Trans Am Still

Maybe I do have it wrong. But having had a successful career I am not about to waste my time. I don't have too. I am not driving because I need a job or this is my last hope.. I wanted to do this. But to continue to hear all of the BS I am seeing that maybe no one just comes to this industry because they want to? Because they have a passion for it..

 

No I didnt think it was directed at me.. I understood what you were saying.

 

Well I have done the math on several different scenarios from Lease op lease purchase buying a truck and leasing on company driver.. It has never been and never will be all about money for me.. It is really about enjoying the experience and doing something I have always wanted to do.. No is it a get rich quick career absolutely not. Should you be able to make a living absolutely.. But again I am not interested in doing this because of money.. I am interested in the life style the brother/sister hood.. If it were about money I would go back to what I have done for 25 years. I guess we shall see just how it goes.. Since I leave for school and then decide.

 

Less drivers means higher load vs truck radio which raises rates.
Having cheap drivers means a higher profit spread per running truck.

The industry is turning more and more against drivers. All these cameras has been a huge nail in the coffin.

 

and that's why I'm at Schneider doing their lease, for the lifestyle and the experience most of all.
I'll never be a company again, nope no way jose.

 

When it comes to people's career a lot of emotion comes out. TransAm has a poor reputation among drivers in general. Some of it is well earned, most is just emotion.

Some drivers describe TransAm headquarters as a den of evil people, looking to take advantage of a poor new driver at every turn. I don't think this is true, I felt most of the people I dealt with at TA where basically good people. TransAm does not run a "evil" business they do however run a very tight, low margin business model in a cut throat competitive industry. If you don't fit into working within that model, they are happy to cut you out or let you walk, in a way that can feel very cold.

There is a solid conscience among the experienced TransAm'ers that leasing for a new driver is a no go. To choose to lease to avoid the pit falls that a TA company driver faces, is like choosing the fire over the frying pan. IMHO

There are explanations of why TA runs their business the way they do, including a healthy tax credit, a government financial incentive for TA to help people start a new business as a L/O. Drivers talk about this as if T/A is running some time of driver turn over scam, HTQ researched and explained in here in the past. It is not as nefarious as I once though, T/A is likely not getting rich off it. However, they are likely, significantly offsetting their recruiting and new hire costs, in a way that helps to explain the T/A high turn over model.

There is a solid conscience among the experienced TransAm'ers here that it is good for drivers that TA is around. They run a different business model, not everyone’s cup of tea, but better we have the TA choice on the menu than not.

 

I am sure there are other threads that detail this, but since you detailed the math a few posts above in order to demonstrate why you don't recommend the mileage lease, it has made me curious how your Schneider is superior and makes it desirable to you. Please don't mistake my curiosity for contention, because that is not it at all. I am just genuinely curious because I know very little about either approach, and at this point am not interested in leasing, period. In other words, I have no preconceived idea. I am just curious for the purpose of expanding my knowledge bank.

 

Most lease deals pay mileage because it's cheap and the carrier makes a killing by not giving up a % of the loads.
Plus being most mileage based lease drivers have a dispatcher the company can sit you anytime they want.
Say if there's a huge paying load nearby to a driver picking up next day.. they can tell that driver there's no load today and sit them just to get the high paying load the next day where the driver benefits none and in fact loses out.

Schneider is completely different in that you run your own operation, set your own Schedule, go and do whatever you want whenever you want all from picking from thousands of loads updating almost all the time. it's percentage based not mileage based and mostly all direct customer freight vs broker freight and lots of drop and hook.

Here's a little video showing kinda how it works



I do fine financially but point is like I said the lifestyle.
Literally I pick where I want to go and what I want to do, I could do all drop and hooks... I could run whatever time I want, I could go home whenever I want (which usually is a pay hit). Plus there's drop lots and operation centers all over the place so I don't have to worry about parking much.
I could go full out OTR or run regional.. whatever it's up to me.
No dispatcher telling me what to do or where to go.
Now that it's winter I'll be picking loads in order to avoid bad winter storms etc etc.
Of course every decision I make will change vastly how much money I'll earn being this is percentage.

 

Thank you very much @passport220 . I have read and done a great deal of research on the industry as a whole and specifically on the companies I wanted to consider. This thread has been a source of knowledge and education all of which is priceless for someone like me a NEW guy.. While I am educated and business savoy I have discovered that trucking is unlike anything I have every experienced. In a great way as I believe that is one of the draws and allure for me..

I am going into this knowing I have a great deal to learn and with the desire to learn. Hence the reason I am on this site and on this thread.. So it is greatly appreciated when you and others offer there advice and opinion because you all have been there ( especially with TransAm) and knowledge is power IMO.

Einstein said and I believe it too be true: "THE ONLY SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE IS EXPERIENCE"

 

Thanks @frieghtwhipper very good solid information.. ! thing for me is that going into this I absolutely was under the misconception that I could actually choose a company to drive for and that is the company I would retire from.. From the words of many and my own research I have come to the realization while possible to accomplish that it was unrealistic and Highly Unlikely I could accomplish that. I also realized that what I needed was to get experience hands on real world experience.. So I had to reset my criteria and look at the best path for me to get that experience. Now that experience is debatable as to duration but from my feed back from drivers it is a minimum of 6 months but 1 year is advisable. That will not only meat the criteria to open up many more doors to other companies but it will increase my knowledge and confidence as a whole. It also is because of the proper way to show the appropriate respect to the people who have taken there time to offer there advice and assistance. While TransAm may or may not be a company that someone spends there entire carrier with. They will allow me to experience many different parts of the industry at 1 time and where I go and what I do with it once I have that experience has yet to be determined.