Don't be stupid

when i was at trans am there was 9 drivers that finished out there lease and now own the truck and that was in the year and a half i was there

 

Yep so which is he? CB Rambo, Truck Stop Commando, Super Trucker, or just just another old school dumb redneck trucker who things everything is bad and nothing is good or can ever be positive or work out because its not done the way it was done 20 years ago. Jeeez while alot of the lease programs are rip offs their are an equally larger number that are legitimate and if you WORK HARD not run truck stop to truck stop drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes then you can make an outstanding living.

 

I also know drivers who finished a SWIFT lease program and taking home $1200-$1700 wk before the truck was payed for. It is all work ethic and knowing how to play the game.

 

Well said...very well said

 

I know owning your own truck is just about every professional truckers dream, but that dream can turn into a nightmare real fast if you don't have a good chunk of cash or credit in the bank for a string of or a major repair bill; 1 bad week/month can wipe u out real fast!

from TRUCK BUDDYS blog, he lives in his truck 24/7, 365 days a yr. & has his own authority...

My APU's broke again. Saturday I was in Fairfield, Maine where it's cooler and a truck stop with showers is located. I needed to re-arrange the batteries in a utility box because a weld had broken. The weight of the batteries were stressing the box, and I needed to strap them away from the weak area. Soon I'll get to a weld shop and repair the broken weld. To do what I needed, I disconnected the batteries, however when I hooked everything back up the APU's computer wasn't booting up properly. I stressed over it all day Saturday, got dehydrated and made myself sick over it. If I'm going to live in a truck I want my APU! I checked all the connection's over and over, all the fuses. Everything was hooked up right and I didn't do anything to cause the problem.
Monday morning at 7am I was at the front stoop of Thermo King Portland, Maine. I'd parked in their back 40 the night before. I had called Saturday from Fairfield, Maine. They told me their TriPac tech wasn't in, but he'd be there Monday and he'd get my APU running. Sunday afternoon I went to Portland.
After an hour or so, they handed me a bill for $92. My APU was still not working, but they'd gladly overnight a wiring harness they seemed to think would fix it. Being a tech myself and having spent the weekend troubleshooting, I questioned that their diagnosis of a failed wiring harness as I was paying the bill and inquiring where I might find a Thermo King that had parts for the TriPac. The manager gave me a Thermo King book with the Boston, Massachusetts location and told me to get the hell off the property. Apparently he had the impression I felt they didn't know what they were doing. Thermo King of Portland expelled me with prejudice and would not allow me to park my trailer there a few days while I bobtailed. Luckily there's a Fleetguard yard 200 yards away. The Fleetguard people had no problem with me parking my trailer in their yard so I could bobtail to Thermo King in Boston.
The problem was not a failed wiring harness, but exactly the component I felt was, and shuttered to think about it. The TriPac's main computer board, costing $1,500 to troubleshoot and replace. My payments are $389 per month, with 17 payments remaining. This month, my TriPac cost me $1,981 to own.

Here's a list of some of the expense I've encountered since the beginning of July:
July 12, 2008 a bump in some construction in Colorado pulled the engine and transmission bell housings apart. The repair included a clutch, rear main engine seal, both bell housings, hardware, oil change, etc. $3,495
August 5, 2008 replaced U joint. $428
August 14, 2008 replaced steer tires. $1,058
August 18, 2008 missed diagnosis of TriPac's wiring harness. $92
August 19, 2008 TriPac's main computer board. $1,500
August 22, 2008 truck alternator and trailer tire. $681
Total: $7,245
Appended October 2:
On September 28, I had a trip to Atlanta, Georgia, (hotlanta) where the evaporator fan quit working. Everything else worked, so I put a carpet blower I keep on the upper bunk to circulate air in the cab, on the air intake of the evaporator. That worked to circulate air through the evaporator while the fan was off. I went to Thermo King, Atlanta and explained my failure. They told me what I knew, the motor was bad. However I showed them my receipt from last month and the parts guy told me I could restore the fan motor by rapping the brush residue from the motor. So, by using my air hose I use to blow out my cab and rapping the motor housing with a screw driver handle, I got a lot of gunk out of the motor, mainly the brush housing. I hooked it up and re-assembled it, and it works! Although the motor is dc, the HMI is 3 speed. I was under the false impression the motor was ac because I could start it by giving it a spin. I thought there must be a starting capacitor somewhere. The motor is dc and the speeds are acheived by duty cycle.
Thermo King shops have these blower assemblies on hand. New and used, from repairs experiencing the same problem as mine. I have an extra blower assembly and have found that by reversing the polarity, causing the motor to run backwards a few minutes helps some. Still, the motor won't turn on after a while, but by having another on hand I can swap assemblies when I cannot get one to run."

