SHORT TERM LEASES, (6 month)

Long story short. We what to go OP , Someone suggested that my wife and I rent or lease a semi instead of the financial commitment that buying entails. ***Not lease to own but a short term 3-6 month to test the waters. ***


Anyone have experience with short term leases or rentals?

recommend companies (like Penski)
Companies to stay away from ( like penski?)

 

Sounds like somebody gave you really bad advice. Renting a truck from Penske, Ryder etc to go on a 1 truck owner operator adventure is the most expensive way you could probably do it. Well, you *could* buy a used truck that looks great but needs $50,000 or more sunk into it after it leaves you stranded on the side of the road. So why do you want to be owner operators? This is a very competitive business with low margins that eats up people left and right every day.

 

You must have an established business, qualify for a lease with good credit both business and personal, and then pay through the nose plus mileage.

YOU TWO need to be in the truck for a while more, like 4 to 5 years.

 

Drive your miles. Go home. Zero headaches. Keep doing what you’re doing.

 

Even if it were possible for you to rent/lease a truck, you might lose more by renting a truck than if you purchased one and just sold it 6 months later.

The good news is, you might not need to work for somebody for 5 years before you're ready to be an owner op. If it takes you that long to be confident that you can safely get from point A to point B without cargo claims, there's no shame in that. But you're probably not going to learn anything significant about truck ownership as a company driver.

 

I disagree. You'll become more efficient and learn better routines with more time behind the wheel as a company driver. Jumping right in o/o right away or after a year or so, yeah it can be done, lots of guys do it, guaranteed they've got lots of bad routines and inefficient habits they're going to muddle thru while learning the business side too. And probably wouldn't even realize half the dumb #### they're doing that's wasted effort and lost time. Experience matters.

 

Are you making enough money now? A decision like that, with less than a year experience, and tight market.

When you fail and are trying to get reemployed, do you have anything to offer that 95% of other drivers don't?

Bad, bad, decision IMO

 

Our top team made 140k each last year,they generally work 3 weeks on ,1 off.Stay with a good company for awhile.

 

Just go ahead and rent a truck.
That way when you see how cheap rates are now you can turn that truck back in real quick and easy.

 

We wouldn’t be switching employers per say, we would just be going from company drivers to owner operators under the same authority. If we failed financially, we would go back to being W2 employees.

Maybe I’m using the wrong term When I say, owner operator, but we don’t plan on leaving Amhof. Amhof does not have a lease-purchase program and I’ve never heard of a good company lease program anyway. They have some owner operators operating at 75% and I know what they’re making even this year.

right now I’m gathering information. I know the cost to buy new and that we could have a truck in April. I know the cost to buy used with around 250,000 miles on it and some warranty left. Luckily, we’re not spring chickens and have the resources to do either of these.

Someone mentioned Short term lease/rental as an option and so I started looking into it.

I don’t make decisions like this lightly or On the spur the moment.