cre my 2 cents

if thats your only option then i would say as soon as you get into the school start evaluating your class mates,,choose 3 or 4 that you could see yourself teaming with for 6 months,,, but this makes it hard with your fiance and dog,,,if you team with someone then make sure you are the one to lease,,, that way if the person does not work out then you are in control of the truck..the thing is is once you start sounds like you will succeed so comming up with short and long term goals would be great,,, is your goal to own the truck outright ? your most profitability for short term is to team with your fiance, next is to team in class b4 you lease,,next is to be a company driver,,next would be phase 2 trainer (but this is hard to be profitable) lastly would be leasing and running solo .. running solo can be profitable,, you have to learn your fuel and buisness end of it b4 you finish phase one and be so dedicated to maintaining good fuel economy that it becomes an obsetion,,,, running solo you almost have to run under the fuel rebate ( makes more sence to be on the rebate),, all your money would come from the rebate,, when i went on vacation it was 41 cents a mile,, i dont get paid 41 cents a mile so all my net profits are within the fuel rebate,, let me also add something my trainer told me and i beleive to be accurate,, its not how many miles you can run in a week its how you run the miles that you got,,, there was weeks where i would run 3200 miles and net a very small check, other weeks the freight was light i ran relaxed and did not idle and made more money running 2600..
if it was me in your situation i would talk my fiance to training with me,,, you can both go to school at the same time, then both go on a phase one trainers truck together,, learn at the same time,,and then evalutate if she wants to do it for 6 months..did you know you both can train on the same truck??

 

what would looking at the lease completion numbers tell you ? honestly? not everyone that leases should lease...but i dont think it is the reflection of the company the opportunity is given to fail or succeed,,,

 

do you have a cdl already??

 

have you looked at scniders lease? i know they run tankers and have a school as well i think,,, england as i know does not have any tankers,,,

 

it would be great if you could get her in a truck for a short run,,, running with your fiance would be the best and it would afford you the opportunity to be able to stop and sightsee alot more,, i know one husband and wife team that would rent a car from the truck stops and go and see what they wanted or to baseballgames etc.. also haveing a crock pot and electric skillet tv etc makes it more homey.. as you said at the start its a hard economy out there right now and asking her what kind of lifestyle does she see her self having in say 3 to 4 years,, writting out options is not a bad idea like pros and cons,,, i worked as a stone mason for 15 years and when the economy went so did the work,, my goals for the future is what realy dictated me getting into trucking,,, outside of working stone this was the only option for me to make desent money without going to college.. i wish you all the luck and it is great that you are useing forthought and realy thinking it out,,, if you deside to go then i would definatly get the cdl book from the dmv and realy study befor you go and learning the pretrip would help alot,,, its very fast paced in any of the schools,,,