the lease program with ats will make money just not for you.
In the 9 months that I have been with them my company has made well over $110,000 dollars and realized a profit of under 15,000.
their program is designed to keep you in debt to them with a tease of money to come,and just as you come out of the debt somthing happens whether you have to sit for a few days or you have to bounce 1000 miles to pick up next load this is just one of many circumstances that has happened to me. and at the curent cost of fuel, insurance and the like this can and does gett very costly so beware when you look at ats,or for that matter any lease program what they tell you and what happens is not nessarily the same

Can you expand on what you mean by things keep coming up?

I too fell into the ATS lease but I got out quick. I went to work for them last April went to the orientation and everything, I wanted to be a lease operator because that is one thing I had never done.

I got out of orientation on Thursday at noon, took my truck to the hotel and packed all my stuff and my wife's thing's as she had come with me.

The dispatcher called the hotel room and said it would be the next day before we got a load.
Well we sat all the next day and finaly at around 15 mins. till 5:00 he sends me a load. They told us in orientation that the dispatchers would send us at least 3 different loads if we refused 1 well a little note was attached at the end of this load he sent us that this was the only one availiable or we could sit all weekend.
Well of course I took it.
It loaded right there in ST. Cloud,MN and it went to Baltimore,MD. it paid something like $2.50 a mile including the fuel surcharge. And only weighed like 8000 lbs so yea it was a very good load.

I delivered it in MD and headed back towards Fredrick as my dispatcher had told me to head that away. He sends me another message that this is the only load availiable or I could sit again. It was a load of tow motors weighing around 46000 lbs. and only paid $.80 a mile with surcharge included.
I almost turned it down......but I knew I needed to roll the truck to make money....it was going to Jefferson City,MO. I took it and actually lost money big time on this load because of the fuel.
I delivered it, now my 3rd load appeared on the QC, and it was a load of pallets going from some hole in the wall place south of where i was in MO. going up to Peroria,IL. to the Cat Plant. I know this is hard to believe but again this was the only load he had. He said he would be able to get me a good load from there.

Let's recapp a minute. I am in the pad wrap division loads only weigh close to 15000 lbs. Well here was my 3rd load inwhich 2 of them weighed a whole lot more than 15000 lbs. Another load he said he was going to get me would have been out of CAT and more than likely 45000 or more again.
Anyway I delivered the load in the evening of which I picked it up.

GUESS WHAT? I get a message that there was nothing in the area and that I was gonna have to deadhead to Chicago to get a load.

Well I lived at this time in Port Clinton,OH. just East of Toledo, I told my dispatcher I was heading home. He said ok stop by Chicago and pick up your padwrap trailor and I will get you a load Monday morning.

We a much longer story cut short that Monday morming has still never came.
I parked the trailor at the TA there just south of Toledo and drove the truck home.

I called them after my check got deposited and told them my truck would not go in gear as something had gone wrong with the clutch or something.

They sent a tow truck to get the truck and I packed my thing's and moved back south. I got a call in a few days as to why I had never called back in for dispatch.
I told them I quit they tried to get me to comeover to company position I told them if I quit them as a lease operator which I had the say in what direction I went.........that I damn sure was not gonna come and work for them under a force dispatch.
He told me that they would hit me hard on my DAC report for abandinment of equiptment.
I said a wrecker came and got it, and his trailor was sitting at the TA and everything was locked up and the keys were in the truck.

I recieved bills from them and several other places in excess of 7000.00 for work they had performed on there truck.
I just file them in file 13 nothing bad has shown up on my credit yet or DAC as far as I know.

I forgot to tell you all my check was for $1150.00 after fuel and advances were taken out.
Also the first week with them there was no truck payment or anything removed just fuel and advances.

My truck payment with all the insurances and everything was $850.00 a week.
My truck that week ran around 3500 miles including deadhead and all.
Grossed around $4000.00 or something like that.
I brought home $1150.00 before my truck payment for a pretty hard week.
So in all I would have made around $300.00 for that week if everything was taken out.

I now believe all the lease scams out there are just that scams. You pay for there truck and you pay for there fuel. Bottom line!

This is a common, am not saying it's a fib but I have driven for some of the big ones and I find it hard to believe I was the only truck in an area or there is only one load....

I also find it hard to believe that I was the only truck and there was only one load. But it is the way it happened I cannot tell a lie

i went thru ats flatbed lease orientation,i have a perfect safety brecord now and then,after orientation they sent me to gary in.by rental car,which i went allby myself 400 plus miles,they assigned me a truck that was 4 yrs old but said it had lo mileage,which it did,what they didn't tell me that the truck was in a pretty serious wreck,new springs hood nearly the whole front end,it was red but the hood didnt match,a brighter shade of red,when i got inside it had rap music blaring from the speakers,all kinds of junk hung over the windshield,seats all ripped and the truck hadn't been finished as neede the stripes and decals put on and detailed,the mechanic that duane said to check with said it would be ready in a few days,i called ats and refused that truck,they said to chk out the black classics that were just out of lease,those wouldn't be ready for another week.that mech said,i called duane back and dispatch,they said they would pay for my room and no meals,i immediately told them forget it,the older lady that is in gary that takes drivers out for rpoad test asked me what the problem was and i told her,little did i know her husband is from taunton ma, and i was born and grew up there,she knew then i was from a family of truck drivers.sshe said they will lose a good driver,it would have been a perfect job for me.i found out later if i had signed on as a co driver i would have worked right away with a new truck,i had 3 trucks of my own at 3 diff times,jb hunt put my co out of business in 1985-86,i was running boston to me to staten island for 98 a mile,jb came to me. and stole it all for 86 a mile,us lines out of ny and boston had to go out of business,so much for jb,i can tll you all about the johnston ny reefer deal someday,went thru their orientation and all 5 from me, quit before we started,i asked the term mgr to give my new truck to a young guy that had to have a job,and they gave him the truck,it was the recruiters that lied to us all,the magr seemed like a nice guy that interviewde one at a time in johnston,he really seemed like he cared. sorry nfor the ramble but 3 0r 4 jobs that were good in 38 years in about 12 that were bad,made me unload,you all have a great in put and i'm proud to talk with ya all. take care out there,buck and a half

I have never seen a lease purchase program that interested me.They all have too many strings attatched.Above all you are at the mercy of the trucking co.I have been an O/O,but I bought my own truck and leased it on with a co.That way they cannot control me,I always have the option of moving to another co.It is not that hard to buy a truck through a reputible dealer.Dont try to start out with a brand new truck,buy a used one in good condition,put it to work,pay it off,then think about buying the new unit.Who knows you just might be in a position to buy a new one and keep the old one.At which time you can hire a driver for one of them.Now you are truly in a position to make some good bucks.For what its worth,just my advice,stay away from the lease purchase programs.

I would also suggest 2peple that the buy their next TV or chainsaw with cash outright.Truckdriven just never was a great big easy money deal,and continues to go backwards profitwise.All the wear parts are not covered by lease/warrenty.Who is the sucker in this picture?Any company has2 give prefferential treatmemt to company vs. o/o equiptment.Happy Motoring !

I've heard about this sort of thing from a number of drivers. I am glad I did not go with anderson.