My Experience with CR England so far......

In your opinion, Corneileous - what made the Solo Lease so stressful? I am currently thinking of Solo Lease for the first three months, or so (in order to learn my truck, my skills, etc.). Your information would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Until Corneileous answers, I'll give my own answer if you don't mind - I was a solo lease with England in '09.

I can't say I was really stressed by it (in terms of a constant state of stress) since it takes a lot to get me stressed. But it was really difficult, and here's why:

If you're new to driving, there's a heck of a lot more to it than you'll ever learn in a fast-paced school and then 90 days with trainers who may or may not know their ##### from a hole in the ground.

So you get out on your own and you're still learning a lot of the basic, elemental side of just being a driver. Throw a lease on top of that, and now you also have to learn the ins-and-outs of the business side of driving (which I can almost guarantee that your phase 2 trainer knew almost nothing about). Any mistakes you make, including simple mistakes like not maximizing your hours or fuel mileage now come out of your pay check.

Keep in mind that I wouldn't advise against a lease with England - but I do advise anyone to keep in mind that England did not structure that lease with your best interest at heart. You can make money at it and you can make more than company drivers. But you can also get run into the ground.

If you decide to go that route, get all the education/insight you can before you go - and once you go, keep actively seeking knowledge from other drivers - even in your free time at school. Obviously, don't believe everything you hear and don't get sucked into all the negativity. The people there or anywhere else who like to whine and complain are the ones who are outspoken. The successful ones are harder to find because they avoid the whole scene. Seek them out and ask for actual knowledge, not just opinions.

It is difficult and it can be stressful at times. But nothing interesting or worthwhile is easy.

 

If you are going to lease then plan on buying the truck in the end. Why go through all that hassle without something to show for it in the end.

I did a 17 month lease, after that I put $7200 down on it and bought it. Now 58 weeks later my truck is finally paid off.

Like the previous poster said, ask questions and the more information you have the better chances you might be successful.

 

Depending on what you call overstressed, your opinion on too much stress might be totally different. Also, your driving style and how much of a workaholic your are will play a huge part in it as well. I mean, if you like and are capable of running a prolonged 3000-3200 miles a week by yourself then obviously you won't feel as stressed. When it comes to solo leasing, you can't afford to screw around unless you had a healthy savings account to dip into. Also, takin just a simple four-day hometime will be hard to recover from since depending on what kind of lease your going with, your gonna have about 700-800 bucks owed every week for your fixed expenses. These include truck payment, truck/cargo insurance, fuel permit, fuel taxes, etc.

Also, it takes a lot longer to gather up award points as well since a good portion of that is dependant on how many miles you run. Award points help with earning incentives as you progress in your lease like, cheaper cpm on variable mileage and free tax estimates from Equinox, things like that.

 

I'm not sure what the Phase 1,2 training is like these days but when we were in it, we had a good trainer. The guy had 2.5 years experience, a lot better than what appears to be the norm these days. But bad trainers need to be pointed out with reasonable flaws.

I wouldn't say CRE didn't structure the lease program on the best interests of the driver so to speak, more less that they are a large company and aren't gonna pay the same as a smaller company that has a higher need for drivers. Plus, its kinda hard to expect decent pay from a company that mostly caters to new drivers which isn't necessarily a bad thing considering most of the good companies that pay good money don't take new drivers, much less those that have less than two years experience.

Very well said.

Exactly. Granted, I only "leased by my self" for 6 weeks and even though it was not something I would care to do for an extended amount of time, I still made money. I had to work my arse off for it, but I did it.

 

You know, at one point, my wife and I considered buying this truck at the end of our lease but we were told, not sure if this is true or not, but they supposedly would be asking way more than what the truck is worth.... Especially that since we have teamed in this truck and by the time our lease is up, this truck will have close to 600k on the odometer. Besides, only a handful of things are still covered under the original manufacturers warranty and that's only good to I believe, 450k or 500k. Plus, if we were gonna buy a truck, it would be speced out to o/o specs and this truck certainly is not. The only thing really that sets this truck apart from a company truck is that it has a painted-to-matched bumper and chrome-sided mirrors. Other than that, there ain't much difference.

 

My truck finally seemed to be broken in once I got to 500K. Right now it has 630K and is fully paid off. No major repairs in a long time, knock on wood.

 

CRE has some good trainers, but (like anywhere) they also have #### trainers. My phase 1 was a nightmare and I swear I drove better than he did. But I kept others from my class and some were perfectly happy with their trainer in P1. My attitude at the time was just to drive my way through the training and put it behind me.

As to P2 - again, there are good and bad anywhere. But in terms of experience for P2 trainers - mine had no more experience than I did except that he had completed his own P2 and leased a truck. I think he may have soloed for a week or two before picking me up. And this is not to bash him... the guy seemed to be a good driver and an ok person. But England tells you that one of the main purposes of P2 is to learn the business side of driving - and it's difficult to do that when your trainer doesn't know any more than you do about that side.

From my own experience, I was pulled out of P2 early to upgrade in Burns Harbor and was made a trainer. So experience doesn't always come with the trainer. I never picked up a student because the only thing I could've contributed would have been something like, "yeah... uh... I think the one on the right is the clutch. No, wait! Maybe the one on the left... just try it and see what happens."

lol

Back to the original question, though, and I think it's the general consensus here (correct me if I'm wrong) - a solo lease can be done successfully, but as mentioned, it's a lot of work and learning quickly. However, any lease (or just driving in general) should be a lot of work if you plan to learn your profession and be successful.

Trainers are hit or miss - you might get a great one, you might not. But your attitude and effort is all your own.

 

Yes. A man's got to know his limitations. Many don't.

 

Regarding leasing, remember to read the print. All of it. A friend of mine leased a new Ford pickup a couple of years ago and didn't read the print about the 25 cents per mile charge over some amount. He was just so excited to have a new vehicle. Well, he drove his pickup hither and yon and everywhere in between and when he returned it to the dealer earlier this year for a re-lease, he was mightily surprised at the very large bill he got for excess mileage.

He now hates Ford, blames the car dealer who leased it to him, and generally hates the world because of the loan he had to take out. But you know what? It was all there before he put his pen to the contract. All he had to do was read the print. All of it.

Leasing a truck is kind of like that, only in reverse. If you want to make the payments, you have to drive the truck, put many miles on it - yes, the DM has a part in this, but being willing to drive is the biggest factor - save receipts, and pay attention to the details. Do that and success will be yours. Don't do it and you, too, will be mightily surprised by the bills that come to you.