CRST Malone?

Used trucks, governed at 68, paid percentage. Lots of door slammers going over to the flatbed side. Quick securement class at OKC, Birmingham, or the one in Iowa, then you're on your way. Deal with agents.
I ran for a small fleet owner who was leased to them, and ran through the Sioux Falls agent's terminal. Pretty good experience, all in all, although I don't know it from the perspective of a lease operator. I still get letters in the mail from them trying to get me to sign on with the lease program, plus the occasional phone call.

 

I've been there since the end of July 2013 (now end of March 2014). There is money to be made here as long as you don't act like a company driver and have flatbed experience. I would NEVER recommend that someone without flatbed experience come here. You WILL FAIL!!

However, if you have experience and are willing to keep your left door shut, you can do ok. You can survive and still make a little scratch. As WitchingHour said, these are majorly used trucks. They were CRST company team driven trucks. So you get a newer one than most places where you lease purchase their old company trucks, but typically with higher miles. Mine is a 2010 and I got it with 680k on the clock. That being said, it's also a good truck. Sure, I've broken down, but nothing too major. They are governed at 68. However, at 68 you are faster than most trucks out there. Slower or equal with a few, but faster than most and 68 keeps you out of trouble in most areas. Quite honestly, when I pay mine off, I may only have it moved up to 70-72mph. Don't need any more than that unless you plan run out west (not recommended as a flatbed driver).

Unlike most lease options out there, YOU can pick your own freight from anywhere that will load a CRST truck. I use the Malone board the most, but only because I managed to find a nice turn around that gets me home on the weekends and still puts 800.00 to 1200.00 in my pocket after fuel and expenses (alternating weeks). However, I've used the Landstar, Tennessee Steel Haulers, and Mercer load boards too. A friend of mine uses truckstop.com. Now, you can have your fleet manager find your loads for you, but plan on taking every crap load they can't get rid of. This is why I decided to use a puke gold truck. Because of the freedom to find my own loads. The only real requirement is that when you reserve a load, you MUST take it.

You also rent your trailer at 185.00 per week. A lot of their trailers are crap. I was fortunate in getting a truck that already had a trailer hooked to it that was newer (2013 Great Dane). You don't pay for any repairs on the trailer, just the weekly rental. Even if you take a week off and that trailer is connected to your truck, you still pay for it.

You are paid 75% of your line haul, 75% of stop pay, 100% of tarp pay (if you luck out and get a load that pays it), and 100% of FSC. If you live in the east, you can do well. If you live in the TX, OK area, you can do pretty well too. And don't be tempted by big pay going odd places (like the dakotas, Montana, etc.) If you do get tempted by these (and I have), make sure you are on the phone with agents in the delivery areas before you get there to get something lined up coming out. You will also find it simple to go west and hard to get back east. Some guys get lucky, I never have. So I just stay east unless I want to visit my grandkids in TX.

Since CRST Malone takes 25% of your line haul off the top, make sure you do the math before taking a load. From a load that pays 1400.00 in line haul, you will only get 1050.00 + FSC. Also out of that money, you pay .12 per dispatched mile + 18% for your maintenance. What I mean by this is if your dispatched miles is 400, you pay .12 per mile for 472 miles (to help cover deadhead mileage).

Maintenance is done differently that most. We pay a "maintenance insurance" rather than just putting money in an account. This is done in tiers. Tier one is the one you need to take full advantage of. It's usually about a year that you are on the tier one plan and it covers everything drive train and DOT related 100%. One friend of mine just had his radiator replaced, recently had his engine's top end rebuilt, and fuel system redone. All, nothing out of pocket other than hotel while in the shop. Remember, as a contractor, you don't get breakdown or hotel pay. They will lend you the money for a hotel, but it gets paid back. They are also not shy about using dealerships for repairs. As anyone else, they prefer you go to a company shop, but it's not required for most things. PM's are done every 30k miles and only cost you 75.00, but you can only use a company shop for that.

The second tier of the maintenance is .14 dispatched mile + 18%, but .04 of that goes into an escrow that you can get returned to you at the end of your lease.

The lease also involves a balloon payment at the end. You can use that .04 per mile you saved up to cover it or you can have a percentage of your settlement go toward it (I've been doing 2% each week) until it's covered. Malone also started a new program for lease purchasing higher mileage trucks. I don't know the particulars on this since it started after I did. But it doesn't sound too bad if you don't mind high mileage trucks. I also can't give any info on the maintenance program for this new lease option. I'm sure it different since they tend to be trucks with 3/4's of a million miles on them. I only know they are cheaper and the payments are cheaper.

From November 1st to March 1st, your truck payment is lowered to help with winter slow downs. From 325.00 to 140.00 per week. But it's the only charge that goes down. Also, they will supply you with the securement equipment you will need. This is YOUR equipment that you must pay for. They take 75.00 per week for this. Don't get fooled by the "cheaper" used equipment. It's not that much cheaper and tends to be crap. Go with new stuff. I've even gone as far as getting extra stuff now and again. My weekly equipment payment doesn't go up, it just extends the amount of time I'm paying or it.

