Swift leasing, what’s to come?

I did the Swift lease program on two tractors, for about 3-1/2 years total (first one the tractor was used, second one I walked away from it -- more on that later, but it was on the recommendation of the O/O manager at Central Ref).

In hindsight, pros and cons of going lease:

Pros:
Freedom, as you wrote. That alone made it worthwhile to me. Take the route I think is best, fuel when/where I want, refuse bad loads, take time off whenever I want, and choose the truck I want to drive. On top of that, if you take good care of the truck and save fuel, you benefit, directly, in dollars. There are repairs and maintenance to pay for, but the big ticket expenses are covered by warranty on the truck and insurance. And when I worked there, a loaner truck was provided no extra charge when the truck was going to be in the shop for more than a day or two. Another "pro", in hindsight: I was a beginner in trucking, and it was a great way to learn the industry. As a company driver you're more insulated from the economics of the business, but lease operators see a lot more of the numbers and decision-making.

Cons:
I doubt I made anymore money as a lease operator than company driver, and you have stress as a lease operator you don't as company: you have to stay out on the road a long time, because that lease payment keeps coming in no matter what. You just can't afford to take much of any time off. And you're locked in for the length of the lease (4 years?) so even if you come across a better job, you're stuck. So in that sense you lose freedom.

Training:
They make more money, but you talk about stress. I never did it, and don't know how anyone can sleep while a newbie is behind the wheel of your 65mph bedroom. What's more, if the newbie causes damage to your truck or something else, it's on you. And then there is the stress of squeezing in two people to a space that's hardly big enough for one person to live in for 3 weeks at a time, and living/working together 24x7 that whole time. Not worth it IMHO.

Running a business:
Unlike a company driver, you must keep a reserve of cash on hand to get you through down time, repairs, etc. You cannot live paycheck-to-paycheck (shouldn't do that in your private life either, but it's deadly in a business). Stuff happens, and you must be ready for it.

Miles:
I was no slacker, but my average with Swift was around 2400-2500 miles per week. The sales pitch from Central refrigerated showed 2800-3000 miles per week, but I never saw that. Too much idle time. There are a few good runs out there -- long-distance drop-and-hooks on each end, but they are so few, they only go to drivers who've been with the company for like 10 years, not beginners.

Quitting the lease early:
Bad idea. I told the head of the O/O dept. I didn't want to sign the second lease because I didn't intend to stay with Swift that long (wanted to move on to a different kind of trucking) but he said I could walk away and they wouldn't file claims. At the end of the year I was ready to leave, and his whole story changed. They didn't come after me for lost money (lease payments and turnaround to get someone else into the truck) but it did go on my credit report as an incomplete lease. I.e., not good if you want to apply for credit anytime soon.

Bottom line:
Glad I did the lease program. Good learning experience, and the freedom was a huge benefit to me. Was able to stay out 3mo at a time, and likewise went without a home and had no other expenses to deal with. Good for bank account building and paying off debts if you have them. If you want to go that route, I say lease a new truck, learn all you can about how to take care of it and save fuel, maintain a perfect driving record, then when the lease ends move up to a better paying job. You'll have a great looking resume, which will buy you a ticket into most any trucking job, especially if you ran all lower 48 states (shows you know the entire country, and how to run in snow and ice).

 

But...but...but... didn’t you take a hit on your credit report for breaking the lease? Seriously, just take the company job and you can do the exact same thing, while you get less stress. And you also get cheaper health insurance, which o/o don’t get.

 

But how much did you take home a week?

 

Good points.
Re: credit score, no, didn't take a hit. Probably because they did not pursue collections on it. They had the legal right to, but didn't. So, you can't count on that. The only problem I would have run up against is if I wanted to take out a loan of some sort or sign another lease, they would have seen that and it would have been a negative -- probably higher rates, if it even qualified. So, bottom line, I don't recommend walking away from a lease, regardless what the leasing salesman says to get you to sign.

Agreed, there are benefits to staying company. There are pros and cons both ways. I liked the freedom to choose my own routes, choose my own time off, choose where I fueled, have the freedom to reject loads (only did it a few times, but was glad I could) and learn more of the business, since you have to make more of the decisions, and pay the price for them.

 

Week-to-week it varied at lot. A lot depends on when a load finishes and if you turn in your paperwork before the cut-off date for that pay period. Might have a negative pay period, where expenses exceed income. Breakdowns happen. Bad weather. Etc.

As a lease-operator you can't really think of it in terms of weekly pay. Have to keep savings in the bank to cover expenses and dips in income, and think long-term. Annually I think I made around $37k the first year. Second year, low-40's. Third year, high 40's. That's after all business expenses deducted (including cell phone, computer, etc). The increasing pay was a result of several factors: the pay per mile did increase, but not a lot; I got better at the work, banging out more miles per week; and the last year had a better truck -- fewer breakdowns and better fuel economy. If I kept doing it probably could have topped $50k as I improved in trucking skill.

 

Your first three years of pay are literally what I made my first three years as a company driver when I started in 2004.

 

Wow when I left swift as a company driver OTR,
My last year made 59k and less headaches.
And if truck was going to be in shop longer then 3 days they gave me another one...dont know if they still do that or not...

No way in hell I would have all that paper work and such for anything less then 75k after all expenses...and then I would have to think about it lol

 

Update:

I'm on my second leased truck with Swift and I run solo.

I was EXTREMELY disappointed with the so called Christmas rush. I only hauled what I considered to be a Christmas load once, the rest of the time is was the normal "crap" loads that had nothing to do with Christmas.

When I leased my current truck (Nov 1, 2018) I was very happy with the way things were working. It seemed that Knight's influence had a positive affect and the planners were much easier to work with and get what I needed to run the way I run.

14 months later and it's obvious the planners have lost their fear of Knight and are back to doing things they way they did before Knight. It's gotten MUCH harder to to get planned in a timely manner. Mac 30 rarely has anything I want to run (when it has ANYTHING at all) AND nearly 50% of the time when I take a load off of Mac 30 I get a message telling me that "the load offering has been cancelled". As you all know calling a planner is a waste of time and sending a message is sketchy at best. Jarupa Valley & El Paso have become the planning areas I fear the most with Troutdale running #3. When the excellent Western Regoin O/O planner got promoted to the manager of Edwardsville (about 6 months ago) it has become a waste of time to call the O/O planner number. My only saving grace has been Phoenix's willingness to "steal" loads from outside their planning area when I cannot find anything using the normal channels.

I'm starting to wonder about my future with Swift as I can no longer count on a consistant income.

 

Hello just a curious swift driver wanting to leave a comment:

I hate being around the California area , I never get any good loads and I thought it was Becouse I’m barely 8 months in. Didn’t know it was that bad. Troutdale is always a hit or miss as well. I’m definitely going to look for something after my 1 year is up.

 

And I spent a lot of time on the road, usually 3 months at a time, and less than a week off between. Longest stretch was 6 months without a break.

The third year I did take some hard hits on income. Kept driving my first lease truck beyond the end of the lease (which they allowed -- you just keep making the lease payment) but the warranty was expired on it. Clutch went out ($4,500 repair, and a week to do it) and had to replace all batteries ($800) -- things that would have been covered by warranty if it was active. A month before the warranty expired, engine had to be rebuilt, and that took a month to complete, so that was lucky, otherwise that might have cost $15-20 grand.

That's a problem if you become a trainer: you'll burn through the miles on the warranty long before your lease is up, and then can be on the hook for some very expensive repairs.

Yep, I wouldn't lease with the idea of making more money. Freedom to make more decisions, and learning more about trucking, is what I most got out of it.