Crime,inc

As many times as OOIDA has taken companies to court I would venture to say that all these companies now have their contracts buttoned up pretty tight.

 

My vague recollection of the charges against the scummy store in the mall near Ft Drum wasn't about the contract as much as the predatory targeting of the more naive and or simple minded soldiers to pay hefty final prices for basic TVs and stereo system and computers etc. These kids come from nothing and are suddenly making a decent paycheck, maybe more than their parent(s) are making. Like where I come from, military looks like a gold mine, cuz who really could go to college, that's for rich folks....
Does that not sound like some of the new drivers? Low financial options since birth, hit their 20s needing more than 11$/he so.... drive a truck, right? Oh...it says here I can make alot more if I lease. Ok, why wouldn't they want me to succeed, I work for them....

See where I'm coming from? I was raised with people like that. They're not trying to scam or be slackers, they're naive, ignorant and easily sold a slippery bill of goods.

 

I was raised by 2 college educated people and worked in a technical position for engineers 15 years with my 2 year degree. I dislike academia but I'm not stupid. Naive, yes. I went with Roehl to get my CDL never dreamed that their gig, IMO, is the govt $ for running an apprentice program. They don't give 2 craps about employee retention, they violate every good practice known to any industry for HR practices. I thought they would have a vested interest in helping me learn to be a good driver, ie good company asset. B.S. nope, not how trucking works at the mega level.
So my jaded opinion is that the fleece deal is knowingly offered as an inevitable failure to the gullible by the evil...

 

I understand what you’re saying. My opinion is that “I didn’t know any better” is not a valid excuse for doing something stupid. Especially in this day and age when all of the information you could possibly need is at your fingertips. I grew up poor. My grandpa was a single truck owner operator and he started when he got back from WW2. My dad was a single truck owner operator. He passed away when I was in 8th grade, but somewhere along the line I learned the value of hard work, the value of a dollar, what it meant to not take the easy way looking for fast money. Somehow I’ve made it almost 23 years in this industry without working for a mega and without doing a lease purchase. So there’s proof that it can be done.

Being ignorant of how things like this work in this industry is one thing, choosing to stay ignorant by not researching and having no idea what you’re signing is another. A simple google search should yield enough information for anyone to stay away from a L/P but people keep doing it because they think they are the exception, that it’s going to work for them. And for some it does. But there are also plenty of people without a pot to piss in that keep buying lotto tickets because tonight is the night.

At some point personal responsibility has to play into all of this. Just like when they redid the bankruptcy laws because people were charging up a ton of credit card debt with no intention of paying it back. Everyone’s choices have consequences.

 

As devil's advocate... should the same thing be true for a company?
With the track record of the lease program being what it is, and with the company knowing full well that a tiny minority will NOT lose their shirts, and thereby said company is unnecessarily harming the finances of these people and families...
Even ####tier credit score, higher insurance costs, harder times getting a rental or a job... This stuff is a much bigger deal than it ever was 23 years ago. I was 28 when you started trucking. I had just started college seriously after 10 of floundering as a quasi adult. I remember well how different things were....

 

Luck as a lot to do with how life turns out.


I know two brothers.....same life.
Both married, both are dairy farmers, both have large families, both are
honest hardworking, married to great girls...….

Difference is the one has a severely handicapped son.....parents did nothing
wrong.....just happened. The other has all healthy children. The one is quite
wealthy.....the other one will die penniless. Sometimes life stinks...….

 

The companies don’t want anyone to succeed. That’s not their business model. They need to get the truck back so that someone else can sign up for it. And that cycle continues until trade time. Slimy? Yes. Against the law? No. Last time I checked nobody is holding a gun on someone forcing them to do it.
All I’m saying is that some responsibility falls on the person signing up. It’s in the same vein as the student loan “crisis”. People borrowed their way through school and then found out they actually have to pay the money back when they graduate.

 

So if the lessor has to be accountable for their ignorance, why doesn't the company have to accountable for being slimy? It's not that the gullible lessors dont want to work. They mean well I think. I dont disagree with you about accountability. I am very much an accountable person, but why does the one with the big money keep getting the pass? I see it both ways, but I am glad that this is getting looked at closely. Then you talk about the googly eyed wanting to make a quick dollar. These big companies are taking advantage of the uneducated to do what: make a quick dollar, lots more of them. In the capitalist society, the big companies cant be stopped. I cant understand why people turn a blind eye when businesses deliberately #### people. So while i see it both ways, if I had to choose, I'd side with the plaintiff in the aforementioned lawsuit.

 

The lessor is the one providing the lease, while the lessee is the one signing up for it.

I have been offered it was well. Along with mentoring, teaming, dedicated, etc.
But I did a little research into each before I made a decision, and decided against all of it.

Do the companies actually lie about the potential for profit?
I don't think they do.

They do, however, downplay the real life situation for most people signing into a lease agreement.
Their job is to sell leases, just like any car salesperson on the planet. They will tell you the good side to get the sale. Finding out the bad side is up to the buyer BEFORE a contract is signed.

The term 'Buyer Beware' is out there for a very good reason.
It means to not go into something blind and ignorant.
The companies could not get that much profit from people if those people would just do their homework in the first place.

And the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
'Meaning well' has no merit in the business world.

 

I worked in sales for almost ten years. And never ever did I ask a person with good credit to go get a co-signer. I think no actually I know you are stretching the truth on your “good financial decisions”. You had crap credit and needed a cosigner.

A lot of people have a family with a spouse and kids and cannot freeload on buddies couch till their business is profitable. But go ahead and continue to think you’re the smartest guy on the planet. You had no responsibility to anyone except yourself, how could you not make your truck payment? One day something will humble you but of course you’ll be to proud to admit.

None of us have walked a mile in the guy’s shoes who is sueing Prime. We don’t know if Prime said it would be a three or four week wait with no pay till a company truck is available or he could lease and have a truck the same day. Did the guys trainer get a bigger bonus if he leased and so his trainer fed him a bunch of bull? Was he six foot five inches tall and couldn’t fit in a Prime coffin sleeper truck so had to “lease” to get a truck he could sleep in?

I don’t work for Prime or lease with Prime and I don’t ever see a situation where I would. BUT I have a child to provide for and if leasing a truck from Prime was going to keep food in my child’s stomach I would do it in a heart beat.

Why does Prime, CR England, Knight, Swift, CRST etc target students? Because they’re the most likely to need money ASAP and will work for cheap. The mega wealthy companies target students not because they’re salt of the earth people and want to give back but so they can enrich themselves off the students cheap labor.

If you read the article Prime has gone from court to court to court trying to get their case back into arbitration. Why? You can’t say arbitration is cheaper because settling is cheaper. It’s because they know when a court hears how they take advantage of people it will cost them big.

Yes, there is personal responsibility but there is also ethical responsibility not to take advantage of people because you can.

Freeloading on a buddies couch having a co-signer and going online telling everyone how smart you are is ridiculous. You had an easier situation to succeed. Good for you. But you still put your pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else.