Is There Anyone Here Who Made It With Transam's Lease?

My husband and I run teams for Transam. We leased and purchased the truck. You can make it if you stick with it. But, go company for a while and feel it out, and then make a decision. Transam is a very stable company with lots of freight. We are actually leaving transam because we need to be in Virginia more often because of an illness in the family. But be ready to work and do what they tell you and you should be fine. There are a lot of guys that do well. Mostly, have realistic goals...If it sounds to good to be true.....then it is.....Good luck to you.

You should research other threads. There is a lot of chatting about Transam around here....

 

I have met two people that completed Transam leases and both are running for the Great Pumpkin now. So it can be done and a report I saw in February had them rated at one of the higher completion rates.

Once you get past all the negative post that will soon be coming and understand the downside, you have to evaluate a lease based on what every other own operator should be doing.

You look at your fixed costs, estimate how many miles a week you will run - including time off and breakdowns - and convert that to a fixed cost per mile. Best is to use a low number here.

Then figure out your per mile costs - fuel, maintance, fuel tax, ect.

Add these two togther and subtract from what they are paying. You also want to figure out how many mile you have to run before you start to make money.

And if they are not upfront giving you copy of contract, expenses and fees that you will be paying with time to review then don't do it.

Best option is if you can run company for a couple months to learn their system and move over later. Possibly as Christmas freight is picking up.

 

Now you are talking about a straight lease and these are not designed to be purchased by you at the end. The buyout is going to be higher than what you can go to a dealer and buy the same truck for. Plus, your payment is going to be very high and you will likely be able to make more as a company driver.

Anyone that tells you to go into a new truck in one of these lease programs does not understand the business of trucking. And many LP's don't. That is by far one of the biggest reasons for failure i these programs.

Most O/O's start by buying a used truck. If you are worried about repairs on a used truck from them then put the difference between the new payment and used payment away in the bank. The odds are far in your favor that when you own the truck at the end you will have most of that in the bank. And I thought they offered something like a 500K bumper-to-bumper?

In the new truck direction you will not own the truck and not have the money in the bank.

But another issue with Transam that going into a newer truck makes it harder. They are paying $.10/mile less than most companies.

 

We purchased the truck that we leased from transam. It was brand new and the warranty was freaking amazing. Also, we still have some warranty on the transmission and we are close to 700,000 miles. I feel that the amount that we purchased the truck for was a fair amount. And the interest rate is pretty good as well. My husband and I don't feel like we have been taken advantage of. It is really hard to explain all the things that transam will do for their drivers to keep them in the truck and the truck moving, also, I don't know what other companies are doing in regards to their lease on trucks, but transam has been a vital tool in our venture to truck ownership. Transam has fronted monies, negotiated costs of truck repair bills, these are the things that you don't here about, but it is a benefit that transam offers.

 

I would have no problem going the used truck route to keep price and corresponding cost down. Most engines bought by most fleets have extended warranties to 500,000 miles, and all the tranny and diff manufacturers will warranty their products to 750,000 miles if you keep synthetic lubes in them.

That is the major costs that will break you out of the gate. Most everything else can be taken care of with proper stashing of cash aside for maintenance. The pricing for a new truck vs a decent used truck is considerable. It is just like buying a car. The minute that new truck rolls off the lot, it has lost at least 20% of its value. And have a new one with all the new auto smell and warranties doesn't mean diddly if the thing constantly has EGR, SCR, or DPF problems. Warranties may cover these things, but the lost revenue will kill you just as fast. And if a truck with a few hundred thousand miles on it checks out by viewing the COMPLETE report on the ECM, checks out on Dyno test, and is gone thru front to back and everything inspected, and the maintenance records are looked over, then a person can really save a lot of cash by going that route.

That being said, I wouldn't even take a new truck off the lot until it had been gone thru by a good mechanic to find anything wrong. Yes, the manufacturers do screw up a lot of things sometimes during assembly.

 

You say "we" did the purchase. I am assuming you are running as a team from that statement. That can really make a big difference compared to the single O/O. A new or newer truck would be a better option for a team, but not so great for a solo. The fixed costs on operating a truck are lower in relation to the revenue for a team operation. After all, insurance, truck payments, etc are the same whether a team or a solo. But the revenues are much higher with a team than a solo.