Marten Transport

Well said. People spend more time looking for a way to be a smart ellick than looking for ways to help. Yes I know first hand that most L/P programs are bad, but I also know that some of the reasons givin on here why they are bad are just stupid made up railing. Here are some examples of ways you can tell whether a poster knows what he or she is talking about or just spewing hot air:

1." At the price of fuel these days it is a bad idea to become an O/O".
While this will hold true for a person in a program where they are getting a percent of the fuel surcharge, it is not true if the program passes 100% of the loads fuel S/C to you. As fuel rises so does the fuel surcharge to a point that if you know even remotely what you are doing then you won't pay much if any out of pocket for your fuel. It sounds counter intuitive but look up the math behind what I am saying here or talk to an O/O thats been doing it for a while.

2."Even if a company leases you a new truck, it will be overpriced and a worn out pile of junk by the time you pay it off".
overpriced can go either way but generally if you check with a dealer on what they charge in interest to finance a truck and look into what some of the more reputable L/P companies charge, you will find that the total for the truck can be just as cheap or even cheaper in the L/P programs...again, look it up. as for a pile of junk by the time it is paid for...well some companies have a long L/P program and for those the interest is also way high but again with a decent company you won't own any bigger pile of junk than you would after you get the bank paid if you buy one from a dealer.

3. "If you can't afford to buy a truck then you have no buisiness trying to lease one".

This is true in some cases but most don't understand or don't care what kind of a background the person looking into leasing actually has. example, I know a person that was once on this forum that had been in business since he was 18 and was always successful. At the end before he went into driving a Tornado wiped out his business and his credit. Like you he came here asking for advise and got pretty much the same thing you got here except less positive posts. Now 5 years later he has 3 trucks running and paid off and he is working on his fourth because he got lucky and a friend of his knew someone who was in the schneider choice program and got the 2 of them together.

I dislike Kevin Rutherford on sirius road dog for a lot of reasons the least of which is he also rails against L/P programs but I do recommend you spend some time listening to his show on channel 146 around 11PM CDT because he has a wealth of information on being an O/O that can help out alot and like he says all the time, do the hard work and get the numbers before you go into any agreement in buying a truck. This includes the numbers on the truck itself (IE engine size, gear ratio, MPG etc) and the numbers on whats being paid and what you are paying and learn how to use those numbers to make up mock settlements for any L/P program so you have a good idea of what you will or won't be making.

Keep your head up, it is a hard row to hoe but it can be rewarding if you see it through.