Lease Purchase programs.... the scam I'm noticing about most all of them

There's benefit to being the big dog in the yard...

 

I hope you don't feel I was being rude.. I like many have the desire to be my own boss. I need to clear 1000 a week for bills. So that's y I was asking what u make . I would love to lease. U just hear so many horror stories. I didn't realize swift had a good lease deal.

 

Any lease can be good and any lease can kill you. A company isn't going to put you into something in which you don't have the potential to make money; whether you do or not depends on your understanding of the lease requirements and limitations and your ability to apply that understanding to your driving behavior. Getting into a lease is a very big deal, one that requires an honest self-evaluation of your own business sense.

 

Do you have kids? Consider this... as a company driver when your truck needs maintenance you tell your supervisor and it gets handled. As a business owner, because that's what it boils down to whether you have some sort of lease or hold the title to a truck, getting into a shop and paying for it is on you. What does that have to do with kids or your need for a certain level of weekly cash flow? If you don't take care of that truck when it needs to be done, the results can be very unforgiving. If the truck doesn't run, you don't generate revenue... but then there's those personal needs. What happens in your life when the cash isn't there because the truck needs it? What happens to the kids, because the truck is broken down and you need to get it fixed?

If you're going to be a trucking business owner you're going to need to have enough available cash to deal with your personal financial needs, AND deal with the business to keep it viable. You can't go into it expecting to get by without those reserves. Those numbers that have been thrown out in this thread sound really good, yes? What happens if it doesn't materialize? These are things you need to consider before you jump into the deep end with the weight of a truck lease tied around your neck. You might want to consider streamlining your life somewhat, or getting a job that guarantees that cash flow if you can't give up enough to insulate yourself from the inevitable week as an IC that you're "in the hole," this wonderful dream of being a truck owner can rapidly turn into a nightmare.

 

Depends on your definition of "not much" and what you assume a company driver is making.

 

Highlighted in bold, red and underlined ... Leasing is a business. You have to go into it with a clear objectives and a concise business plan on how you are going to meet those objectives. The life blood of business is cash ... you need enough start up cash to sustain yourself and your business, while you get it up and running. Then you need to have enough cash on hand to get you through the ups and downs. And there will be ups and downs.

Failure to mange their cash is probably the single biggest reason most fail at leasing or any business for that matter... not having enough to start up with and then not understanding that the cash they get from their statement is not theirs ... that money belongs to the business. The business then pays you, after the businesses expenses are met and the business is paid.

It's imperative that you keep your business healthy ... if you suck all the cash out of your business, then you become a parasite on your business and eventually it will fail and you along with it.

 

I always recommend at least 2 to 3 years experience before a driver even thinks about buying or leasing a truck. It may seem to be a simple thing to point the truck down the road and make it go, but there are a lot of nuances that you need to be on top of before you stake your financial future to a trucking business.