ATS Lease Program?

If you talk to any of their lease drivers now you will find them very disgruntled.I worked for them in 2006 and 2007 and made very good coin.I returned to them this past febuary and starved.They are the same now as leaseing from swift,us express and others.The lease is designed to benifit the company.They don't care about their drivers.I was running my ### off 80+ hours a week and made barely enough to pay my expenses.Lease purcahse does not work.Buy your own truck and get your own authority you are better off.I termed my lease last month and am driving for a local company now.I get 2500 to 3000 miles a week at 44 cents a mile and i am home nightly.I worked for ats and they used to treat their drivers good.Now they are like every other company out there.They get rich off your sweat and you starve.Give them a wide birth.

 

As you probrably know you can't get more then two driver to agree on any one thing at the same time, so I am sure there will be those who disagree, I think ATS in one of the better companys out there, of course thats a revolving door, they are able to be that way 'cause they got some good drivers so being a good company they are able to attrack more good drivers. Now that does not mean there are things that can't be approved and they do not give anything away but if you are willing to work hard a safely, they will be willing to pay you good for it

 

I wonder what the mileage contract looks like these days? It used to be .86cpm. I guess now that is with a surcharge for any fuel over $1.20 maybe? Whats an O/O get to tarp? Do they still force you to use their accountant and pay the qualcomm bill? The main thing I didn't like about being an O/O was they forced you to tarp loads that absolutely shredded your tarps. We would go to that machine place in Acton, MA all the time and most of their stuff would destroy a tarp. One time I went to a old brake plant for Dana I think and it destroyed so many tarps that they forced the company to buy tarps that were used on the 170 loads. If it is just one load they expect you to destroy your $600 tarps.

 

They use that sliding pay scale for mileage (the longer the run, the less CPM). If you stay under 1000 miles, I believe its # $1.20 per mile. Thing is, you have to be smarter. I talk to quite a few lease drivers. Most arent doing well, while some make more money than they know what to do. I'm one of those drivers that does well. I was a company driver for a year and a half, and for a year and a half, I made $1400 a week AFTER TAXES. You hear about company drivers grossing $1000 and mine was $1400 net. I do well, but I got a system.

One of the girls in the office asked me how much money was I looking to make as an O/O. I told her minimum $500 a day. She didnt really understand since she is so used to hearing a weekly dollar amount. I am now on a percentage contract. When they send me a load offer, I look at where its going and when it delivers, how many miles it is and figure out what it pays per mile. I take the mileage and divide it by 700. Thats how many days I will need to move the load. I then take the number of days needed and divide what the load pays by the number of days. If its less than $500 a day, I dont want it. Tarping is extra $$$.

If I was on a mileage contract, I would differ things slightly. I would take the short loads during the week and the extremely long load on the weekend. I believe on their sliding pay scale, any load thats longer than 1500 miles pays # $.83 cpm. Say you pick up a 2400 mile load on Monday. You drop it Thursday. Thats 2400 x $0.83= $1992/4= $498 per day. Not bad. Not good but not bad. But if you pick it up Friday and drop it Monday (Monday being the next business day) thats

2400 x $0.83=$1992/2=$996 per day. Thats great!

Pick up a 900 mile load on Monday drop it Tuesday. Pays #$1.20 per mile.
900 x $1.20=$1080 per day. Drop it Wednesday and it becomes $540 per day. Pick it up Friday, drop it Monday and it stays at $1080 per day.

The mistake that alot of drivers make is turning down the big mileage loads and sitting for the weekend or picking up the big mileage loads and running them during the week. They help on the weekend, but hurt during the week. You have to be smart about your load selection and time management.

Time is more important than money.

 

That was the case for a company driver too. I would always drive day and night if I had to in order to deliver a load on a Friday. If you ran legal and didn't run 1200 miles overnight you would sit the entire weekend. Sometimes they would get irritated if you ran too many miles. I think it used to be anything over 4500 miles in 7 or 8 days. I set off the alarms in safety a couple of times. I did 8000 miles in 7 days once playing a little trick on them. They would purposely hold you down on the miles.

So what is the deal with things that have to match the log book? I heard nowdays you had to match all your fuel times? That would hold you back I would think?

.83cpm now is the high mileage pay? ouch!!! That isn't good. They used to have a contract years ago where they actually paid money into your retirement account. I'm sure those old geezers are dead and gone now. I wonder if they still honor the .86cpm drivers now?

 

To all you guys that sing ats praises.I worked for them in 06 and 07 and they were very good company then.I made a ton of money and they took care to help you suceed.I returned to ats feb.08 and they had drastically changed.I busted my behind drove safe and made hrdly enough to break even.They claim the freight is slow.But let me say again a load from poland springs that used to pay the truck 850 now pays 600 if you are lucky.Its all bull they are robbing the lease operaters and thats all there is to it.So go ahead give them a try but i think if you are in trucking to make money you will quit within 3 months.that is about average for a lease operater with them.They tried to get me to stay cause i'm a good and productive driver.But i need to make a living and with ats you just can't.

 

You did 8000 miles in 7 days? You do know there is only 168 hours in a week? 8000 miles@60 mph= 133.3 hours, given where ATS runs and the traffic, fueling, inspecting, loading, unloading and so on, what is your secret?

 

I am not sure if the blame for the change should be entirely on the shoulders of ATS, alot of things were going bad then for alot of people/companies at that time, failing economy and as long as the industry has to compete with the super sized carriers who are more then willing to cut rates, then carriers are going to have to stay competitive by reducing rates also, I know it is crap but that is the way it has been done since deregulation, we are all in the same boat when it comes to trying to earn a living, especially behind the wheel and I don't see it getting better or easier anytime soon

 

Maybe I was exaggerating a bit. I averaged like 1000 miles a day. I didn't sleep much. Dranks lots of coffee. My truck was a little faster than others and I did all drop and hook. That was the little trick I played on them since it wasn't officially dispatched.

I worked there from 99 to 05 and I average 3300 miles a week. That is dispatched miles. They used to pay HHG miles which you can count on being 10% less. They'll show you the practical miles though if you ask them. That would be a wise thing to look at as an owner op because they send you to some screwed up places where you run down small roads. Eats your fuel mileage up. They LOVE New Jersey too. Gosh I hate that place.

 

well ive heard a few bad things and mostly good so i think im gonna give it a try..... im young so i belive now is the time for me to take risk i dont have the family to provide for like most of yall and plus i a work hard at what i do. with all that said thanx all that replies to my ?