without risk, there's no reward.

You can take all the pieces to a puzzle, place them in a bag, hand them to a lot of these drivers and they still wouldnt be able to put it together... It never will change... A lot of these guys can't succeed as company drivers.

 

The end result is the end result no matter the road to get there. I was a company driver for 8 years and after my divorce I bought a truck. I will admit I did everything wrong. Not enough set aside for emergencies. I financed the truck and the first year I had it I had to finance an overhaul. I haul livestock now and I busted my butt because I didn't want anyone to be able to say they were right. December will be my four year anniversary and I have no debt at all, even the house is paid for. Would I tell anyone to follow my lead? Not a chance in this world. I am more business minded now and can tell you every misstep I made though. Like I asked, how many that fail at a L/P would fail with a bank financed truck or even a cash truck with no maintenance fund?

 

I agree. It doesn't matter how you start, either through traditional finance, paying cash or a lease purchase. What matters is if you've done your due diligence and are willing to make it work. Too many just see dollar signs and don't have any clue how to actually make a business work!

 

Your missing the piont. The way to succeed is to put yourself in the best position possible to succeed.

 

So on average you make less then experienced company drivers while having the overhead and risk/expense of running your own truck? I don't get it.

 

I understand what you're saying. In many cases hard work and determination can overcome stupidity. The large carriers have built a business model that works for them. The point I'm making is that there's not a 100% failure rate.

I admitted I did a lot of things wrong using traditional financing, thankfully I have a good relationship with my local bank. Because I started out ill prepared doesn't make me less debt free today.

 

Here's the difference. An experienced company driver will be making about the same 5 years from now, they may have a few cpm more and a week or two more paid vacation but the ceiling is there.

Some L/P's are trying to break that ceiling. If successful in 5 years his income has a decent possibility of being far higher than a company driver's with a lot fewer miles and a lot more time for living outside the truck.

The ones I don't get are those that just keep trading in and doing the another lease, over and over.

 

So few and so far between

 

I hear similar things about Marines.

 

Actually with a little hard work you could find a job that pays substantially better then an L/O. And by actually playing a business person you could save the amount that the tractor is worth in 5 years. All the while making better money, less stress and actually planning for growing a real business.


So explain again why you you think someone is ahead by doing a buy here pay here deal?