ATS Lease Program?

i start march 1st unless someones cancel's then i can take there spot

 

can anyone tell how anderson trucks find their loads, is it off a anderson loadboard or is it via the phone...i was leased on with landstar ligon for 9+ years and i liked the freedom of finding my own loads, just wondering how things work at ats for a owner operator

 

They have load planners and a sales staff who find loads, they mostly have the same customers, if you are stuck in an area they might broker a load for you but they will not let you, I was in the same boat, and it will be a shock at the diffrence in pay, I owned my own while there, but the lease and o/o were on the same board, this was back when Harold was alive, I heard his son changed things alot(not for the better)

 

The way I understand it is thus: when you get mt you send in the mt call via the Qualcom or Driverstech. You are then "on the board". You will then get three load offers at a time. You do not have to take any if you don't want. I guess the. Way it works is number 1 gets the first three, if they take none they go down to 2 etc. Altho I have heard of multiple drivers getting offers at a time. I have also heard that you can go to the Sureway load board and ifyou find something you like you can call your Fm and have them grab t for you. But I can't confirm that. You will get a % of the line haul, or mileage rate. I think O/O's only get a %. The L/O's get a choice and it depends on who you talk to as to which is best. Right now its prob better on mileage since the #### rates are so low! I thinl you start at 65% of theline haul. But there is no trailer charge etc. You will need to use ATS trailers since we do quite a bit of drop/hook. Ask any more questions and ill do my best to help. I havelooked closely at the plan and know a few L/O and O/O's. Hope this helps. Oh, and yes I have heard that Rollie has changed things and not all for the better. Harold was a driver, therefore he ran the co for the drivers. He supposedly started the lease program to TRUELY hwlp drivers become owners. Nowi have been told that zrollie is a much better businessman, thus the growth of ATS. But he is less focused on the drivers, but that may be changing with this downturn. Its not about just having seats filled but having them filled with GOOD people.

 

Harold was a good man, even could be called honest, The Anderson family also owns St. Cloud truck sales/ Frieghtliner dealership, and they got in the lease business originally to help get rid of excess inventory (used company trucks) Rollie, I do not know much about, but have heard all the secretaries have gotten alot younger and the dresses alot shorter

 

I applied to and was accepted by ATS Lease Operator program. I was scheduled to attend orientation on 3/23 but was offered 3/16 bause someelse dropped out.

ATS will pay for a bus ticket to St. Cloud, MN. I chose to rent a car. They did reimburse me $170.00 in the form of a T-Check once I was hired. I assume if you don't get hired they would give you cash.

I was hired onto the Specialized Division, the flatbed side. Van and Flatbed Divisions are two seperate companies.

We were put up at a Day's Inn. Everyone was supposed to have roommates. I lucked out, maybe because I arrived in the early morning and they gave me a room before checkin time to allow me to sleep after a 19 straight hour drive. I didn't complain.

Orientation was four days and you are issued your truck on the forth day. You select your truck on the morning of the first day.

Flats and Vans pick from a different pool of trucks, because of how they are set up. Flats choices were: Six '05 Columbias and one Peterbilt 387. Three had Cats and three Detroits. The split was even between Qualcomm and Driver Tech. They all had from the low 400K to the high 400K on them. Payment on each is $400.00 each week.

There were about 12 new hires, about six for the Van Division and nine for the Specialized Division. Five were Owner Operators, three of us were Lease Operators and one was making the switch from company driver to L/O.

One O/O dropped out because his truck required too many repairs and he wasn't prepared to spend $4,000.00. One of the van drivers was talking about switching to flats on Thursday morning while waiting on the shuttle and never made it to class. I'm not sure what happened.

Orientation was a mixture of learning the company and classes on how to be sucessful as a Lease Operator or an Owner Operator.

Owner Operators got $500.00 for signing on and the rest of us got a free hotel, bus ticket, $20.00 and free lunch each day.

After completing orientation and being assigned your truck you are dispatched on Friday. After some last minute delays I was dispatched on a load out of Manitowoc, WI hauling a crane counter weight to Houston, TX. It was an easy run to get me through the house.

On my next load I had about five choices. I selected a run to Ocala, FL hauling a couple of tractors. It was an OD load. After five OD loads I get to move up in classification. More loads will be available. Classifications from lowest, class 4 to the highest class 1A. The higher your classification the greater the selection of load, higher paying loads.

Class 4 hauls general freight with the small oversized loads, no overheight. 1 A is the the really large stuff including the windmill blades.

