I don't know nothing about ATS... But since you said lease/purchase... I can say that 99% of the time, you the driver gets bent over without proper lube & no kiss after wards. Do some searching on these forums about lease/purchasing & determine for yourself. I prefer to use a bank for financing my equipment... Then I have the freedom to take it to what ever company I want... A lease purchase deal makes you stuck with them until the end... Then halfway thru they try to force you to quit...
I dont like lease purchases either. It works for some. And I have to be honest, Ive never tried a lease purchase from a company I drive for. I just dont like the idea.
I was wondering what they payments and all the rest of the extras add up to. What Kind of trucks they offer. Thanks for your help!!!
I am currently in my third month at Andy and I'm doing the lease deal. I've brought home good money every week except one. The lease is expensive. They deduct for every little thing imaginable. But, most of what they set up is a good idea. A reserve account in case you miss a week of work, a maintenance account so you don't have to pay out of pocket for services, etc. The weekly payments are way too high, IMO. I'm paying 470 a week on an 07 Columbia. It's in good shape, and a decent enough truck I suppose but 1800 a month on a truck Andy probably had paid for TWO years ago? In orientation they claimed they were debt free. I thought, for 1800 a month just for truck payments, you better be! This also nullifies Mr. Franco's claim that ATS is "in trouble". Yes there are a lot of trucks parked. Most of them are new ones. They own a truck dealership for crying out loud...hello... Anyway... I hope I can save enough to make a down payment on a truck of my own (or maybe even this one) and get out of this lease deal at the end. I really want to get into a 4axle though. I hope I can move into that soon. It works, I'm bringing home money, but it's expensive as all get out. You have to run your parts off. Figure out the system, manipulate it, and profit. This is business. I've run about 23000 - 25000 miles in just over 2 months. I'm sure they are watching me like a hawk. Good. Means I'm keeping them employed too. Now, as far as non-OD flatbedding goes. I'm currently under my first OD load for Andy, and compared to what I'm used to and where I think I should be, it's child's play. 10'4" wide. I used to haul blades! I've complained enough about that, so I'll drop it, but you can read more on what frustrates me about ATS here, sa well as in the locked Anderson Lease thread. But I like OD freight. After 15 years of hard running I like to sleep at night, and yes, some states do allow continous travel at night. So, if you don't want to do OD, I'm POSITIVE ATS will have no problem with that. I recommend this company. Oh, it's a big company, with some big company ideas and practices, but they saved my butt financially this year, and I'll defend them in any parking lot conversation I enter. Which isn't many.
If you take into consideration everything your truck payment is not too bad considering you did not put anything down, my first brand new truck was $15,000 down (6G cash +trade-in) $2150 a month for 60 months, it cost a little less in the end because the note was paid for a few months early and they threw in a great bumper to bumper warrenty with a few bells and whistles
Thats a good point about the nothing down deal. But I will say this, and I will also post it elsewhere because I think it's important: watch your settlements and be careful of MEC numbers they can be veryt confusing. Right now I'm in a month-long fight over $383 that should not have come out of my check to begin with. Every time I call in about it, they act like I'm the one who made the mistake. I asked my FM if I should untarp the load when I get to Cloud, and he said "yes". The other driver rolls in with no tarps at all, and somehow I get charged for the difference between new tarps and used ones. Because mine were "used" at a week old, and the ones I got from the prep shop were "new" (which they were nothing close to new). My question is, why did I even get issued the tarps? The other driver had none at all! I iknow why, my FM doesn't slow the heck down and read the whole message, that's why. They've even tried to be crafty about turning it back on me a few times, and my FM has even denied that I've said anything to him in the past month. They made a similar mistake on my very first settlement with travel, and motel expenses, and I had to fight them for $80 or so. I told them I did not want my own room, as I did not want the extra money coming out of my first settlement, I had a roomate the whole week, and was charged anyway. I contacted settlements, who passed me to contractor services, who passed me to the recruiter, who jumped through hoops with billing, the Days Inn, etc, and I finally got my money. What bugeed me was this: the recruiter told me during all this "...because you did tell me you wanted your own room..." I stopped him and simply said, "No, I did not. I was leery about rooming with a stranger, but at my last job usually roomed with escorts so having a roomate isn't the worst deal for me. I did NOT tell you that. Maybe you checked the wrong box on the form or something, I don't know. But please don't put words in my mouth." Now let's think about this: I am one person, dealing with one person, about one issue. FM's and recruiters are one person, dealing with many people and many issues. Where do you think the greater chance of error lies? I'm not convinced they are being dishonest, but they have a very convoluted system, and it's easy to screw things up. And they do try to turn things back onto you to cover their butts. I wonder how many people don't watch this stuff, and how much they do get away with though.
Hey there everyone. Can anybody tell me: Are the Lease Trucks cut? (governed). If so what's the top speed they are set at? I'm not a speed demon but don't want to become a roilling road block either! (PLEASE, before I get a 1000 driving school yahoos telling me how I shouldn't be concerned with that and that 55-60 is the safest speed to operate a big car please know this: I've got 18 years in this racket, mostly running wide open units, hauled every type trailer and freight you could name and I've NEVER had a chargable accident, last speeding ticket was 14 years ago, so please, no sermons from the 'safety first' driving school crowd!) Just don't want to get serious about this companies lease plan just to find out they hand you a 65mph truck, can't make any money that way, right? Appreciate any response! Peace Out, Paul
I believe they have them locked in at 70. You do know, dont you, that you can lease a truck through someone else and bring it on? Its usually cheaper, AND its YOUR TRUCK, not ATS'.
BTW, I'm nopt a speed demon either, but governing trucks down to 65 mph is a bonehead idea for any company. It promotes stupidity among drivers. As soon as ATS cut their company trucks to 65, their safety rating dropped. Companies with slower truck usually have lower safety ratings. Go into a truckstop and you see the slow trucks standing on the gas while driving through a parkinglot. Why? In a slow truck you always stand on the gas. Always. You get used to it. Do that with a fast truck and you will lose your license in a week. In a parkinglot, the fast trucks drive slowly and the slow trucks try to get to the high side of the transmission.