Anyway, there is so much more information that can be given that I just don't have time for. My 10 hour break is almost up and it's time to roll. Again, I've researched many lease purchase options and chose this seemingly crappy company simply because I control what I haul. My wife and I find my freight (yes, she calls agents for me). I don't let my fleet manager do anything but give me fuel money. I like having that freedom and not sure if I could ever go back to waiting on a dispatcher to give me a load. Don't let some of these lease purchase companies fool you (ATS) by claiming you get to choose your loads when most of them only let you choose out of the few that they picked for you.

Oh, plan on getting a lot of DOT inspections. CRST has a crap safety score, so you get "randomly" picked more often. In my 8 years of driving, I've had 9 DOT inspections. 5 of which have been since I've been here. But I pass them. So just keep on top of your inspections and get problems fixed as quickly as possible. That being said, CRST is working to improve their score and will cancel a contract for the smallest things, including a seat belt ticket. We are also on elogs. This is mandatory on all new leases and O/O sign on's.

Hope this helps, but it's time for me to roll. PM me if you have any more questions.

 

Can you explain the maintenance program again? I know about the .12/mile dispatched, 500 miles * .12=$60 towards the maintenance program. What is this +18%? Is it a double dip for maintenance?

I meant 12% in first year.

 

It used to be that you were charged the .12 per odometer mile. Your settlements would show what they charged for your dispatched miles and then when you went in to a company shop for any reason (PM's are required to be done at company shops), they would take down your actual mileage and charge you the difference. As long as you kept your dead head to a minimum, it didn't really hurt that bad. But if it's been a while since you were in a company shop, those small amounts add up and you get billed all at once.

But they changed over to .12 per dispatched miles and then figured 18% of your dispatched miles as your dead head.

As with most any other company, they use short miles when figuring your dispatched miles. So if a load shows 400 miles, it could actually be 450. But, they will only charge maintenance for the 400 miles. Then, they also charge for dead head miles. The way they figure dead head miles is 18% of your dispatched miles for that load.

So, even though you might have 450 loaded miles and 150 dead head miles, you will only be charged 400 X 18% = 472 miles maintenance. So, in my example, you actually got 128 miles free of maintenance charges and they no longer get your odometer when you go into the shop.

I hope this makes some sort of sense. I've been up over 24 hours and quite tired (don't worry, I'm at home).

 

Chip, What happens if someone was extra vigilant about their dh miles and only had 5% of dh. Would they reimburse the 13% difference?

I appreciate and thank you for your time. No rush for a reply. Enjoy your time at home.

 

Some of them truck CRST Lease out are pure junk... Lease's are jokes anyways but CRST has to be one of the worst and it's not even close. Guys leasing a truck that they can't even chose from, smh incredible

 

"I don't let my fleet manager do anything but give me fuel money. I like having that freedom and not sure if I could ever go back to waiting on a dispatcher to give me a load. Don't let some of these lease purchase companies fool you (ATS) by claiming you get to choose your loads when most of them only let you choose out of the few that they picked for you.

Oh, plan on getting a lot of DOT inspections. CRST has a crap safety score, so you get "randomly" picked more often. In my 8 years of driving, I've had 9 DOT inspections. 5 of which have been since I've been here. But I pass them. So just keep on top of your inspections and get problems fixed as quickly as possible. That being said, CRST is working to improve their score and will cancel a contract for the smallest things, including a seat belt ticket. We are also on elogs. This is mandatory on all new leases and O/O sign on's."

You've got this thing figured out. The drivers who can't make it are the one's that want to be dispatched. They end up getting the leftovers. You have to find the loads that pay both ways on the board and by building relationships with the good agents.
And yeah, I've had 4 random inspections in the last two years the last one 2 weeks ago. Went through a scale, they saw CRST on the door and pulled me in. Cop walks up to the truck and says "the company has a high score so we're gonna do a level 2 inspection". Be prepared.

 

The trucks that are junk are the ones being run by lazy drivers. Sure I've been in the shop a couple of times, but show me a single driver out here that hasn't. Do they look like crap, they sure do, but a pretty truck doesn't mean you make more money. And I'm guessing you either have never done a lease or you failed doing one. No lease is perfect, but then neither is any truck finance. Heck, for that matter, neither is any company job. Does CRST charge for every little thing? Yup. But guess what. I make money. Even after all of the tiny little charges, I still make money.

Yup, I've had one in NC tell me the same thing. But like I said, when you are on top of your inspections and repairs, you have nothing to worry about other than losing time in the scale house.

 

SMH Chip, Chip, Chip... where do we begin with this

1. So, the junk trucks are being run by lazy drivers? So Malone dont care enough to clean up the trucks a little bit before
re-issuing the trucks to another driver? Again these was trucks i saw being issued to new leases

2. No I never tried a lease, you know why? I saved up and with a blessing from my father was able to go to the dealership and FINANCE a truck.

3. Truck can be ugly as hell, sure as long as you making money, but why? I'm not saying crome your rig out and put lights everywhere but bent stacks? Rusty white rims? Bumpers hanging off? Cracked grills? These are basics.

4. Would you marry a woman before ever seeing her? That's the equivalent of signing most leases. You cant test drive the truck, you cant chose the truck but you have to sign that paperwork before getting to see the inside of an Malone truck.

5. And you say financing dont usually work, I mean yeah it dont work to the moron truck driver who went out and overpaid for a truck he couldnt afford.

But hey Chip it sounds like it works for you and thats good, but to most of us, leases are terrible choices to own your own truck. CRST is just as bad if not worse due to the condition of those trucks