Leasing SUCCESS stories only please

Okay okay I'll go at it.
I'm doing well at Schneider.. leased a truck and am leased onto them.
While yes most lease deals suck and really are terrible!
Here it's pick your own loads off a load board and it's paid on percentage unlike pretty much all other companies that will lease you a truck.
As far as my goals? Well to work less and make more money than being a company driver with the freedom to do whatever I want whenever I want. I could pick an area on a map and just run regionally doing drop and hooks if I wanted to. Lots of freedom and being it's % and I pick my own loads I never haul cheap!
So all is well on my end.

 

Getting the ALP Crusaders to stay out of a thread is akin to convincing a herd of goats to shut up... in most cases for the same reason.

They will hijack every related thread at some point. Often in the most insulting way, and they do it with the blessing and often active participation of the mods.

 

Wheres all the sucessful stories at?#cricket

 

I've was on Schneider's Choice Program for two years leasing a truck. The only reason why I left was because of some personal non-trucking related circumstances that had an absolutely crushing effect on my morale. I simply didn't want to get down the road anymore.

But trucking is in my blood now. . .

I recently got back into a truck at a different trucking company, but I've quickly discovered that their lease program is a shameless ripoff compared to Schneider Finance (SFI). I just called Karen at Schneider Finance today and left her a message about how I'm willing to beg and plead, and grovel with tears in my eyes and snot-bubbles coming out of my nose to get back into the Choice Program.

Prior to the Choice Program I was with CR England for one year leasing a truck, and was a trainer after six months. CR England is the bane of the trucking industry—the worm that is eating at the core of our great society—and if you look up my history of posts you'll find I typed up quite a long report on how much of a ripoff they are.

My goal for leasing a truck is to eventually own it, but I've met guys on the Choice Program that simply re-lease trucks. The reality is that if you have a good mentor, or several mentors, and follow their lead, you should be capable of consistently making net paychecks of $1,200 - $2,400 a week or more—depending upon the area you run, if an especially high-paying load cancelled or not, or other factors that may or may not be under your control.

I was periodically able to make over $1,000 and be home 3 - 3 1/2 days a week to Nashville, TN, but absolutely, positively do not get into the Choice Program with the intention of taking a lot of home time. You're running a business and you must be willing to work hard, and smart, in order to keep it profitable. If you set a goal to be home every week no matter what, just because you begin to see that it's possible to do it often on the Choice Program, you are certain to fail. Why? Because that creates laziness and forms a habit. When the freight isn't there to take you home, you'll find yourself trying to do it anyway. . .and as your reward you'll have a puny paycheck.

Why stay for the long haul and buy the truck? Whereas a Schneider Finance lease operator might be paying anywhere between $1,000 - $1,200 a week regardless of whether or not the truck moves, and owner operator will pay $50 - $150 a week in fixed expenses (insurance). As a simple rule, just add $900 to the above examples of possible earnings and you'll get the picture. A buddy of mine goes out for a week, makes $2,500 - $3,500 or more, running hardly any miles, and then parks the truck for a week because he's an owner operator in the Choice Program as opposed to a lease operator.

Things to look for:

• Driver picks his own loads. I hate dispatchers. "No forced dispatch" is just a nice way of saying "coerced dispatch."
  
• Paid at least 65% of the gross of the load, plus 100% of the fuel surcharge. Your objective is to run as few miles as possible to keep your fuel expenses down. Paid-Per-Mile is typically a sign of a scam or a program wherein the lease drivers aren't making much more than company drivers. Do you want to run your butt off and make a company driver's wage, or do you want to run 2,200 - 2,800 miles and make $1,200 - $2,200 and spend plenty of time kicking back, checking out the town, spending more time at home, etc.? Do you want to make $1,400 for running 3,500 miles or do you want to make $3,200 for running 3,500 miles? The later is possible on the Choice Program. Again, add about $900 to the Choice Program examples of possible earnings if you own the truck outright.
  
• Newer, affordable and roomy equipment. Since you must be willing to stay out a lot if you need to, you want nice living space. From my experience, the Kenneth T660 and Mack Pinnacle are two trucks I would never want to live out of. Schneider Finance has new and newer Freightliner Cascadias. I had a 2013 and was paying only around $1,020 a week after two years—because you can update your insurance policy every few months, lower your insurance, and ultimately increase your weekly net earnings.
• APU is good to keep your idle time down when it's hot out. SFI trucks are equipped with electric APUs. They suck, but it's better than nothing. You can also take a piece of cardboard or plastic fit to your window, and cut to fit a small household window-mounted air-conditioning unit, and power it off of a small gasoline-powered generator strapped to your catwalk. That will cost you just a few bucks in gasoline each day for supreme air-conditioning.
• Tire discount, windshield discount, a good warranty, etc.
  
• Freight in the areas you like to run. Sadly, the top-paying freight for Schneider is in the northeast, but it is certainly possible to make paychecks in other regions that will make company drivers eat-their-hat when they say "all lease programs are scams."

Sadly, most lease programs are little more than scams. That is absolutely not the case with SFI leases when you combine it with the Choice Program.

If Karen lets me lease again, then I'll be more than happy to share my revenue statements with you after a few weeks of being back on the program.

 

I have a very successful lease story. It starts when I contacted a company about a Lease/Purchase. And then I did the math. And then I didn't lease. Very successful.

 

I seen a success story today on the back of a Dart trailer. Guy had a big smile and a caption.

 

That's just what the market dictates...
I'm basically running the lanes I did as a company driver elsewhere, not because I enjoy but that's where the money is.

 

Leasing is like "buy here pay here " lots. Only worse. But they get the same customers.

 

Hmm

 

actually....