Thinking about diving in to O/O

Lol i can handle it...truck stops are not fun like they used to be.

 

Simple answer to your question. Funny how when your looking for a load, call on it and funny, the load is booked, they just haven"had a chance to take it down yet. Seriously. There is a good reason why so many people fail at a lease purchase. Or the other favorite is I have a load that picks up 100 miles away from the load you called on. I have had that many times as well. And I don't lease anything from anyone. Either way. Good Luck to you in whatever your decision is. Keep everyone posted on your endeavor.

 

Certainly not as bad as L/P deals through mega carriers, I think. But I'd argue having an option to be able to take your truck elsewhere (for whatever reason) is not a bad thing.

What about the specs on the truck? Do you have any choice in engine/transmission/axle ratio/WB/etc? If you end up getting one of those gold Freightshakers, how much value would it have left when you trade it in?

Lastly, regarding maintenance. I like to service my truck when I think it's necessary. I don't want to wait to change brake shoes until the lining wears down to 0.249", for example. And I like to change shoes on other wheels at the same time if they are down to 5/16" or so, to minimize the downtime. And I like to choose who works on my truck.

If every L/Os did that, it obviously isn't going to be good for CRST's bottom line which, I'd venture to guess, is more important for them than your downtime. If I were a CRST's bean counter, I'd make the shop do just bare minimum to keep the trucks DOT compliant. Rationing happens even with "free" healthcare for humans.

 

The answers have been given here, but the CRST sales lingo you heard sounds a lot like the same terminology in the answers we're offering. Apples and oranges. You need to think of the offer you're considering within the framework of the CRST "universe" which is a tiny subset of the rest of the world.

Yes, you choose your own loads. From only the ones they present to you on their load board. With carrier authority you choose from any load available from any customer. You can find brokers on load boards or go knocking on doors if you like. You make your market. Other carriers you might lease on with may have more flexible terms on those choices; however, you're ultimately hauling for someone else's customer no matter how you slice it. So the carrier will probably never give you free reign on customers, but many will offer more options. With a lease deal you've hitched your wagon to a single source of customers. With a lease to own deal, you've also locked yourself into that deal until the terms are completed on your wagon, completely shackling you to that program. They certainly know that, and will use that leverage against you. You will never be able to prove it, but I can assure you they will favor/load the guy with nothing to lose by walking before they load the one with everything to lose. It would be stupid for them not to.

Maintenance fund. I've seen this described by several posters before you. It's falsely sold to you like a maintenance budget which is different.

If I have this wrong, please correct it. From what you've described, it seems like a fixed cpm rate service plan. That is, for xx¢ per mile, it's all inclusive from replacing a valve stem cap to engine replacement. To me, a deal like this is income redistribution. If you are responsible, do thorough pre-trips, get in for minor repairs before they get major, you will probably end up paying for some other operator that is careless and hard on their equipment. Do some of the work yourself (if it's even allowed) and it's even less in your favor. You're protected from the unlikely catastrophic breakdown, but there's nothing in it for you if that doesn't happen.

A maintenance budget that an owner has is simply money that they've earmarked for a purpose. If it doesn't get spent, you still have the money. Again, treat the equipment with love and you're more likely to not spend it.

The other side to the maintenance deal is like the loads, lack of options. You will have to use their shop and only with their approval. If they're doing PM service every 50k and you're not comfortable with that, I'm not sure how that works. My guess is you either just deal with it, or sneak your own service at your expense with the risk that they terminate your deal if discovered. Same with repairs, where it's probably a bigger deal. As the owner with a budget, you get to decide where and when that service money gets spent. As a lease operator with your own equipment, you still get a say on that within the constraints of the carrier's maintenance policy. The latitude you get will depend on who you're leased to.

You really need to download and use one of the many cost models (spreadsheets) for decision support. It will serve to take the smoke and mirrors out of the lease to own pitch you are considering, and enable you to do an apples to apples comparison on your options. It will also force you to consider what you're really getting yourself into, one way or another. Not surprisingly, those LTO salesmen are really good at presenting a nice looking case that leaves out the ugly stuff.

 

Just do yourself a favor if you're hell bent on doing lease purchase deal. Put an app in at Lone Mountain and see if they'll approve you on a truck with a warranty. Then lease on to CRUSTY if you want, in fact I'd highly recommend you lease to someone out of the gate that pays percentage. Pay your payment, do your maintenance, and if a better opportunity comes around, you can move your truck. I don't trust anyone in this industry when it comes to my money and livelihood as I have been screwed too many times, and have seen way too many unsuspecting drivers really screwed! People coming into this industry have too much faith in people and their company doing right by them as newbies in this industry. A quick look at the Arrow debacle, and guys having PAID FOR L/P trucks repossessed when Arrow went belly up, should tell you all you need to know about company sponsored L/P/

 

13 years is a stretch, an excuse, to hurry this up and dive in headlong. Depending on your financial situation 3-5 years living on "rice & beans" as a company driver puts you way ahead financially and gets you much needed experience. 3 years is nothing. Malone's deal seems better on the surface than most but the maintenance part is suspect, 40k intervals on a 500k mile truck that's been maintained that way? All repairs done in their shop on their terms?