Any Company’s to Lease on to?

I was with jb hunt until December. Tried them for 4 months and got really annoyed by the "weather shut downs" picked up a load.5 hrs into trip.got message saying routr ahead was closed for travel. Then a followup saying my delivery was pushed a day forward and they were cancelling my next prebook and the #### keep hitting the fan. Ended up making company driver pay. For the next 2 weeks. Then got told I was at home 2 long.. I'm not a company driver. I was just fed up with the micromanaging. I've been done with them. Since Christmas. Don't want to do reefer and looking at options

 

So no suggestions on companies to lease on?

Or the other side those to avoid like the plague?

Currently a company driver with Crete and looking into their offerings for Owner Ops

 

Not sure if you have seen this thread.
Taking the plunge. My journey as an O/O.

 

Yes, seen the thread but it seems a bit dated.

 

I read through this fully a couple days ago. I already hated Crete from what I heard from RidingwithKev on YT.... my blood boiled.

The YT guy has a lone mountain lease purchase truck and thinks he's doing well. These companies specialize in doing everything to meet the bare minimum niceties to allow the frog to boil financially. Some type of way his $200k brand new lease purchase Cummins powered truck is less reliable than my older used $49k MX13 powered truck but that's a different topic.

In any case, I would agree that you should essentially NEVER do a fixed mileage rate.

And unless you have a good split and spot market in what you're doing is really good, don't lease onto a spot market company.

I've had a good time with a regional carrier with long term contracts. Their rates were unusually good, I was usually beating spot market rate averages after split before the rates started to go up a few weeks ago. Fixed contracts don't react as fast to rate increases, every situation is a double edged sword. Rate went up about the same as fuel did, while it certainly looks like a lot of spot rates are slightly exceeding the increase of fuel.

I'd caution against leasing onto literally any mega. Find regional companies with yards or headquarters near your home and call them and ask them honestly man. Then research them independently.

What's the split?
Where does their freight come from?
What's insurance cost?
Governed speed?
What kinda fuel discount do they see?
Truck age limits?
Do they have company drivers? (WE DON'T WANT THIS)
Do they have lease purchase? (WE DON'T WANT THIS)
What are ALL deductions?

I'm doing ok with:
$500/month insurance
80/20 split
Don't pay for trailer
About $60/month in ELD and random stuff

I'd be annoyed if they charged like $250/week for trailer unless split massively improved, like 88/12 or better

Gotta evaluate the random companies to lease onto almost like evaluating a used truck IMO. History, math, potential.

Depending on where you are in the country, I found Powersource transportation interesting for a few reasons, but I figured deadhead would be a bit high. Might do it later to get experience with all sorts of random trailers and baby steps into oversized.

I know a guy teaming for Arcbest/Panther who is doing ok.

I flatly rejected a place offering $2.50 on USPS team runs. Hilarious to me

 

I will admit I don't know a lot which is why I am asking questions.

I like Crete because as a company driver they keep me rolling. Usually I am rolling 5 days a week with only down time at my choice. On average over the 6 weeks I've been waiting on a load twice for a couple hours. Heard and death with much worse for nearly every other Carrier.

The Pros for lease with Crete

• Fuel discounted about 99 cents
• Shop labor $65 hourly
• Discounted parts / tires
• They handle all back office stuff
• Claimed about 73% gross to owner op

The Cons

• My truck I own would be governed at 70

If there are better options I haven't found them.

 

You can do better with almost any fuel app

I don't want work that a 65$hr shop does. Guaranteed their hiring at best Petro quality techs

Yeah, not that big if deal. You can shop around and probably beat their pricing

Also, not near worth 27% for mega level rates

I bet you won't find many OO that have been with Crete for several years. There's gonna be a reason for that.

And don't expect to get treated like a company man when you're contracted. If they have you and a company truck available, you'll probably be sitting.

 

Nothing wrong with Crete for a W2. Nothing to do with my disdain for the company, and I find Crete drivers unusually polite.

So first off, let me be clear: I have absolutely nothing against you and what might seem like anger to follow is the indignation I have on behalf of you because I want the best for owner operators and the trucking industry. You deserve better, even if you don't believe it, I DO.

So...

As far as leasing on, virtually every carrier under the sun has that or better. Their contract structure and companies that do the same I've got to consider borderline a scam. It's a starvation diet business model (Crete's cookie cutter exploitative business model, not the O/O's design) and that thread proves it. I've seen lease purchase guys net better than somebody with a paid off truck can in these awful fixed mileage contracts.

And 73% pretty much HAS to be a lie. It tops out at like $1.75/mile for short runs right now, less for longer runs. So the HIGHEST rate Crete/Shaffer EVER runs for, with usually its own contract freight, is $2.39/mile? Often with reefers? With all those Walmart runs?

Nah. Not the case.

I am at one of thousands of mid size regional carriers, where I have:

Depending on place, $1+ discount (in home city it's often like $1.20) for fuel
No governor
No truck age limits
80/20 (not rare)
They have their own shop. It's like $140/hr, but the other three carriers in my area had similar shop rates to Crete. Not unique in the slightest to Crete
Everybody has discounts

Everybody can handle the back office stuff. You're only responsible for a handful of things that can't be passed off. My State has really stupid processes for getting apportioned plates, and basically by going "hey carrier PLEASE get me IRP plates" they were able to get me running commercially like two months faster than I could've getting my own plates the first time. And EVERY carrier can do that for you.

And after split I average higher than Crete allegedly runs for gross? And I'm doing dry van? I didn't stumble on a magical unicorn carrier. They're everywhere.

I do not know what people see in Crete as an o/o. Drop and hook? Any carrier with more trailers than tractors can do that. With good customers, I find drop and hooks take longer than my live loads/unloads usually.

And if I get tired of this company, there's like three more carriers like this in the same small city that can offer all the same stuff. Even down to the more lucrative LTL runs. Used to be four, but one was bought out by private equity after the owners passed away and run into the dirt then liquidated. They had an awesome LTL contract that went to a carrier that has truck age limits and a waiting list for those runs, unfortunately.

I'd encourage literally everyone to look elsewhere if they own a truck.

 

2024 was my best year out of 12 years owing trucks, and I was on a mileage contract at FCC, and used their available discounts for absolutely everything. And I was home every weekend. I’d still be there had I not decided that I wanted to learn how to haul fuel instead of buying a new truck. I’ve said it before, there’s a lot to look at when it comes to how things shake out at the end of the year.