Some Misleading info from other L/O's

Misleading or just plain ignorance. Most of the lease operators have no clue what they are doing. My mentor is a lease operator and was constantly telling me the only way to make it was to train or team.

To the company drivers thinking about leasing:
OK with training you're getting paid for your miles plus your student's miles. Subtract $0.05 cents per mile while your student is aboard. Subtract $0.09 cents per mile for every mile you go over 11,000 miles in a month's time. That's $90 bucks for every thousand miles past 11,000 or $999 bucks if you both turned 11,000 in a month. Plus the $1100 for the 5 cents comes out to $2100 bucks you're missing from your pocket.

Teaming is worse, if your truck ran 22,000 miles on the month you just plain get paid $0.09 cents per mile less for the final miles on the month or you could say you both earn $0.045 cents less per mile all month than the solo lease operator.

Solo driver is going to do OK if they are doing OK as a company driver. Pay is close to the same. G/Man made some great posts in another thread against the lease programs. Leasing has its niche. In my case I'm not real sure I want to be doing this truck driving thing for the rest of my life. Leasing is a happy medium from being a company driver with mega restrictions and a full blown owner operator. I picked up a repoed truck, now only 21 more months to go on the lease at which time I can just walk away and go back to my old life, or buy the truck.

It all depends on what the driver's goals are whether it is a good deal for them. Run some numbers for a few weeks to see if it works for you. Figure $800 for the truck payment and all that goes with it every week. That's a little higher that it actually is but that's OK for cushion.

You already know $0.92 cents per loaded mile and $0.81 cents per empty mile. You will be paid a fuel surcharge for loaded miles only-- this week it is $0.443 cents per loaded mile. Take those numbers and multiply them by your miles in your company truck this week and see what your income would have been minus the fuel you bought and the $800 payment up there.

Take all your bills at home, mortgage, rent, cable tv, phone, lights,water,groceries etc add it up and divide by 4.33 (4.33 weeks in every month on average). Now you have a mean number for your bills every week including truck payment. You now figure how many miles it takes to break even every week. The lower the number the better. A lot of these guys turn their trucks in because they cannot budget their money to last if they have 2 weeks or more in a row of negative paychecks. It's high stress in that regard. The guy who had this truck before me, had a fridge wired in-- that's about $800 bucks but according to the maintenance records I looked at he had run out of fuel twice during his lease. He didn't know how to budget or read a truck stop book. You will have to be able to look at your fuel gauge and know how many miles you can go on each 1/8th of tank. Which states to buy fuel in so you pay less at the pump or less at you quarterly tax time (Injun has a great thread about that). The money you are paid is gross, no taxes have been taken out so you will have to budget for that as well.

I wanted to add that idling your lease truck offers no fuel surcharge-- you're paying full pump price for every gallon that burns (usually 1 gallon of diesel per hour of idling). Driving 65 miles per hour and getting 5.8 MPG or going 55 and getting 7.3 is a difference of 1.5 MPG. That translates to hundreds of dollars a week. Would you rather put that money in your tank or in your pocket?

 

I won't sleep on a blanket under a tree.

Maybe I'm just funny about that.

 

Blsqueak and scottied plus injun all make good points,so let me add mine as well.I am getting sick and tired of hearing and reading from people that heard this,or that or the "other" thing about the Swift l/o program.Its constant,and seemingly almost always wrongly misrepresented and is info that seems to be provided by those least informed,or don't have the ability to correctly inform( not a knock on them,we all hear and convey info in our own way).

The first thing is it does require WORK!!! You have to know the system,or trucking in general to get the miles!there's no secret,kiss your dms hiney,sweet talk your fm,or tm to get miles (yes I know that works for some people).it requires KNOWLEDGE!!! So yes newbies,not for you.So one misconception is that swift pushes you into the program,not true in my case.I had to beg! (haha,and prove myself with a good reliable service and employment record).

You should have money set aside!(I have preached this one before) it takes time to learn the program from being a company driver.Such things as "The art of fueling" when,where and how to.(company driver just stick the nozzle in the hole at the approved fuel stop) there really is an art to it,and it can be your best source of savings,helping with cash flow and maximizing dollars in your pocket!And mpgs are a part of fueling.

I know that some people need to make a thousand dollars or more a week to pay your bills and belive me i get it,I had 23 years of kids,wife,house and car payments.So mr family man or woman how are you gonna feel that you fueled badly,picked crappy loads,and have a terrible headwind all the way thru the great plains and can't send any money home? Huh? haha ok,ok.How about when you do a good job with all of those and make a ton of money for a few weeks,nice to see that gleam in your honeys eye when they see that,eh? my point is,is it's entrepenurial and takes DISCIPLINE! and nerve,and you have to take risks and chances,nothings easy,they don't just send platters of money for you to take all you want.

Work!Discipline!knowledge! so for me thats it and what it takes,its not for everyone.Also try to know your plan,know what you want to accomplish,'cuz I know this,this money now,it ain't the big money,not for a few years yet.L/ops think about that?When your freed of the tractor payments and can lease on with swift or any other company for what ever rate you can get,and youv'e built up that maintenance account for 4 years? Think about that and run THOSE numbers! I put .20 a mile in my account and I keep my taxes low,thats what Im talking about,its Your program,and really you can do what you want with it.Why waste it? Its America and it smells like oppertunity to me..............best to all of you fr8

 

This all basic business acumen. As much as everyone touts one should learn the "trucking" business, before striking out on thier own either O/O or L/O. It's more important that you know the basics of running a business.

Be able to make a basic business plan, understand your ROI, be able to analyze your costs and revenues weekly and adjust accordingly, do a risk assessment to determine your required operating capital and have basic business tax knowledge.

 

you sleep in darn hammock----whats the difference????

 

Air conditioning and locked doors.

 

wow--that must be the luxury model hammock
i dont want to ask ,but i am wondering--ummm how does a hammock work for .......hmmm.certain-------well you know

 

Works just fine once you get into the "swing" of things.

 

Any of you company drivers getting fussed at for idling too much? If so--how are you guys keeping it kool in the hot areas?