Prime lease ripoff

PRIME'S "Bait the Driver "Lease. WANNA PLAY?

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I wouldn't say they are all stupid. Misinformed, naive, inexperienced, perhaps.

Agree with the lack of research.

 

Try uneducated.

 

I'm sure there are some successful lease/purchase drivers out there but I still don't understand why anyone would do that. I've been a driver, dispatcher, fleet superviser, safety asst. director, and in the companies I was in the office with I never saw anyone stay. When I went back to National Carriers this last very short time I sat in on the lease orientation and after 10 minutes I walked out feeling bad for those making that commitment. Now like I said, I'm sure some succeed and and swear by it but if I were going to "purchase" a truck I would drive till I saved about 10-15k then go buy a good used late model with 6-700k miles on it for 35-45k. Then my payments would be low enough to still pay if I had to pull a rock bucket around local and still put a little $ in my pocket. Nationals lease operators weekly payments were something like $700 a week for the trk +this+that which added up to well over 2k and the driver "could" bring home $1-1100.00 a week. I'm not the smartest math wizard but I can add average miles at x-cpm or % and the risk is too high for me, the numbers do not add up in your favor "most" of the time. Good luck to those willing to take the risk and congradulations to those that made it. 1 queastion, at the end of your lease when you own the truck, how much did you pay for it and just how long were you paying for it?

 

The lease purchase failures seem to be one of the more prevalent complaints on this board. Has any person or organization compiled statistics on lease purchase success or failure based on age,educational background,industry experience etc? I'd be curious to know if a high percentage of "experienced" drivers with poor business acumen fail in this endeavor and if "inexperienced" drivers with good business sense succeed? What attributes do those successful L/P drivers tend to possess? What attributes do those who fail usually exhibit?

I am not an expert on the subject, but I suspect that the criteria for success in being a lease operator includes an intimate knowledge of the trucking industry, business planning skills, sufficient math and analytical skills to create "what if" scenarios. For exaample, the ability to determine how detrimental running 1500 miles a week will be to your finances over x amount of weeks. I also suspect that one needs to have a bit of reserves in the bank to handle times when freight is slow, or deaL with unexpected repairs.

That is my $.02 cents. I'd like to hear yours!

 

There is too much down time in trucking. Lack of freight, slow shippers/receivers, short hauls, breakdowns, weather, traffic jams, accidents, etc.

The profit margins are too slim. Fuel and maintenance costs too high.

 

Haha that's AWESOME!!!!!

 

Thank you Mr. Obvious, I never made the connection....

 

This should be good. One whole week and it sucks already and as ironpony said a holiday week at that. At least you didn't enter the lease right about 20 Dec.

 

:smt021