swift and the lease purchase

Just wondering, just read that you have to go through a leasing company to become an l/o. Just wondering how tough are they about credit? I was a dumb private in the military and didn't understand the importance of good credit. Still trying to pay for my mistakes. just wondering if they run my credit, will it be good enough.

 

Do the Dave Ramsey thing and get out of debt. There is weeks even as a company driver you can have some low paying weeks. As a L/O you can have weeks where you go in the red.

 

Agreed, but once it is paid (not much more to go) my credit will still be pretty low for the next few years until I can establish positive credit. Really don't want to wait the years to get it back in the 700s, so was just wondering if they would take someone with less than stellar credit. (apartment lease will be up in 9 months at which point I'll probably go ahead and go l/o).

 

Many L/O's seem to already be in dire straights before leasing. If you fail they move on to the next guy.

I am shooting for a "0" credit rating. Credit cards are stupid. You can get a mortgage without having a credit card.

 

Debt is dumb, cash is king.

 

He is both right and wrong. You just have to pick what you take for mt miles. Offer me a 2200 mile load and there is 10% dh, I will jump on it. Offer me a short load that lets say has 15-20% mt on it, lets say 60-70 mt, and 300 ldd, and they back it up with a long one with no me, I will jump on it. You have to weigh everything out. Now lets say over me 100% mt, like 250 mt or 125 mt and 250 ldd, pound salt. I look at weight and where it is going. If I am South and staying on flat ground, I will take a heavy. If I am going up into the mountains, I will stay light as much as possible.

 

There is no "formula", you have to look at ALL the factors before you commit to a load.

If I have a choice between a heavy load and a light load I'll take the light load providing it does what I need it to. That said I RARELY turn down a load just because of weight. My current load is 40,000 lbs, going from eastern Nebraska to south/central Calif. So far (I in Denver at the moment) I've only managed 6.7 MPG PLUS I paid to weigh it. My MPG is only gonna get worse before it gets better. I THINK I'll end up getting 7 MPG by the time I get to Calif. You can make money on heavy loads providing you do not take them all the time. If you turn down EVERY heavy load you see you'll P I S S off a lot of planners and sit A LOT!

Deadhead/MT miles only pay $.81 per mile with NO FSC. If you get around 8 MPG MT and fuel is $4.00 per gallon that's $.50 JUST TO MOVE THE TRUCK. Add in maintaince, going over 11,000 miles a month (IEL clips you $.09 a mile over 11,000 miles a month...and all miles count) and you can see why DH/MT miles are to be avoided. I routinely use " Too many MT miles" are my reason for turning down loads. My current load paid 123 MT miles/1471 loaded. I'll go over 10% if I want the load bad enough.

 

Actually, there is a formula.
It is just very complex because, as you say, you have to look at all the factors.

You may not use a plug-in set of equations to decide if you want to take a load, but all those factors are turning over in your mind to make that decision.

I don't know if any of us are smart enough to accurately formulate the actual equation that takes all factors into account.

It is as much book learning as it is intuition.
Which makes trucking as much an art as a science.

 

If you have a 6-8 month emergency fund you could try leasing.

 

If I had a 6-8 month emergency fund I could have used it as a down payment and bought a truck.