Said i'd never do this......

you said it right there. thats one reason i was looking for a 3rd party truck. Now that i've leased thru swift/IEL, i have to pull their freight. So what? Swift has the freight. they have the trucks, and they have the drivers....er.....steering wheel holders (sorry REDD).

and Tug Rucker is right, you cannot just 'walk away' from the lease. Well, you CAN...but if the truck sits for 3 weeks while they take their time to get it leased to another driver....you're paying 3 weeks of truck payments and insurance. Then, if the truck isnt up to trade in specs (steers must have 1/4 tred drives must have 6/32 tread) or other items that need fixed or replaced, you get dinged with the bill. Like the guy who had this T660 before me. I got all virgin rubber, came out of a fresh B-service, and anything else that was in need of replacement. You think Swift paid for all that? The driver before me did. And the shop guys in columbus told me it was close to a $4,000 bill. And that is ON TOP of however long it sat before they did all this work, and all the time it sat after the work, till the time i signed on the dotted line. Add another 3-4 weeks to THAT.

So, sure you can walk away, but you'll be paying for close to $10,000 more and you're not even driving the truck anymore. the ONLY WAY you can get out of the lease, is if you find someone to re-lease it off YOU.

and HEAVY...some plan on never buying out the truck. They just want the flexability to 'do what they want', rather than being on forced dispatch. Some are okay with making $50-100 a week more than a company driver (i'm making a bit more than that....just using that as an example, FYI) knowing full well they're never going to own the truck. So what? Not hearing any complaints from Swift, are we? Not hearing any complaints from the drivers who accept they're just leasing the truck with no intention of buying, are we? The only whining we're hearing comes from guys like you who break out in a rash whenever they utter the words "Lease" and "purchase" in the same breath, cause they hate it so much.

And part of the reason i WANT to run 3000 mi a week is so that if i do excersise my right to purchase the truck, i'll get the .09cpm i kick in on that overage charge once i drive over 11k for the month. that figures out to be $2,000+ off the balloon. (if you run 12k a mo for 24 mo.) And with good credit (which swift wont report on time truck payments unless you specify you want them to do it....i not only added that in my contract....but sent an email to recruiting, and i can tell you they ARE doing it) my credit will be better, and the chances of getting my credit union to finance $48k on a truck, showing my track history for the past year of how much i've been running/earning, along with going in with $5-10k in cold hard cash.....odds are pretty good they'll finance it.

 

you must not know many people, cause i can name about 4 i've met who have completed theirs. My orig. mentor was on his 2nd truck when i hopped onboard. and he's still driving the same dedicated route. Oh yeah....we'll both be out of harrisonville...so i'll prob. see him on his 3rd truck.

You said, "If you complete your lease....you'll be the first..." So.....you think that EVERYBODY who has ever leased has failed? EVERYBODY who has leased a truck in the last 20-40 yrs? come on.....i'll even give you credit to say you're smart enough to know better than that.