The Feds Just Announced All Lease Purchase Deals Should Be Banned

You are right first.From the article I read the fmcsa stated they were concerned about drivers getting into these programs and going broke and getting discouraged and leaving the industry.But I don’t think the government has ever got involved in anything and made it better.It’s like my old paw paw said if you have a problem and call a cop now you have 2 problems.

 

I've done two. The first one was a driver for SRT through Transport Enterprise Leasing (TEL) . After they shut down SRT, I was moved to Star and then Landair. I made less money at Star/Landair even with the high (sarcasm) $0.03 pay raise which to me turned out to be a pay cut. I was taken from guaranteed mileage (2,200 miles even if you didn't drive that) and $0.05 extra for HazMat to just a flat rate. They also liked splitting your miles which never sat well with me. I quit counting how many times I received negative checks despite crunching and budgeting. I tried taking the unit to A&A Express, but was unable to as the wanted $10,000 and a month of truck rent. This worked out to a little under $13k. A&A offered to front me the money, but TEL refused them. I had to return the truck to TEL before I flew out of Tennessee. Below, is my review of that.

My second one was from ENGS. I'll just say that the truck had issues from the outset. You're welcome to look up my A&A Express post. All in all, I'll tell anyone going the route of O/O to know what you're doing and have a set amount put up for the unexpected. I guess the FMCSA cracking down had to happen eventually.

My Review of TEL:
The stars are for the truck, therefore I can't say that it was all bad. I leased with TEL back in December of 2019 when Southern Refrigerated Transport was still in business. They do have knowledgeable people in the organization and while I was there, they helped me make money. Again, this is when I was leased to Southern Refrigerated Transport. Now for why I didn't give them the 5 star rating.

Southern Refrigerated Transport was shelved in May of 2020. I was sent to STAR Transportation and then to LandAir right after. Because TEL said that I was running above my contracted mileage, they raised the rate of my lease. I took this as I was running over 12,000 miles a month. I couldn't really break a check past $1200.00 at times to no fault of TEL but because of the policy of STAR/LandAir. I wasn't happy with the latter and asked about moving my truck to A&A Express, another company that TEL leases trucks to. I was told that I would have to pay a deposit of over $13,000 which I could not as the money just wasn't there at LandAir and my finances were seriously suffering despite me staying on the road 2-3 months at a time. After contacting A&A Express, they offered to front TEL the deposit so that I could go and drive with them to which TEL refused. I found this out through the lease coordinator at A&A Express. Therefore I returned the truck to the Chattanooga, TN yard as I'd accepted a driver position with A&A Express. About a month after I'd surrendered the truck, I found out through forums back at STAR and LandAir that they were allowing the disgruntled drivers the chance to move their trucks whist waiving the fees for doing so. I still have proof of this. Before leaving, I was sure to leave the unit 209090 spotless and took pictures of it before and after. This is where things get tricky.

I received their package about payment to the truck. According to whoever looked at the truck for refurbishing, there were damages, some I actually reported and tried having repaired only to be told "no" by the friendly agents of TEL. Another issue I had is that they claimed that I'd left an odor in the truck which is another lie as I kept my truck clean and smelling like citrus all year round. When I'd gotten my finances in order and was attempting to pay off my balance owed, I was either sent to an answering machine or outright hung up on. This was all during the end of 2021 and all the way through 2022. Cut to July of this year and I receive a threatening e-mail about possibly ruining my credit for the balance of the returned truck. This is after I became destitute and I tried explaining that to their illustrious finance department who acted dismissive and still demanded payment. I'm still confused as to why when I tried paying them, they didn't want the money before. Then they want to get funds from you when THEY want to. They don't come after the money when it's actually there. I was called and threatened again with ruining my credit when TEL decided to wait a week to take their payments. I have other things that I have to take care of and they won't wait for TEL.

All in all, they are a pretty decent leasing company. My advice is that if you do use them, make sure that you are at a company that you can work with. Otherwise you're invited to pay a visit to Dr. Bendover if things don't work out and you have to return the unit to them.

P.S. They're still saying I owe them $500.

TDLR

 

Your Paw-Paw was an intelligent man. He's not wrong as calling the police nowadays results in more trouble than you began with.

