30 days company driver to lease operator....

Voodoo Pyg · Mar 15, 2022

Dustyroads38 said: ↑

this thread is meant to drawn attention to how young/new drivers are lead to believe that its a good idea with 30 days experience, they can jump right into a lease program, that in my humble opinion is designed to keep them slaving away for their new found employer.
last night i was walking my mutt over to the dog area of the petro I'm currently holed up at. pretty quick i found myself in conversation with the other driver out walking his dog. the story he told me left me all but speechless...
30 days as a company driver, then headed out on his own, freshly enrolled into a lease to own program. he said he was leased to the company he's driving for, quickly it became obvious that he's in a lease program that pays $1.50 per loaded mile, and $1.09 empty, and that he needed to stay out for a while because he'd only driven 1100 miles in the past two weeks.... idk about y'all, but i don't think 1,650 in two weeks, if they're all loaded miles, is enough to get yourself established enough to break away and venture on your own...
not one to crush anyones dreams, i politely told him that when he started making money, not to think he's bawling and go spend it. poor guy said that if his truck broke down, the company would tow it and work on it for $20 per hour, no mention of parts, or what the tow bill might be. which brings me to the point of creating this thread,
how many drivers do you think will actually succeed in his situation? i almost guarantee that within a year he's gotten burt bad enough to walk completely away from the industry. the other dream he had was there was another company that with $4000 down, would finance him on a new truck with no credit check. seriously? this seems like a program set up to take advantage of those down on their luck, but willing to dream big, then fed enough b.s. to believe it. anywho i know there are lots of y'all out there with similar experiences. has anyone actually made it successful out on their own by enrolling in one of these programs? how many drivers have been taken advantage of that went on to find another trade? they say their is a driver shortage, but this is not the way to recruit drivers that will stay longer than 6 months. if they make it that far. i would recommend being a company driver for at least 2 years to gain enough perspective to decide if you're really willing to sign your life away. would love to hear y'alls experiences, I made the jump back into a paid for truck, leased on with a company i had spent the majority of my driving career driving for last September, and even with no major truck payment, it's taken until now to get ahead of my costs enough to put a little money in the bank. i was never promised anything, other than it would be a real struggle for the first six months. luckily i had a little in the bank to keep me a float until i started receiving settlements. anywho, my advice to anyone looking into a lease purchase program, would be that if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. also if you haven't been in the industry long enough to understand what it really costs to run a truck, please keep driving that company truck until you do. we have enough bottom feeders that will run for nothing, just because they think they need to the work. bump that, you can go broke just as easily sitting on the couch.
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That was and still is going on at Stevens Transport. They show you what you hope to accomplish. I've heard they've dialed it back since seven years ago when I was there. I waited about 3 years before taking that plunge.

Daddy Titanium · Apr 11, 2022

I was a co driver about 3 years, I lease my truck and leased onto USA Truck, the difference is, I haul what I want, when I want and where I want. Self dispatch load board, 65% linehaul, +2% for dash cam and lane departure awareness, +2% safety for 69%. I have also got about 25 years wrenching on any vehicle that moves. So I get what it takes to stay afloat.

My lease is cheap for a 2022, my pay is high and I see far too many hauling cheap freight. There is a sucker born every minute. Get the #### facts, run the numbers and figure out your operating cost before you agree to anything.

I do not regret my LP not a single bit, math says I could still be profitable with $10 a gallon fuel.

smokey12 · Apr 12, 2022

Daddy Titanium said: ↑

I was a co driver about 3 years, I lease my truck and leased onto USA Truck, the difference is, I haul what I want, when I want and where I want. Self dispatch load board, 65% linehaul, +2% for dash cam and lane departure awareness, +2% safety for 69%. I have also got about 25 years wrenching on any vehicle that moves. So I get what it takes to stay afloat.

My lease is cheap for a 2022, my pay is high and I see far too many hauling cheap freight. There is a sucker born every minute. Get the #### facts, run the numbers and figure out your operating cost before you agree to anything.

I do not regret my LP not a single bit, math says I could still be profitable with $10 a gallon fuel.
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Who did you lease the truck from?

Voodoo Pyg · Apr 12, 2022

smokey12 said: ↑

Who did you lease the truck from?
Click to expand...

USA Truck uses Transport Enterprise Leasing. I had a 2020 Cascadia with SRT and ended after the nightmare known as LandAir. I had a great experience with TEL just not the company I was leased through. Sadly, I couldn't bring it with me as TEL didn't want to work out a deal with my current company. As @Daddy Titanium said, no regrets. Speaking of, @Daddy Titanium did the down payment really get up to $2500? It was $1500 when I joined TEL.

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