The Good, The Bad, The Honest Truth of a New Roehl Lease Operator

Good news Preacher. I'm on day 2 of my lease. It's weird picking your own spots to fuel. I keep looking for a fuel stop on my routing.

 

Sorry to hear man. Atleast it's not the engine right? Hey I thought about doing the lease deal, can I lease and drive flatbed? Do you have any helpful suggestions?

 

Don't get fooled on pump prices when fueling. Try to fuel in low fuel price states that are also high tax states. Believe it or not Illinois and Indiana have some of the cheapest fuel, but their taxes are high. Figure out how many miles a day you need to average to be profitable and hold out for loads that fit your plan. I guarantee you that if you take too many 140 mile loads you will be out of business in a hurry. Roehl will try to run your truck like a company truck, but you can't afford to do that. Roehl accepts a load and then looks for the best available truck for that load, you have to do the opposite and look for the best available load for your truck. I am very predictable in what loads I will accept most of the time. If it gives me an average of 400+ miles a day and is in the midwest, goes south or southeast I will usually take the load.

Slow down! Just because you suddenly have a 75 mph truck doesn't mean you should drive like that. I raised my miles per gallon by almost 1 mpg just by slowing down from 62 to 57. Be careful about filling the tanks on your last load of the week. Sometimes I'll put a load on the next pay period if I have to fuel rather than take less in my settlement. Typically I fuel every 900 to 1000 miles.

You can lease and do flatbed. Light loads, slow down, flat ground and tail winds will all increase fuel economy. I also use Howe's fuel additive all the time.

 

Any ROEHL lease operators driving the 2013 or 2014 Prostar out there? Thinking about upgrading from my 07 Columbia and am anxious to hear from 0/0 drivers who have one of these newer trucks.
I am flatbed as well as a trainer.
Thanks in advance.

 

Why would you get rid of the Columbia? If it is paid off you are making a lot more money than you would be by going into debt on a new truck. I'm literally counting down the weeks till the Blue Lemon is paid off. My wife could quit her job and we would still be making $125.00 a week more than we are now with her working 40 hours a week.

 

Good stuff. First two fuel ups have been in Indiana. Was the cheapest by .30/gal, over Michigan which is where I was headed. I'm always keeping speed around 61 or so. Another o/o buddy of mine said the same thing to me today. Don't fuel late in the week if you can avoid it.

 

Still got 2 years to pay on the Columbia, and worried that it wont last that long. There was a post earlier in this thread with a driver facing about $20k in engine work before he had his truck paid off. I don't want to get into that position, which is what makes the 7 year warranty sound good. I would have it paid off before the warranty expired.
As I said, I know several O/O with these columbias, but am curious to hear from some that actually own a Prostar and how their feelings are about them.

 

I understand the temptation to get a newer truck, but how much is that warranty going to cost compared to the payments on your current truck. A whole new reman engine is about $30,000, what is that new truck going to cost? By the way, you will be amazed how little is covered under the warranty. Most of the time if you have to have the engine rebuilt you will be able to get away with an inframe for about $12,000.

Word of warning about Roehl. During the lease anytime repairs were greater than what was in maintenance they just handled it as an advance. Now that I am in the buyout they have decided to leave it to me. Good thing I have enough sense to not trust them and have money saved. Just remember they are not your friends.

 

Sorry to hear that the blue lemon gave you problems again so close to the end of lease. Seems like the truck has a mind of it's own at times. Roehl is probably letting you decide how to finance the repairs as they don't know if you would be staying on after your lease is completed and they don't want to be chasing their loaned money.

 

You can always pay the advance off if you have money saved. I'm not sure how else they'd handle it if you don't have the funds in your maint account.