How do the lease and O/O deals really work?

If you have little experience, "leasing" or buying a truck is not the wisest move. Most carriers that offer lease/purchase plans don't offer them to drivers with less than a few years with them or at least OTR experience.

There are so many lease/purchase arrangements out there it is impossible to determine if the one you are being offered is good or bad without carefully examining the lease contract. They range from the worst-you "lease/purchase" one of their old units that they can't sell on the used market, they charge you lots of money for the truck, financing, and maintenance, which is usually very high because the truck has not been maintained properly. The best deals are "arms length" where the carrier has an arrangement with a local reputable dealer and makes the payments for you directly to the dealer out of your settlement check. That way a driver with shaky credit can still get a truck.

As far as time away from home and what carriers promise. I am sure there are as many stories as there are drivers about recruiters who have lied to them about several details about the job, including time away from home. Suffice to say that you won't have any leverage negotiating that kind of thing until you have proved yourself a safe reliable driver, which may take several years. In the meantime, you will have to put up with whatever they hand you. You are dealing with carriers that are willing to hire entry level drivers, treat and pay them poorly. That is why a company like JB Hunt no longer hires new drivers and shut down their training facilities. It was cheaper in the long run to steal experienced safe drivers from poorer paying fleets than train their own.

 

Yes, they're called 3 man teams.

2 drivers on the truck at all times. Rotating 1 for home every week.

1 gets on, 1 gets off.

You'll stay on the truck for 2 weeks, and share that time with 2 other drivers, for a week at a time each. Then it's your time to go home for a week.

While you may find another beginning driver to ride behind you. You'll be hard pressed to find an experienced driver willing to team with you. Even if the company allows it.

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Lease Purchase --- Avoid it at ALL cost. I won't bother with the why's and wherefores. It would take too long to give you enough detail. Just avoid it...if you like eating.

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If you want 2-4 days at home you won't make money as a lease operator. You only make money when the truck is moving ( miles ). 2-4 days at home could mean 1200 - 2400 miles or more that you would miss out on ....and that's too much for a lease operator, especially if you have a high truck payment among other things like fuel etc. It's not recommended that you get into a lease until you have some company driving under your belt...at least a year or more in all weather conditions. If you already have 10,000 in the bank than that's another story.... but still not a good idea fresh out of school.

 

My little itty bit of wisdom to offer is do NOT lease from the same company that controls your freight. The chances of you ever paying off that truck are low.

Besides that, as a new driver, you're going to screw up. Do it on someone else's $$$$$. Once you're more experienced and know routes, fuel stops, customers, etc and still want to do the OO thing, okay. Also once you take the OO route forget being home that often. The truck payment has to be made after all.

2 days off after 5-7 days is not at all realistic, whether you're a company driver or OO. If that's what you want, you need to try for city work, which is probably not something you can get with no experience and no school.

Sorry to be debbie downer here, but the majority of drivers serve their time as company drivers and that means being gone a week minimum and longer. Once you learn the ropes, some go OO, but that's a different game. Sure you have more load control, but there's that pesky truck payment tha has to be made. Once you serve some time, you can get city work and that sounds more like what you want. It is rare that a carrier will hire a non-experienced, non-school driver for this, tho. City work is a whole lot different than OTR. You deal with tight turns, tight backing, traffic, etc all frikkin day long. You might want to check with local construction companies or farmers in your area.

 

If you go teams I would only go with someone who has several years experience. I would not go a student fresh out of school.

 

A couple of points:

The leases are generally not lease-purchase agreements. You lease the truck; think of it as renting for a specified period of time (specified in the lease agreement). You pay for everything: the weekly truck payment/fuel/tires/maintenance/repairs/insurance/permits/tolls etc etc ad infinitum. You keep what's left and then you pay taxes (quarterly/state/federal) on that. You gain no equity in the truck and you really do have to run to make the numbers work if you're paid by the mile.
The costs continue to acrue even when you're not working. You'd have to get some bodacious mileage pay--how are you going to do that with no experience?

Yeah, pretty much a company driver driving a lease truck.

Of course you make less if you work two weeks instead of three.

This deal you just found: what does it pay? Or rather, what do they tell you/do you think you'll net in a year?

I don't understand your last sentence.

Best bet is to call a lot of carriers and ask your questions. CR England has, I think, a six-month lease deal, but just look at their pro forma solo driver numbers (on their website). I think you'll see that seven on/four or two on/one off off won't work. (Not a CRE endorsement!)