Buyer Beware of the "Lease Purchase" Companies

I am not the one that said you was a pro.
Learn how to quote right.......

 

Yep ... "Hack" posts would describe it ...

I rest my case ...

See ya Mr "Vinal"

 

So does Freightliner (Daimler) - technically ...

Not the point I was trying to make about his posts tho ...

 

The bottom line is that YOU CANNOT WIN with these fleecing deals. I tried it with Prime, Inc., for 1 year when I was 5 years into trucking, and I still actually gave a ####. I pre-tripped the truck every day, and kept my tires aired properly. I kept the trailer close to the cab. I didn't spend any money on airbrushing my handle or some silly saying on the back of the cab or chicken lights, and I didn't eat at truck stops. I got groceries out of Wal-mart. I didn't idle, no matter how cold it was, and there were very few APU's back then, and I didn't have one. I drove 62 mph. I was never late for a pickup/delivery, and I never bucked them on a load. I was home only 7 days that year. I religously scouted out the cheapest places for fuel (minus the fuel taxes of course), often fueling 2 or 3 times a day. I even stole reefer fuel from the trailers and put it in my tanks, because a)reefer fuel is tax free, and b)if a driver dropped a trailer which wasn't full of reefer fuel, they'd reimburse you for the fuel, so I took advantage of this. I did every think Prime, Inc. suggested in regards to safety, operations, etc. I had no accidents, and I never took time, off, as I previously stated. I maintained that truck and worked as hard as I ever worked that year. I paid taxes on $17,000 that year.

Now, how in the hell was I going to be able to save up the $36,000 ballon payment that Prime, Inc. was going to want at the end of that deal to buy the truck, when I couldn't even makes ends meet?

It cannot be done, unless you're a husband and wife team, and these companies are still screwing you on the rates because they are brokering the loads between the company side, the o/o side, and probably some other outfits that they own. You simply cannot do it with one truck, as a solo driver.

There is a reason that companies are pushing these fleece programs on the drivers, and that reason is simple: TO TRANSFER RISK. Anybody with 5 or more years experience on the road can tell you that these fleece programs are built for you to be a SLAVE,SHARECROPPER, INDENTURED SERVANT, OR WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT to them.

I was lucky with Prime, Inc., that I could walk away without owing them money. I routinely met drivers that owed Prime, Inc. $10,000 and $15,000 simply because they took home time OR they had a repair that, whilst may have been under warranty, it took so long to be fixed, that they couldn't run.

Anyone that tells you otherwise concerning these fleece deals is completely ignorant of the trucking industry.

 

http://www.landlinenow.com/2009/12/paying-piper.shtml



this kinda sums most of the lease deals up

 

All lease-purchase deals suck,you take all the RISK,they keep all the profits. Think about it. You have no control over rates,DOT run by people that have never drove a truck,DAC Black ballers,CSA 2010,High taxes,CARB,NAFTA,No freight,beady shifty eyed dispatchers,lawsuits,crooked cops,crooked lawyers,crooked judges. The game is setup for you to fail. Just say NO.

 

This is actually one of my favorite statements against L/O's. Guys, let's do the math. It doesn't matter if you're a L/O or a company driver, the company still gets the same rate for the load. Let's just say company driver A gets .45 per mile. He runs 3500 miles in a week and makes $1575. It doesn't matter if he got 3 MPG or 10 MPG. It doesn't matter if he changed his wipers himself or had the company grease monkey do it for him. We can all agree on those numbers, right? Let's say a L/O runs the EXACT same miles, ran smart for fuel economy, changed his wipers himself, and made $1800 (or .51 per mile) for EXACTLY the same amount of work. Who REALLY got screwed in this example? The company driver didn't have to worry about the details, it fell on the company. But the company made a larger profit off the company driver in the process. (or less, depending on how smart the driver ran) When a company goes to using a L/O, they know EXACTLY how much profit they're going to make per mile, because it isn't going to change when the driver screws up.

If you run smart, you can make MORE money than a company driver without affecting the company's bottom line. If you run stupid, you'll be in the poor house faster than anybody on this board can warn you how stupid you're being.

Is becoming a L/O a great deal for everyone? Not even close. I'd say only about 10% of truck drivers are smart enough to make it work. Of those 10%, 90% of THEM can do much better without getting near a L/P deal. That really doesn't leave a healthy number of drivers that it works good for. BUT, if you want to find out if it will work out for you, I have some advice.

1. Plan on probably being homeless. If you can't make it work, you WILL lose everything you own.
2. Have an emergency back up plan for WHEN (not if) you fail and need to become a company driver again.
3. Do NOT blame anyone but yourself for your own stupidity.
4. Make sure the company has a walk away lease program. You really don't want to be responsible for $40,000+ when you find out you screwed up.

That said, I am a L/O and doing VERY well for myself. It IS a lot of work. I probably spend 10-15 hours per week dedicated to making sure that I'm not wasting any extra money that could be going in my pocket. (I actually did the same thing as a company driver, and the companies I drove for profited on my determination. It's nice to have that money coming into MY pocket now!) I am proud of the job I'm doing, and realize that I'm in a serious minority. Best of luck to you all.