..it aint all gravy folks & if your truck aint movin' you're not making any money; remember when anything breaks, needs to be fixed or replaced, you pay for it along with that monthly truck payment! I wouldn't recommend leasing from a trucking company u drive for, there are too many pitfalls under that arrangement & your under their thumb! If u can't afford to buy a truck financing it thru an independent truck dealer then u probably can't afford to operate as an owner/operator.. please consider all the risks involved before you lease or buy your own truck.. that's just my opinion for whatever it's worth..

(if this post isn't appropriate under this discussion group the board moderators can or will move it to one that is..thanks!)

 

The fact is it dosen't matter wither you lease or buy a truck. The cost are the same. From paying for it to putting fuel in it. If you don't run your buisness right you will fail. Yea you can go out and but a POS for 20000 with 500,000 miles on it and pu another 50,000 in it in repairs. Or you can lease a new one or one that is a year old for more a month and pay less in maintness. So it's all a buisness. You forget that and you done. I've seen lots and lots of independants going under lattely. Myself I'd rather lease and have the security of a strong company with me then to run on my own. But thats me.

P.S. 21 years of driving dose not meen you have 21 years of experience. I've know lots of drivers with 10-15-20 yrs behind the wheel but 1 yr of experience 10-15-20 times.

 

well i have two friends that run for jct and they tell me they run your ### off.you will make money and at the end the truck is yours for one dollar.i just keep telling him the d.o.t is gonna audit there qcomm he says no.well marten trans used to say that to now they got their nips in a ringer.face it folks not alot of money in this job anymore.we used to get rewarded for being away for long periods of time.good luck

 

This is the other thing that people think, JCT has never or will ever buy a truck for 78k companies like that buy too many and usually from the same people so they buy them at a greatly discounted rate, that's how they make money, you are paying for the truck and etc. and JCT get's the difference, that's why they are doing away with fleet trucks, to much headache babysitting whining driver's that want to be home every friday by noon and then complain they don't make any money, You are running a business in which you should be aware because you know they are, no need to get into the math because I'm not there but probably will be, but the bottom line is, yes there are companies out there that won't screw you if you do things right, ie stay out and run hard to make money, and yes you're gonna sit from time to time is a fact of the business, and use common sense, the $100 fridge might be hard to come up with but Country Fried Steak 4 times a week is way more expensive and so is a heart transplant, everyone has had bad stories and good it's all about what can YOU do to be the best at what you do

 

well said drivers but ive found that jct has the best deal going if you are going to lease.....they pay all taxes, fuel hiway plates permits tolls lumpers reefer fuel...you get the fuel, bobtail ins. workerscomp, collision. and of course the pmt.....if you get new truck by chance its 5 yrs but full warranty and apu......used trucks run from 3 to 4 yrs

 

??? Get a brokers license? WTF are you talking about? & $20.00 for their own Authority? WTF {again} Add about $700 to that authority thing cause your BF Obama pushed THAT up to a per truck thing to help his buddies! Used to be less than $700 for the 1st 3 trucks! Yeppers, he sure did help the "little"guy!

Now for that brokers license. You do not need a license to get your own freight! That's ONLY if you BROKER to another driver and YOU have to PAY the freight! ( I'm a PT produce Broker Agent for extra cash when the economy is better!) You need the license AND a certificate of deposit to be the BROKER! Geeze dude, when you come in here sprouting trash, know what you are talking about! Most of those in here aren't the gullible nubies that you must think are on this board.

In a nut shell, Any driver can call any company out there (ie;Tyson, R&B, Kraft, L&P ect) and talk to the shipping office or their agents and get a load from them and just send all the needed paper work on your (trucking) company to them and if you've been in business with good credit and safe stat reports and you have been doing a good business plan you can wait the 30,60,90 day usual billing cycle as the money isn't important unless you're living paycheck to paycheck! That way you get ALL the money and don't pay an over priced broker 20-30% of a load just to push papers around a desk and to talk to drivers! If you need the cash that badly, 1) you aren't doing your business plan correctly and 2 go to a factoring company and cash the BOL's in and 3) Let your knowledge of business catch up with your 21 years of driving! Remember you can't BS an old Bs'er!