My only experiesnce driving a truck is with TMC. After about 20 month I quit to run a Martial Arts School. That didn't work out. TMC moved their hiring boundaries and I was now some 200 miles outside of it. I wanted experience Heavy Hauling and went with ATS.

I'm still geting a feel for ATS. It is very simular to TMC. Our trucks aren't spec'd out for O/O's they are working trucks. Our freight is more geared to Heavy Hauling than TMC's general building materials. I am so sorry not to have to haul lumber and wallboard any more.

I'll keep you updated from time to time. If you have any specific question, ask, I'll do my best to answer.

 

Any of you guys actually purchased a truck elsewhere and ran O/O for Anderson?

 

ATS Lease is for one year. I was assigned my truck on 3/19 and dispatched on 3/20 loading on the morning of the 21st. The actual lease dates are 3/21/09 to 4/20/09. That date may be a misprint, but it is what everyone signed. So, the lease is one year and one month.

There are no payment due for two weeks. This allows for us to have settlements due before payments become due.

My truck is a 2005 Peterbilt 387, Cat. engine, Meritor Drive Axle, Eaton Transmission (9 speed,) Merritt Cab Guard and has 10 Aluminum Wheels. It has the normal scratches and scrapes, but is in good shape. It had about 485,000 miles one it. They value it at $49,975.00.

At the end of one year I have the option to purchase it at $35,600.00. I am not thinking that far ahead and will do more investigating before I go that route.

The factory warranty is good up 500,000 miles. Obviously, I'll hit that mileage in a few weeks. ATS does offer a 30 day, unconditional warranty and will warranty the drive train components for the life of the lease.

Now to the numbers:

My weekly fixed cost are $610.36.

Escrow $75.00
Insurance
Contingent Non-Trucking Liability $40.00 per month.
Physical Damage $33.36/$154.00 (I opted for the supplemental ins.) per month.
Occupational Accident $155.00 per month.

Weekly $163.24

******************************
I don't understand this section:

Lower Deduction Physical Damage $33.36 monthly.
Reduciton of Charge Backs $86.52 Monthly.

Weekly Breakdown:

Auto Liability $11.68.
Cargo Liability $5.87.
Physical Damage Libility $2.42.
*************************************

Truck Payment $400.00
Federal Highway Used Tax $11.00
Transaction Fee (Fuel Card, Advances, per use) $1.25
Tax Service $16.15
Maintenance Fund $0.065 per mile.
Tires $0.0185 per mile
Promisory Note (Sercurement equipment, until paid off) $0.04 per mile.
Qualcomm Rental $60.00 monthly.
Trippak (includes TransFo) $11.25 monthly.
Prepass $10.00 per month.

My variable expenses:

Maintenance Fund $0.065.
Tires $0.0185
Promissory Note $0.04
Fuel $2.20 gallon / 6.75 $0.33

Total $0.4535.

Keep it simple and figure I get $1.00 per mile.

Miles per week to pay fixxed expenses:

$610.36 x $1.00 = 610.36 miles.

Variable cost per mile for the week $0.4535.

My break even:

$1.00 minus $0.4535 = $0.5465.

$610.36 / $.5465 = 1116.883 Miles per week. Anything over 1116 miles per week is profit.

Hopefully I did this right. If I did, it is encouraging. Even in this economy I should be able to average that many miles.

Remember, in addition to mileage I get FSC, HAZMAT, OD, New York, Canada, Safety Bonus pay.

I'm sure someone can come along and check my figures. My head is spinning right now.

So far my loads have been:

# 1)

1600 miles # $0.83
FSC $207.79

#2)

898 miles # $1.01
OD $87.50
FSC $148.75

#3) (I'm currently on)

1271 miles # $0.90
FSC $169.02
Stops $225.00

On paper I am making money, not getting rich, but not going into debt. I just have to keep my expenses under control.

Thing will get better as I get more comfortable with the system I am working under now.

I, also, need to accept the shorter, higher paying loads and seed out the loads with the higher additional pay.

I hope this hasn't been too confusing.

 

I had my own when I ran for them between '01 to '03. Other then the fact they should call themselves the I-90 express, they were very good to me. I left because in '02 I was doing good enough to buy a new truck which then 11 months later it proceeded to burn to the ground(I advice to be careful in getting your insurance through the company and get your own)

 

Looks like you have earned about $4100.+ so far. Rates are pretty low but who's aren't now. How many weeks does this cover? I assume a little over 1 as you started on the 21st. If you can keep that up you should make out fine. Of course we all know that some kind of crap always bites you now and then. But you are about $4100. ahead of all those poor CRE lessees who are down about $4100 after 6 months of busting their bu tts. Good luck.