Best company for lease purchase

That's what I'm saying. I don't log on here trying to start chhiitt. I just want people to drive smart. Hauling cheap freight don't do this industry any good. I've done the O/O thing for a long time in the past. I still have friends that do it but they won't move the truck unless the money is good and they are very stubburn. I've taken many loads that paid $3 a mile and said no to cheap backhauls. Then they seem to come up with at least $200 more 5 - 30 minutes later. It's amazing how that works. Why haul for free. If the load is paying cheap your losing money. If it's paying ok your breaking even. You can sit home and make the same money. Yes, we pulled oversize and drop deck but most of the loads we hauled was normal freight that the customers had to have. I pulled dry van for the same company also making over $3 per mile. ...$3 a mile is not alot of money.

 

There are some good buys out here. I met an owner in Tulsa a few years ago at the Flying J. He usually goes to an auction and spends about $8-10,000 for a truck. When it dies, he just scraps it and finds another auction. He usually gets several years our of his trucks. Just because a truck is cheap in price doesn't necessarily mean that it is a piece of junk. A few years ago I had an opportunity to buy 3 more tractors and 5 trailers for about $70,000. Each of the trucks had newly rebuilt engines, all within the last year. I decided to not buy them, but it was a very good deal. The trucks were FLD's. There were 3 flats and 2 vans in the group. One of the vans was only about 2 or 3 years old. I have never owned Freightliners, but they all looked like they had been well maintained. He just wanted to get out of the business and get into something different. All I needed to do was sign my name and the equipment was mine. Oh, and write him a check. I think that he wound up breaking up his fleet and selling them for more money than he priced it to me.

When you look at ANY truck, you need to check them out. You can get a lemon with a new truck as well as in a used one. Tens of thousands of owner operators have lost their trucks the last several years. Part of the reason is their high equipment payments. Another reason was the Huge spikes in fuel costs. When you have low or no debt you can weather most any economic downturn. If you have big payments, you will most likely not be able to put much money back and when times are lean and rates low, you may find it difficult or impossible to survive.

I have been in and around this business since around 1970-71. I have seen a lot of ups and downs. I have had friends who over committed on equipment and lost their shirt when something unexpected happened. One friend had a nice Pete and a couple of hotshots. He had to have major surgery and after some complications, lost everything that he owned. Now, he has bad credit, high debt, no money, no equipment and is now driving a bus.

I can't ever see me buying a new truck. I have heard all the arguments to rationalize buying new equipment. Buying a new truck is fine if you can afford it. Most who do buy new trucks cannot afford them. They are one incident away from losing everything. If you want a new truck then the best way to get one is to start with an older truck that is in good shape so that you can save some money. You can trade every couple of years or so until you can buy the truck you want and do it without so much debt. If you do it right, you can own a new truck without all the debt. At worse you could buy one with a small payment. If you are smart you could keep driving the older truck for a few years until you saved to buy the truck that you want. If things go south you can park the truck and not lose everything you own. No one can take your truck because you don't owe anything on it.

For those of you who have never owned equipment you need to sit down and do a reality check before you extend your neck. Look at your business acumen or experience, driving experience, self discipline and bank account. Unless you have money set aside to run your truck for at least 6 months, it would be best if you waited until you saved some more money. If you don't have the discipline to save money then you have no business getting into a truck other than as a driver. It may sound good to consider yourself an owner operator. The truth of the matter is that a truck is only a tool we use to earn our living. It is no different than a mechanic who owns his own tools. It is a depreciable asset. The value goes down as soon as you drive it off the lot and continues with every year and each mile driven.

It saddens me to see so many people lured into these fleece purchase programs. I would wager than as many as 90% fail, perhaps even more. I would love to see real numbers. Of those who have lost their trucks the last several years, most will have had payments much less than those who enter into these lease programs. I would be interested to know how many of those to enter these fleeces actually sat down with a spreadsheet or pencil and paper and did some projections.

The problem these people and anyone who has never owned a truck have is NO EXPERIENCE. I am not just talking about the driving part. There are so many little and NOT so little costs associated with owning a truck. For instance, oil changes (pm's) can run from $200-350. I change my oil at around 15,000 miles. If I run 2,500 miles per week then that means that I will need an oil change every 6 weeks. More miles equals more frequent oil changes. And don't forget those in between lubes. An alignment can run from $160-350. Some will do them each year. You can and will blow tires. A tire can run from $300-600 each. That can happen with a new tire. And don't expect a warranty. Most commercial truck tire manufacturers will not warranty truck tires. I could break down some of the costs by the mile, but those will only be estimates. You will need to run your truck for at least a year to get any true numbers. My costs will be different than yours. In fact, you can put 10 owners together and each of us will have somewhat different costs.

 

That's how we look at it too.Why pull cheap to make money for the company?If we're not going to make any,they dang sure aint.

 

The $3/mi mindset seems like you are trying to hit a homerun on every load. We try to average a strong rate per mile on all miles. In other words, $3 mi is not great if you come home empty. I would rather haul a load at a lower rate to a good area, than a $3/mi load to ND. We also stick to very specific lanes. We would rather run from ND back to MN or IA for a poor rate, than run from ND to MT for $3/mi. This means my drivers get home every weekend, and get back to our good paying freight. This system allows us to keep our rate per mile up and maintain a high and consistent revenue per week. I stress consistent. If you are sitting around for a couple days waiting for a great load, you aren't going to keep your average revenue per week high. You are going to have highs and lows and will end up lower at year end. As an example, I can get great money from Iowa to W Texas or NM. I know I will suffer on the way back. I am better to take slightly less to MA or NY, knowing that I will do better on the return haul, and be able to get back to Iowa quicker...and start the process over again. I realize it is a different system than many of you are accustomed to. Just keep in mind that the best paying load is not necessarily the best load for you to haul.

 

Haven't found these "good areas"for stepdeck freight.We have averaged it out,and are averaging much better waiting on the better rates.Chasing cheap freight all over the country is only putting money in the companies pocket,not ours.

 

I am talking about how I run my company trucks. I encourage my Ind cont to operate in the same manner. We are not "chasing cheap freight all over the country." We have found we are better to stay within specific lanes, than to chase the best load out of a given area. 75% of our open deck trucks pull step decks. We don't stick to only step deck freight. For example, we have very good rates hauling steel from Cleveland, Northern Indiana, and the Chicago area. My Ind Cont make good money.

 

With your 1.00-1.20 per mile plus .40 fsc,I don't see good money.The company is getting 25% of the 1.00-1.20.It then becomes .75-.90 per mile plus fsc of .40 .After fuel,like .58-.73 cents per mi.

 

Nonstop--you are misstating something I said. The numbers you are using are numbers that I was stating as COSTS, not revenues. We absolutely are not running for 1.20/mi + FSC. I am not going to post my revenue numbers online. I can assure you my ind cont are making much more than .73/mi.

 

On the reefer side - if I sat around and waited for a $3-per-mile load to show up, I'd go bankrupt and croak before I'd get a load. But that doesn't matter - the loads I accept are certainly enough to pay my costs plus provide a reasonable profit.

Its not so much waiting for the gold-plated super load to show up, as it is knowing what your costs are (including paying yourself) and not running below that just to have the wheels turning. I'd rather run a not-so-good load instead of a long unpaid deadhead, but I'll not be running sub-dollar freight just to be running.

 

Ok,then the 3.00 per mile isn't a 100% mark up,from your actual rate.