Trans Am Still

Dennis is right, if its one thing that all the experianced on here have been preaching to those of us not yet driving is don't go lease until you have a grasp of the industry. But from what you just posted it sounds at least like you have a good support group to help with lease issues. However you may want to go company for a couple of years then sign on as a lease with a company that would pay better. The up side to starting as company is it would give you a chance to see if you like the equipment and help you decide if that is the equipment that you would want to own someday. The other thing is you can go lease at anytime with TA, however you cannot switch to company if you start as lease, Either which way you go I wish you the best of luck to get on with them.

 

jdmredneck, our advice is always to go company if you can ....especially for the first months. Once you lease with TransAm they will not allow you to go company. You can, however, go lease at anytime. TransAm is not a bad company to get your foot in the door with, but they have their own way of doing things and there is much to learn on the business side of it. All it takes is one breakdown to put your settlements in the negative. One of our drivers, George, has had some problems with his truck the last couple of weeks. It happens even with good equipment. We are all thankful that he is a company driver. While it has been frustrating for George and his wife and he has lost many miles of pay, he will not end up owing the company money. They have paid for him to stay in a hotel, the bills for truck repair will all be paid by the company, and he will be entitled to some compensation for his down time.

Another thing to consider is that if you go with TransAm within the next couple of months, you will be starting during a time that can be slow as far as freight goes and can be slow because of weather conditions. It will be that much harder to make a lease payment. If you go company during these months, learn, get some experience, then it will be so much easier for you to become a successful lease driver.

All of that being said, if you do have to go lease, we have several drivers here that have made it work for them.....it has not been easy ....They are always willing to share their knowledge and experience. I'm sure they can answer any questions on the specifics that you want to know.

 

Yep, tow bill was $417, motel $195 (3nights) and God knows how much for truck repairs this time. Just had APU fixed two days ago. Regen fixed 8 days ago. A teacher once told me to have 40-50k in the bank to become an o/o or lease. But you already know this.

 

Anybody remember the directions for Quality Beef , 25 Bath st, Providence right? Can't remember the correct exit. Do remember its the u turn under the hotel.

 

Your family is more than qualified. I am leasing but I have experience and this was my only choice when I came here. If you have never driven before please go company, individually all this stuff is not hard but all together it is a lot to learn. I would bet your family runs on paperlogs and we are on e-logs which change the way you do things. Even the most honest paperlogger cheats the logs. We can not. If all those companies said no then this might be your only chance to get experience in this industry. Leasing to any big company is not easy and after X-mas the whole industry slows way down even us. Read back on the thread and you will see others who ignored us and guess what? They are not here. Now some have moved on to other companies and some are home not driving. We are not advising you not to lease cause we get something out of it, we are strongly advising it cause leasing is set up for you to fail. Most who lease quit in the first 3 months. When you go to orientation just look around and count the people who are there cause there are 2 places that have that many who go through orientation every week and during the summertime even more. We all want you to succeed so listen and go company and once you have it down then lease but if you lease and things don't work out you can't go company even if you leave and try to come back. Once your settlement goes negative it is very hard to get out of the hole. You have to accept the fact that you do not go home very much and every time you do you go negative. If your truck breaks down the company doesn't pay for your hotel and you can tough it out now but what about January or Febuary when the temp is in the negatives? Just stuff to think about. Also these shippers and receivers don't just jump up and load you the minute you arrive so forget 500 miles a day. In the beginning you would be getting about 2500-2750 on average and if you start to deliver loads late those miles will drop. Get into a very bad ice storm and don't feel safe to drive? You still have payments to make so sit there but you will go negative in your settlement. I can go on and on with many different examples of why new drivers fail at leasing. Just remember this this company makes a lot more money by you failing at the lease than by you being successful, while the people we talk to in the office may not say that but the higher ups most certainly know that. Good luck to you. I wish nothing but success

 

In LaSalle, Il. for the night hoping for a swap. 714 miles to go by Tuesday morning not sure if I can do that(being very sarcastic here).LOL. Well I should have a lot of time on my clock for next week and should be sitting on 1,600 miles Tuesday morning so we will see what type of week I have.

Be safe out there

 

Off of I 95 it looks as if you would have to take exit 22.....to me. You need to take a look at it or call them ....that looks worse than Dallas in thru there. Do you need a phone number?

 

Jdmredneck33, even if you are set on leasing, I would recommend coming on as a company driver at first. At the very least, go company while freight is slow and get a feel for how TransAm works and then sign a lease when freight picks back up again. Jaso and I both lease but neither one of us will tell you it's an easy way to get your own truck.

As for my daily update, the load was ready when I got there. Staying in Amarillo for the night though. Reefer was throwing a code for low coolant. I wasn't about to crawl my gimp self up there to take care of it myself so I made TransAm pay Petro to do it lol. And I got to keep the rest of the bottle of coolant since TransAm paid for it! It's more than half full. My truck is finally old enough that I have to add it more regularly lol.

 

What congifuration does Trans Am use for their Fuel Surcharge? Do they really pay loaded an Unloaded Miles? an are the miles Practical or Zipcode Miles? They Lease Brand new trucks or Used?