Leasing and buying and your credit scores

I know that there has to be some out there but expect a high interest rate, who I don't know, but it might be better to wait for a while till your credit score comes up

 

I would strongly discourage doing a lease purchase through a large mega. The open joke is they are called Fleece deals.

Generally what you are doing it taking over the truck payment with an outrageous interest payment so they profit from your weekly/monthly payment. By the time you finish there is usually a balloon payment at the end in which you can refinance and be stuck again,.. most people are so sick of it they just walk away. Realistically you'll buying a $50k - $60k truck and paying upwards of $100k for the privilege of using it.

They will take out an escrow fund for repairs. They will dictate who and what you haul, as well as most every other aspect. You would like to think of yourself as an O/O,.. in reality you are not. O/O's have choices. This is not the way to go in my honest opinion.

If you do not have the cash to buy a truck, or at the very least a substantial down payment and the ability to make those payments,.. you are better off as a company driver. Not saying this to discourage you. Just trying to open your eyes and ground you down out of that cloud a bit.

Put your money away and sock it. It will probably be the most difficult thing to get started and to stay out of it once you do get a healthy amount of cash set aside. Avoid financing anything if you can pay cash. The less you owe the stronger the position you will be in when you are ready to go out on your own.

If you are unable to put money away,.. I dont think you will be able to save or put money away under a fleece deal. Your resources will be stretched to the limit. I started by putting money away into an account as if I we making payments. I considered that money already spent. I did not touch it. It took me the better part of 3 years before I had $30k put aside. Paid cash for my truck,.. and even then I borrowed another $20k in order to keep rolling.

Becoming an O/O is not cheap. If you can not afford it,.. financing and borrowing good money after bad will usually not end well.

At the very least,.. put $20k away,.. go to one of those buy here pay here places and put $5k down on a truck. Find a carrier to lease the truck to and use their authority and insurance. You can rent a trailer from them to use until you have enough to buy your own. That would probably be the quickest and least expensive route to see if you have what it takes to make it. I would strongly encourage you to have at least $30k - $50k before you start.

Hurst

 

If your credit has recovered sufficiently and you have a down payment, you could buy a truck from Lone Mountain and lease on to a decent carrier. Work like a dog until you get it paid off and you will succeed. Being an oo is a combination of determination and willingness to work ceaselessly until success is achieved. If you possess those qualities, go for it and enjoy the benefits.

 

One of the things people don't talk about with the lease contracts is that you are paying on, but you don't own the truck. If anything happens to the company you lease from, your truck, and your payments, are GONE. How would you like to be 4 payments away from paying off your truck only to have the company close up and you get to hand over the keys? There's no equity until you get the title in YOUR NAME.

Save some money, buy a very modest truck, and go to work. There is no easy way.

 

Most truck stops have an area for those shiny slick booklet ads for hiring drivers. Look for one called Truckpaper, there is one ad for trucks with as little as $7500 down payment and about $500 a week for x amount of weeks and the truck is yours. Look for WTF trucks

 

Call Mercer in Louisville, KY, ask about the quality lease through Mercer. Good luck.

 

Or even worse, make the final lease payment and wait on the title for six more weeks and find your fuel card shut off and the carriers offices locked up like what arrow did to all those guys. Quite a few guys that thought they had paid off trucks found out the bank still had a forty thousand dollar loan on the truck.

 

F THAT. I LOVE Mercer, but getting involved with quality has got to be the worst mistake they have ever made.

And PLEASE be careful how you word things. The lease is NOT through Mercer. Mercer is just one of the thirty or so companies that quality allows you to take the truck to.