to a company that has all owner/ops and understands how a single operator operates.

3. If you answer no to ANY of the following questions, seriousley rethink your potential career move

Can you afford to go a week with out a check? Yes it will happen.

Are you willing to cancel plans with friends and family because you haven't gotten the miles to cover your nut or had a break down. Yes, it will happen

Are you willing to do things that you wouldn't have to do as a company driver ie: slow down to 60mph or less, stay out extended periods when freight gets slow to make sure the truck is covered, run to places you won't run now to prevent from sitting. You bet your ##### it will happen when fuel hits $5 per gallon again.

Are you willing to drive the SAME truck for 5-7 years? If you think your'e buying a new truck every 3 years when you first start out, you are sorley mistaken.

There are more, but these are the big ones. Be honest with yourself and you won't get burned. The truck I have now will be with me another 500-600 thousand miles, and I have 880,000 on it now. But I have a plan in place to do that. Make a plan first and then find the company that fits your plan the best, not the otherway around.

"If, before you go into a lease or a purchase, you're already looking for the door out, you have already begun to fail."

that has to be the dumbest, most illogical thing I've read on this website. how about "if, before you sign an agreement to make a trucking company's truck payment for them, you don't understand what you're signing, or have any clue what you're getting yourself into because you know nothing about the trucking industry since you're fresh out of school, then you have already begun to fail."

if you don't understand the contract, or know how you're going to make money with one of these fleece options, put the pen down, push your seat back, stand up and step slowly away from the table.

at the core, these fleece options are an unethical way to take advantage of an unsophisticated future driver. notice how it's always the students fresh out of school that these companies push these things onto. ethics is a word that isn't used much any more. since so many (banks/government/business owners) HAVE NO ethics, it's pretty much become the norm. this is as bad as some bank officer (used car salesman equivalent) trying to push a variable annuity onto your 85 year old grandmother. your grandmother (unless she has a master's degree in finance) is going to have NO clue what she's buying. the salesman is pushing it because he's going to get a quick and easy commission, and he doesn't give a flying fig that it's a bad deal for your granny, and that she could lose everything she's worked her whole life for.

the proper phrase for this behavior is called "violating the ethical standard of suitability." in other words, they (the trucking company, who very well know what they're doing because they've been in the trucking business for decades) specifically target people who have no clue what they're getting into (a trucking school graduate who previously worked on an assembly line,) for no other reason than to take unconscionable advantage of that guy just because they can. and when the person loses their a$& on the deal, they'll simply hang them out to dry, ruin their credit, ruin their DAC, ruin their life and take the truck back moving on to the next "mark." ever notice how they NEVER try to sucker experienced drivers (especially O/Os) into these ridiculous schemes? that's because an old road dog would immediately be able to see through the BS.

then there's the other side of the equation where the fleece option doubles as a strategy by the companies to misclassify a company driver as an "independent contractor," thus saving the company even more money by not having to pay taxes. most of these large trucking companies are no longer in the business of moving freight as they are in moving money around (through these fleece option schemes, tax breaks for hiring students - and pushing out older, more "expensive" drivers, etc.) just like the monster mega banks, they AREN'T there to help or serve anybody or even conduct themselves in an ethical, moral manner. they just want to take advantage of as many poor people as they can, so they can continue stuffing even more money into their already bulging pockets.

not if you pay cash. but even if you did finance it, the bank isn't going to try to screw you out of it by cutting your loads or changing your mileage pay.

a completely ignorant statement. you have your credit to lose. you have your future to lose. whoever told anyone that they could simply walk away if they have a problem was telling a lie. most any lease/ purchase company wil sue the so-called owner operator for any damage as well as breach of contract...... and win ( as they should). it's as if you leased a car and decided to simply walk away. you can, but you will get sued and lose. (as you should).

a judgement on your credit never goes away. in most any state, an order by a judge is permenent until satisfied and gives the injured party (the company) the right to garnish wages and affix leins to property. a guy who lives up the road from me had a lease purchase tractor, he turned it in a few months ago, and now, thanks to a judgement, gets $300. per week to live on, with the rest of his wage going to a court until the remaining $16,000.00 he would have had to pay is paid in full, plus interest and fees.

and he doesn't even have the truck. with a blown engine, the columbia he was "buying" isn't worth it anyway.

think about it. why would a company buy a truck to sell to somebody else when it's just as easy to put a driver in it? the answer is simple. they make money on the sale, have no maintenanace cost, and pay no taxes and benefits on the driver. they still maintain total control of the vehicle and hold title to it, but spend no money for taxes, insurance, tires, brakes, etc.. all of that is left to the moron who took the deal. a few of the more crooked companies out there will stop running a guy when he gets close to paying the thing off, and repo the truck if it's still in decent shape.

it happens all the time.

i did things different. i saved my money and bought mine outright. it ain't new, but it makes the same money as new. i hold the title, and nobody can come and get it. i also can, and will, tell dispatch "NO".