Hello everyone, few questions.

Just found this forum last night, I've done a lot of reading since and decided I should make a account. For starters, my name is Jonathan. I started driving back in march of 2012 with CR England. My dad had worked for them about 25 years ago and he never had anything bad to say about them so I figure, why not? Well, I decided to lease right out of training; It actually went very well. I was making almost 6,000 a month as a lease trainer. I built excel spreadsheets and calculated every thing to the .0001 figure. I finished the short lease and moved on to find something local and was unsuccessful. Most local jobs want 1.5-2yrs experience and I only had 10-11 months at the time. So, instead of going back to England I decided to try out Swift. Several people I talked to said swift was very good with miles and keeping people rollin'. I'm one month into it and averaging about 2000 miles a week. I am actually planning on leasing through swift as well, I've done it once with another company and found it simple. My question now is why so many people on here frown on leasing? I see a lot of threads about people bashing leasing. Is there something worse about leasing with swift than with england? Both are large carriers that have their own leasing company on the side. I assume it would be the same right?

Anyway, I had additional questions but couldn't find the forum to post random questions about a certain topic. I'm trying to find a place to ask about pre-trip inspections. I do not know much about trucks at all; my knowledge base keeps the air pressure in the tires good, the condition of the tires in good shape, I make sure all my lights are working and my windows clean. I check for air line leaks and that's about it. I haven't the slightest idea what I need to be looking for underneath the truck or under the hood. I figure if I'm not leaking fluids, I'm good. I always keep up on my coolant and oil levels but that's the extent of what I know to check for.

So really, any and all advice will be considered. I'm sure I'll find a lot of help on these forums since having a years experience is still considered new to the industry. Once I get information on what trucks they have available for lease, I'll list the once that I like and see what ya'll think would be best for someone like me.

Thanks all and drive safe.
Jonathan