 

I have known only of one lease/purchase program that I would even touch, but this was years ago when business was conducted with ethical practices. Johnson Motor Lines out of Charlotte, N C had a lease/purchase program for their Special Commodities Division. Now as you read this, keep in mind, I am using money value back in the 1970s.

For $2000, you were put in a new International. This $2000 was not a down payment, it was the start of your maintenance fund. 5 cents per mile were taken out of your settlement and added to the $2000 until $4500 was reached. Once $4500 was reached, the 5 cents per mile stopped being taken out, until you used any of the fund and then it got built back up.

Payments were 10 cents per mile. You run hard, you got the truck paid off quicker. You get lazy, it took longer to pay the truck off. I knew a driver who broke his leg and was out several months, the truck sit in his yard until he came back to work and the 10 cents per mile started back. No one came and demanded payments or repossessed his truck.

Tags, permits, truck insurance, bobtail insurance, freight insurance came to around 7 cents per mile.

Oh, those on the Special Commodities Division could join the Teamsters and have benefits just as the company drivers.

One other note, Johnson had "yards", I am not talking about their company terminals for the LTL division, they had "yards" and dispatchers at each yard. You get empty say in NJ and had to wait for a load, you went to the "yard" where it was safe and where other drivers would be at. No "forced dispatch". I knew a driver that sit in Baltimore for 4 days and turned down every load offered to him.

When Johnson closed the doors in 1980, they made every lease/purchase driver an offer. They had made arrangements with a bank to take over any truck that money was owed on or if you wanted to walk away, your maintenance was given back to you.

I have not seen or heard any trucking company offering this type of lease/purchase deal. The lease/purchase deals today, in my opinion, are "scams"

An after fact, I just remembered. A lease/purchase driver, got 2 checks. One check was for the driver, the other check was for the truck. It was broken down by percentage, I forget the breakdown.

 

No. Government is worthless and we don't need big brother. LP programs may or may not be horrible , but we are a free country and free people and have the right to make good/bad decisions for ourselves. I'm sick of government thinking they need to protect us from everything. They don't. It's not their job.

 

I agree with your sentiments. Problem is you have millions of low IQ losers that demand the government become their parents.

Look at how many bottom feeding menchildren "protest" and demand the government come in and force thier customers to help them survive.

Crying about what brokers are making, low rates, large carriers taking runs from them etc etc. Uncle Sam has become Daddy.

 

Exactly right. Allowing these fleeces to continue would be the same as allowing Bernie Madoff to continue fleecing his investors.

So then by this argument do you agree that government shouldn’t be allowed to force drivers to drug test or wear a darth Vader mask to sleep ? Do you want government out of all aspects or just the ones you support or don’t support? And it’s way more than a few hundred that have been fleeced by trucking industry leases. It’s literally 99%.

Respectfully you’re arguing in favor of fraud.

What about Bernie Madoff ? Should the government of stopped it or did the people he screwed deserve it ?

If someone has bad credit and can’t become an owner operator any other way than a fleece I’d say they should work to improve their credit and not be fed to the fraudsters that pollute this industry. If only 1 out of 100 that do the lease end up owning the truck that’s proof of widespread systemic fraud in the trucking industry.

 

Where is this fraud you speak of? All the incidences I've seen have been as simple as the driver signing and agreeing to outrageous terms because they never read anything or they thought they would never have to deal with it later.

The terms are unfair and not in favor of the driver but thats not fraud IMO. It's just typical corporate greed and ignorant low IQ fools eager to "be a boss."

 

I’m arguing for less government and people being responsible for their own choices.

Madoff is a poor comparison that’s not close to being the same as a lease purchase. For it to be a similar comparison would mean that someone would buy a truck and pay everything up front, then their $200k would be used to pay out others who bought in before them. Good try, though.

Since nobody else has answered this, here’s your chance. Where should the line be when it comes to the government protecting people from their own choices? Sub prime mortgages? High interest credit cards? Payday and title loans? 84 month terms on vehicle financing? Furniture rent to own?

No money down, no credit check, walk away if you don’t like it. How many things in life pay off when there is no skin required to get started? We see the threads here. People know they’re risky but they’re going to be the one who beats the system. Just like someone who loses their savings because they have a system to beat the casino.

 

Many of those things are already regulated by government.