Best company for lease purchase

Wooo,,what a thread...

After a couple years of research, I made a decision NOT to do a lease purchase, but still read the occasional thread now and then. After a couple more years of research, concerning the road to being an O/O and further still, of owning a trucking company, I have decided to rethink my position on lease purchase.

What I came to understand was; 1)Never lease a truck from a company if you have to rely on them to get your loads,,,like a dispatch system. 2)Never lease from a company that doesn't provide a Walk-Away Lease, in other words; it doesn't work out for you, you can just turn the truck back in, no problems. 3)Never lease a truck from the company if you can't take the truck to another carrier, if the carrier you started with isn't providing you anough freight.

All that being said, there is some give and take, and you have to do your due-diligence.

If I can find a company to lease purchase a truck, and I am soley responsible for my load choices, I can give on #3. There are so many variables on a lease purchase contract from carrier to carrier, there is no way someone could tell a driver what the #1 carrier is for their situation.

Another thing to think about, and this is a big one, is your home expenses. I only have about $1500.00 a month of home expeses so, that helps my situation. I have some money in the bank, that helps as well.

The carriers will always pay for something, like IFTA, plates, INS....etc. But, sometimes it is cheaper for you to buy that yourself. The company I have decided on, at this point, to go with charges $185 a week for trailer RENTAL, which equals out to $9620 a year. They cover everything on the trailer like plates, Ins and maintenance. I decide I could do all that cheaper so, I bought my own trailer for $3500.00 and plates/title transfer was less than $400.00 which I will never have to pay again. All I have to do now is worry about Ins ( about $5 a week,,maybe), and maintenance.

Another thing to think about is the maintenance on the truck your leaseing. Are YOU paying for it, part of it or none of it? The carrier I am looking at pays for EVERYThing on the truck for the 1st 2 years and I pay $.12cpm for that peace of mind. The only thing they won't pay for is anything that gets damaged due to my stupidity, or glass...lol $.12cpm x 2300 = $276.00 a week. The way I look at it, if I get a truck that is just a POS and breaks down all the time, I have paid nothing to fix it, except my time of course. I am waiting on an anser to the question of what they will do for me if the truck keeps me in a hotel for a week or more, ie..rental or new truck. At any rate, the $.12cpm is an Ins policy premieum, never to be returned but, I won't have to worry about covering the cost of a serious break down for at least two years. Now the 3rd year they cover the basics, ie.. fluids, tires, brakes..etc.

I have NEVER had a business, although I always wanted to. Raising 5 kids prevented me from doing that, yep too sceered..lol Anyway, since the kids are all grown and out of the house, and the household bills are low, I am feeling more secure in my decision. I have researched and researched, and will continue until the day I die. You never stop learning and if I don't learn something new everyday, I didn't have a good day, so to speak.

Anyway, there are plenty of people that have started a business with no business experience and have been successful. Am I great at my finances,,,nope. But, I know what I MUST do to get to where I NEED to be, in order to accomplish my GOAL's. I also know that if I do not do what is necessary, I will not reach my GOAL's, and that is not exceptable!

 

Just a thught, if you have your CDL. Why don't you just purchase a truck 2002-2006 they are cheap and lease the truck and yourself out to a company.

 

I assume your talking to me so, I will answer your question from my situation. It takes 2 things to buy a truck, money and/or credit. No one will touch me due to my credit which is due to my time in the Military. How you ask, well let me touch on that for just a minute. I joined the Military late in life, after being with my wife for 16yrs and never being apart for more than 6 months before that. Anyway, a long story short, I went to basic, ait, camp shelby and than to Iraq and only saw my family for 30 days total, during that 20 months. Needless to say, it took a toll on my wife who had to deal with everything, (5 kids + bill's), during that time. Plus she had a full time job. Well, she didn't handle that too well so, it put our bill's in a bind and now, my credit is fubar. So, I would have to save up around 30K to buy a descent used truck and have money in an account for maint. When you buy a truck outright, you are responsible for the maint from the start. I would rather do that, believe me. I figure if the wife and I stayed on the road as a team, we could save that kind of money in 12 months. But, the wife is burnt out and wants to do other things. So, I have to look at the lease.

 

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Originally Posted by Hittman 306
I think a lease purchase with swift is crazy i tried to get a recruiter to explain to me how you could make money with that high of a truck payment and all the deductions for a solo driver to make money and he couldnt im in a new lease with us xpress with with a 90 day walkaway i pay 650 a week and fuel and no other deductions all is paid by them tolls and all my first week i made 1200 with a little over 2800 miles i went thru a lot of companies tryin to some me how to make money with 10 to 15 deductions each week this is the only 1 i have found with a 90 day trial and a walk away after 90 days if you feel you cant do it. But ill post some more later after i have some time in here and see what its like after a couple of months. Good luck guys and happy trucking to all"

Originally Posted by Crape


I am sorry, but $1200 on 2800 miles is okay pay for a company driver. If you think that is good for an o/op, you are wrong. As a Lease op you take on the same risk as an o/op so you should make better money.

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Crape,

how much experience does your average company driver making $1200/wk have? I have less than 2 years experience and I have only made $1200/wk (gross) once only because company forgot to reimburse $100 lumper, $155 idle bonus and they ran me $2500+ miles (I'm southeast reg. (avg 1800-200o mi))... So the idea of being able to more consistently make $1200/wk is very appealing.

 

alot of people post a lot of stuff on here but not very many companies pay 45 cents or more a mile. Union and a few specialized companies maybe but the larger whole NO and they will run you 3200 or more a week. US xpress is a good company so far i havent sat but 1 time. BUT like i said before some like some dont and some alway have something smart to say. DRIVE SAFE out there

 

You are comparing lease op wages to company driver wages. This is extremely flawed logic. A lease op has the same risk as an owner operator and should make that kind of money. .45/mi is going to be difficult to get a a company driver pulling a van. That doesn't make it good money for a contractor. The cost of ownership (not operation) on a truck is more than .15/mi. So your business should be making a minimum of .20/mi after all costs including drivers wages are taken out. Assuming that the US Express lease takes out all operating costs, you should be making .60/mi (.40/mi drivers wages + .20/mi to your business). Otherwise you have nothing left to reinvest once your truck is worn out. If you are a lease operator you need to compare yourself to owner operators or business owners in other industries, not company drivers.

 

cpape, very well put

 

Dont forget as a lease operator you will be responsible for workers comp insurance as well as federal, state, local, social security/medicare taxes.
As an employee your employer with held the appropriate taxes, and paid the workers comp insurance as well half of the social security/medicare taxes.
As a lease operator you will also have to find your own health insurance which could be much more expensive than the insurance offered to a company driver where the company has a group plan in effect.
Then there are the typical benefits given to company drivers that you (as a lease operator wont get) such as 401k match, paid sick days, paid personal days, holiday pay, and paid vacations.

 

Tennessee does not require State Tax, nor workers comp. Don't have City Tax here either....

 

You kind of missed the point of those posts.