good and bad on leasing a truck

Ty dreamer. That's a number I can live with

 

Your results may vary from that. If you choose to lease, you need to listen to IP. Hes been leasing since they were dino powered lol Hes a wealth of info

 

Sounds good to me. Sometimes I wonder hey did we run into each other somewhere lol never would know unless you arranged to meet

 

Dan, I think you have finally found a common dialogue with us here. For leasing, business ideas & principles are universal. Hope you share more later.

 

ORD I dont meet many L/O's on the flat side. Do they even exist there lol? Seriously every Prime flatbed I run into is a company truck.

 

Dan... I know plenty of solo operators. And they do fine. I've also run across a fair number of solo lease operators - from a lot of carriers - who aren't.

There's a fairly good failure rate at almost all carriers that lease - and ya know something? That's the way it should be - which of course really sucks if you're on the short end of the stick. Now I'm not being mean here, but why should this be any different than any other business in America? The Small Business Administration's own figures say about 80% of all new businesses FAIL in the first year. Most people jump into a lease thinking that its some sort of hyped-up employment deal. No preparation, no capital reserve, no idea of what it takes to be a successful business person. There are limits to what any carrier can do to help these folks out - the IRS classification of an independent contractor prevents a carrier by totally holding these folks by the hand to lead them to the golden settlement. If they do too much, it can be said that these folks are really employees. You want to know a fairly common thread among the folks doing poorly? They don't even look at their settlement statements; they have no idea whether they're doing poorly or well.

One can do well here. You have to keep the left door shut, and understand that in running a business you're going to do more work than an employee would. You have to keep the fuel bill under control - its the number one controllable expense. You have to have a cash reserve to operate on, and smooth-out the cash flow.

 

i agree, most prime drivers i see on the highway are running 55-60 for fuel economy. can't say i blame them

 

I'll jump in here also. Im Company and I normally take home around 900 per week. Thats about the norm,
Thats said, I think u really need to rethink going lease and here is my reasoning.
Your in training now, so when are you going to complete training? reason I ask is because come November freight is going to start drying up some till around april. That only give you 3 months of good freight to run with, then it starts getting tough. Was me I would wait and gain a little experience, not saying you dont have any, get through the winter and then hit the ground running at the end of April.
Keep in mind, you probably won't see pharm, flowers or canada runs much if any. Those are normally reserved for teams, or so I have seen. Could be wrong though.
My 2 cents

 

Thank you for that advice and duely noted for sure. Might stick with my trainer for the year after TNT for that winter mess and also get those team miles.

 

Ihave an question, about insurance,as you lease from a dealer,to a major carier