Which Truck To Lease??

Wow I always heard that the Volvo's have a nice ride to them...lol.....I don't know what would be worse,rattling or the wind howling thru the doors on my Prostar...annoying that's for sure.

 

If you are trying to make more money your best option is to be a mentor with a company truck. If you lease a truck, the students are not reliable, they will quit at any moment for what ever reason, homesick etc before you start teaming and you lost .5 cents per mile for every mile he was on the truck.
If you will be running solo with the lease truck thick about all the expenses that have to be paid every week regardless if the truck run 1 mile or 3000 miles add you personal expenses to that car note other bills at home etc.
Do you have a family or are you going to live in the truck
Scottie gave you some great options one of the best is lease a truck outside and bring it on, more than likely it will be cheaper and you can take it with you I you decide to leave swift (without have to pay it off first)
Have money for break down you never know when and were it going to break down, you might get a truck that run like a dime and you might get one that will suck your pocket dry.
How often are you trying to be home, the truck is a major responsibility
I'm not telling you not to get a truck just check it out carefully before you get into it. When you talk to these owners and everybody telling u they making money that's a lie, you are going to have some bad weeks, maybe you take time off, truck was in the shop or what ever. With a truck you really dont see any decent money until your truck paid off. $1000 wk is not good money you can make more than that as a company driver with a student. I would recomend find a decent use truck that you can pay off in a short time about 2 yrs or so, less if possible. But good luck on your decision, all those use trucks u see at the terminal for lease theirs one reson they are there. A Fail owner, ain't no owner doing great going to turn the truck in.
You can make it but it take a lot of motivation and dedication. Just tellin you like it is

 

One thing to consider is your debt load outside the lease. If you have a house, car, credit cards etc to pay off? Wife and kids constanly with their hands out for money? I wouldn't consider it.

Injun sounded like she had her act together, finacially with the lease. She also landed a dedicated account. They don't always like to put you on a good paying dedicated account. Just going from what my mentor was told.

If you have had money problems in your life due to paying the "stupid taxes" (to quote Dave Ramsey) walk away.

As for the Volvo ride? I have since driven several that rode really nice, and didn't have the death rattle. I am gonna guess they wonderful Swift mechanics had the dash apart and either broke something or didn't reconnect something.

Also the driver side front steer leaf springs lose their arch. When they replace them they do both. Expect 5-6 days down time. Mine was that way. I never had it fixed as I had fixed everything else with it, didn't want to get another truck and have to do the same thing over.

I have also driven a Volvo with front air ride suspension too. Some improvement.

 

Man that is one sweet looking freightliner, what does it run a week with payment and insurance etc. before fuel cost being factored in. Fuel mileage might get better if you run a lil slower so i have been reading anyway.

 

Good read on this thread. +1

Me my self am a new l/o o/o and I run solo driving a KW t660 ss and love it.
I've been running this truck for 6 weeks and my life has been 1/10th the stress as a company driver, no hastles no you must run this or that, etc
im averaging around 2800-3300 miles a week, one week I ran over 3500 solo, which isn't hard to do.
My buddy runs the Volvo 780, and I've ridden in them, never drove, they seemed real nice, I almost leased one, probable would have but none were in phx at the time when I was ready to make to jump. Yea the KW is 40-50 bucks more a week, but to me well worth it. Everyone asks me why not a T700, well as a company driver that's what I drove for almost a year and it ws a good truck, it had lots of lil break down and issues w/ elec, a/c, yda yada that and I was cramped back there. Hell there might even be a fart or two still lingering in that thing..
This ol girl is still breaking in, she gets a variety of mpg, depending on weight of loads. I just pulled a 43k load out of laredo and averaged 6.1mpg, pretty flat roads and kept her around 65mph, jit load w/ tight time. This load I just pulled up into WI was 8700lbs and I averaged 8.2mpg going up a few grades @ 65mph, not bad.
I write all my mpg on weights in my book, so when I calculate my fuel I know what it'll take(ball park) as mtns, flat roads etc are different state to state.
I hardly ever top off my tanks unless I know ill be in cali, oregon etc.
I did top off my tank going into cali @ the sparks terminal which took me into cali, made my delivery, hooked to another load and got me up into washington, popped in 50g there took me to my delivery. I try and plan fuel the best I can.

I don't have any outside bills other than cell phone and a storage, so I live in my truck. When I do hometime i pop in a zip code to a friend or family member and im good for a few days.
For the first 3 weeks I took out .15c a mile for my maint account, I wanted to built it up to where if I had a flat id atleast be ok, or #### near ok. Now I backed it off to. 5c mile, and now have enough in there for a truck payment, if needed, or god forbid break down towing etc.
for me I ran my behind off as a company driver, making decent $ running all hours of the day/night and I hate night driving. Now im in controll of my hours, I wont drive 289mi deadhead to p/u a load going 450mi. This week has been a struggle for miles, but its because I didn't take the time to think ahead where loads were taking me, that and I did a 34, so im trying to make my last 1000mi to make payment and take home a few bucks, but other than this week im doing well.

If yer going to lease a used take over payment truck, id put .12c mile into yer main account right out of the gate, then taper as you see fit as you get used to the truck and see how things are going. Buddy of mine didn't and took out .3c and leased a 128k 2nd lease truck and lost his #####, now back to a company driver. Then again he would follow swifts fueling, 78g here, fill up there, always declining heavy loads and just not looking at it from a business point of view.
I let the csr know. Im an o/o and driving 280mi to p/u a 44000lb load going up the 81 into PA 400 miles is not business smart, ill not make money and spend what I do make on fuel. Sure they get pissy, but I always end up with a 1000mi run 12000lbs going west or where ever.. you've got to play the game, ok ill take this little 400mi run for you, but back it w/ a 1000mi run, and wait. Don't accept on a verbal ok, wait. Then a pplan will pop up longer in miles, if ya can do it snag it, then roll out if not they will remove the load from you and then start blasting mac 30. Its a numbers game out here, run 'your' numbers and make it work, keep yer foot out of the fuel, and remember yer a business now, not a company driver.

 

Zuki ... you might want to consider bumping up your maintenance account contribution. Keep in mind the $$ in the maintenance account are yours and you can take it out anytime with a Macro ... goes almost instantly on to your comdata card.

It's eaiser to take the money out when you want it, than to cover an expense out of your settlement, if it should come to that.

 

Steve, nice looking. Glad that you are happy with it, and with Lewiston.

 

Wow, a lot has changed since I've been here. So u quit fb, leasing and left phx terminal? Did you get ur shoulder fixed? Is that why u left fb? Fb can be hard on joints. Some days my knees hurt so bad I can hardly walk but I love fb