Failure is inevitable? Lease to own.

If luck fails, so do you, and lose everything with it, when you do...

Common tips:

1) Don't try to go into business for yourself, when you're broke. You may need money while you wait for receivables to be paid, to pay for unexpected repairs, for fuel, insurance, bond certificates, taxes, permits... what you have to pay for will vary, depending on how you go into business, but you should not be this unprepared. In some cases, you can negotiate your way out of some of these expenses, but negotiating from a position of weakness is no way to get a good deal. If it is crucial that you don't get asked to front up money, then you will negotiate to avoid that, and wind up paying too much, somewhere else.

2) Don't get your truck through your carrier. When you do this, they invariably write the contract so that you can't take the truck with you, if you leave the carrier. They have a million tricks around this; a common one is to tell you that you can take the truck, but require whoever you sign on with, has to submit to a credit check or some such, in order for you to be allowed to jump to them. The new carrier won't give financial information to it's competitor, so in practice, you can't leave. Your carrier knows how much work you need, to stay afloat, and they know how hard it is for you to leave... effectively, this makes you an indentured servant, so they can treat you any way that they want, and you have to take it and smile. Again, this is you negotiating from a position of weakness. If you got your truck independently of the carrier, you can tell them to suck it, and jump to a different carrier, if they treat you poorly - and they know that, which strengthens your position with them.

3) Know and respect the limits of your business skills. You're a career driver, not a tax expert. You probably don't know how to collect past-due receivables, or post to customer's credit records - or probably, even *check* their credit, to determine whether they are likely to pay you at all. It will cost you money to outsource these things, and eventually, you'll probably learn about them and bring them in-house, if you stay in business, and grow to a scale at which it starts making sense to do so. Until then, trying to do everything yourself will likely cost you *way* more than you save, because you'll screw things up. Stick to what you are good at, until you are ready to take on something new - and try not to take on too much at one time.

That'll get you started... maybe. Honestly, it doesn't sound as though you are ready for this. A quick sanity check is to try to get a business loan, through a (comparatively) reputable financial institution. If the bank doesn't think that you have what it takes to succeed, they won't give you a business loan, to buy a truck. Even if you don’t want to borrow to buy a truck, applying for the loan can give you a kind of sanity-check, inexpensively getting you a professional's opinion of your chances at succeeding.

Good luck. Try to need as little of it as possible...

 

ATS does a 1 year lease. It's not a purchase, just a lease. At the end you get $4000 and you can roll that into a down payment for a tap truck. Similar to lease purchase but you build equity in the truck.

 

Interstate was just bought by Heartless (Heartland) if that makes any difference to you. A buddy of mine left ATS because they were screwing him badly. I know nothing of Seaboard.

Failure is not inevitable as I just completed my l/p deal. It was a walk away, no money down deal; it can be done. Don't listen to the haters.

TA

 

Record keeping is critical for,any small business as is having a good accounting set up. Also, check with manufacturers for lease deals. International and Western Star have been advertising terrific deals as has Penske. Under $2000 a month and Penske has a full maintenance program, includes everything from the ground up. I think that runs about .08 a mile. Truck breaks down they bring you a replacement while they fix yours. Certainly worth looking into. Why sink Capital into something that will depreciate rapidly?
Mega's push leasing because a truck to a trucking company is a depreciating asset, and has to be recorded as such on its balance sheet, but the lease takes it off the books and the lease becomes an asset.

 

I wish you success. And then, I'll probably be asking for advice. And if I get super gutsy, a loan...

 

Well .. NYC not that bad if you plan it right, and avoid low bridges and buy your fuel and stay RI or an hr north and dont expect dot brk at cust or on street. My big concern would be if you get fired, do you keep the truck.

Did you get fired because that load was late or because you have 40k in equitity?

NYC good money but white nuckle drving lol. GPS never works right some places NYC (slanted intersections).

 

Kelles that is dick Simon son lol I would not work for a company that the CEO are president are what ever title he had and they went up side down to me it's just a matter of time don't wish no one bad it's how I see it

 

I am not a troll but by views of fleece purchase are well documented. Its the truth....nothing more. First thing you must accept is that the truck is not yours. You have no right to it no matter what the carrier tells you. In the eyes of the court you are an "At Will Employee." They can take the truck when ever they want, control what loads you take (which they do) etc etc. There is no path to ownership. You are basically sharecropper on wheels You need to take a big moment and ask yourself why you want to get involved in such a scheme. Most people want to do a lease purchase because they are broke or their credit sucks

I suggest you review all the recent law suits and issues...especially those that involved the Port Authority Truckers in Long Beach getting scammed. And many others.