lease vs. buying outright... what does it cost??

There is no benefit what so ever. Because the truck is not yours! You are an "at will employee." Its that simple. The less you depend on a carrier the better (other than tire discounts etc). I dont care what the fleece purchase fan bois force feed people. If you do not have any rights to the asset (the truck) then you are really nothing but an employee that pays to work there. Owning a truck is like feeding a seven headed hydra. There is always something that needs to be done.

OOIDA has a cost worksheet in EXCEL on their website that is free.

The first thing you need to learn is how a business operates. It does not matter if its a restaurant or any other type of business. Understand how a business works. Forget about the truck...get it out of your head.

 

You have nothing to do regarding what you make. The carrier is in charge of what you can and cannot pull. A select amount of people will be permitted to eventually get the trucks. Why.................so the people that get the trucks can go out and brag how great it is. Basically the carrier would spend $1,000,000 to give away trucks to make $50,000,000 off the new suckers coming in pretending they are owner opersators. Its like a progressive slot machine.

Dont get shiney truck syndrome and get baited into a fleece purchase. You dont even have a title with a lien holder! The truck is not yours and you have no rights to it! Stop mentally fantasizing and get real! Look at the recent lawsuit against Swift.
Nuff said.

 

Let me repeat.

You have no rights to the truck. It is not yours. You are a company driver. All the make pretend fleece purchase fantasy math wont change that. You are at the mercy of what the carrier will and will not give you. They give you the illusion that you are in control.....you are not!

 

Case and point. People do fleece purchase for 3 reasons. Their credit is bad, they have financial issues or they have no credit history. If this is the case you have absolutely no business to run a business!! None what so ever. How in the heck does someone wan to run a business when they cant even take care of their own responsibilities/issues. You think playing fleece purchase will help? Get a dose of reality and get real!

Fix the problems first!!! It wont be easy but it can be done. I went through a divorce that destroyed my credit...and then some. Took hard work but I got everything straightened out in a few years. Do the hard work...you will be glad you did.

 

The Swift lawsuit pertains to the Swift operating agreement and has nothing to do with the truck.

25% of Swift owner operators either own their truck outright or got their truck from somewhere other than a Swift affiliated leasing company.

If Swift looses that lawsuit, everyone is in danger of going down. Including Landstar, Mercer and anyone who leases owner operators. Other than compensation there is no difference in Swifts operating agreement or any other carrier's operating agreement.

 

What wrong doing against Swift is the lawsuit alleging? I know they were sued for paying company drivers HHG miles and thereby shorting pay.

 

I realize it's an older thread but wanted to share insight. Everything said here is accurate. The approach that I took was to learn from other's mistakes. Having 3 owners in my family and a few friends I listened to what they did wrong and avoided those mistakes.
A lease is predatory no matter which way you slice it. You become an endentured servant and get nothing for it while assuming all the responsibility. Reporting to the credit bureau only happens when you miss a payment. Not exactly a sweet deal. You pay for everything and in the end you'll typically turn the truck in, having nothing but experience to show for your hard work. That sounds a lot like having an ex wife lol.
Company driving, to me, amounts to theft of services. Being governed below the speed limit is literally stealing your earning potential. All to lower operating costs of already wealthy men. They're literally transferring your wealth into their pockets.
I found both company driving and lease options completely retarded enterprises not worth my time, well, not any longer than necessary. So I built my credit up and put together a down payment of 10%. The easiest way to jump your credit score the most is to get your unsecured lines down to 1% utilization, that'll jump you 30 to 40 points in a couple weeks.
Get a secured card, max it and pay it down to 1% utilization, you'll get another 30 to 40 points from doing that. Pay on time and clear anything in collections off your report, then dispute all hard inquiries.
This will take several months so save your money while you're doing this. I went from having a 650 score to 794 currently. In a few months.
I just bought my first truck, a T660 from 2013 with a warranty from Cummins and a relatively cheap rate of 10%. I chose an aggressive pay schedule of 36 months at $1800 per month so I can pay it off quickly.
Planning is the only way to escape the company screw job. Get all your endorsements as well so you've got more freight options. Good luck. Hope this helps

 

That really sums it all up. Unfortunately many drivers will fall prey to infomercial style recruiting by the mega carriers. This is why predatory lending schemes exist is because people fall prey to them.

 

I'm astounded anyone goes for those leases. I just uncovered a crucial detail in Swift's predatory scheme. Apparently drivers are penalized .09 cents / mile if they drive over 2200 mi / week.
At $900 / week for lease plus fuel there's almost nothing left to live on or support your family with. Not to mention the endless fees Swift wrote into the one way binding agreement.
I own my Kenworth but I am still getting hammered with fees. I'm looking to leave Swift asap. It is the most greasy, predatory and dysfunctional outfit in America.

 

No he is not. Paying both halves of fica and other taxes comes to about 15%. The income is not taxed more because you work for yourself. It is taxed the same but you are now seeing both the employer and employee side of things.