THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE - DFO gets a truck and hops on Schneider's IC Choice Program

Thanks, how about coupling back up to the trailer? Do I do it with the suspension raised or dumped?

As it was explained to me yesterday we are paying the monthly fee for the EZPass device. Schneider covers the cost of the tolls that we are allowed to run, just like the company drivers. We are just paying the fee for the device. So lets say I ran the WV Turnpike 8 times one month, and once the next month. I pay the same bill each month. Schneider pays for the tolls.

Of course the same tolls that SNI won't cover as a company driver they won't cover as an IC, like the OH/IN turnpike, Florida, and one other that I'm forgetting at the moment.

 

Today was a really short day. Drove down to the OC and we had a class about the tax services that will be provided to us for free for the first 6 months.

After that, grabbed some lunch, for 5.25 it was worth it, good food today as well.

Then after lunch I took my truck down to the tire shop for a free alignment check. SFI provided all the drivers purchasing used trucks with a coupon for a free alignment check. It took all of 10 minutes, if even, to get it done. Everything looked good and I can feel comfortable knowing I won't chew up my new steer tires. In the event that the alignment was off, SFI would cover the cost of having it corrected.

So, time to share some numbers.

My truck is a 2011 Freightliner Cascadia with a 450HP Cummins ISX, 13spd transmission and a diesel TriPac APU. The tractor has just over 319,000 miles with a 500k mile warranty on the engine and transmission and 750k miles on the rear ends.

The price of my truck is $80,000. With the addition of a few fees (administration, HVUT, etc.) and catastrophic repair and deficiency waiver amounts financed the total comes to $80,829.

My weekly truck payment is $684.94 for the above financed amount on the 52-week lease.

My non-optional maintenance account contribution is $220.06, bringing us up to $905.

Required Insurance weekly payments:
Physical damage insurance payment is $57.84
Bobtail insurance is $8.05
Occupational is $35.45

Optional insurance payments (can be added or removed at all times, currently I decided to have them all along with the $5000 personal property coverage)
Bodily Injury/Property Damage is $3.95
Cargo buyback is $1.58
Physical Damage buyback is $4.46
Loan gap is $6.21
$5000 personal property is $3.21

So total weekly insurance costs are $120.75

That brings us up to $1025/week for the truck payment, maintenance account and insurance.

If at the end of the 52 week lease period I choose to purchase my truck, the residual value of the truck will be $52,000.

Considering the base weekly payment of the truck is $646.17, multiplying that by 52 comes to $33,600.84. If, hypothetically, every single cent of that base truck payment went into paying off the truck, I would still owe $46,399.16 at the end of the 52 week lease.

Honestly comparing that to the $52,000 residual isn't a HUGE difference. Considering I have the option to turn this truck back in and never worry about it again at the end of the lease period, in my personal opinion I feel that I am not just "throwing away money" at a straight up lease, I am actually making real progress towards owning this truck.

Other weekly payments I know I haven't added are plates and the EZPass payment. After I figure out with complete certainty what those costs are I will share them.

SFI also included some nice coupons that I can redeem in the future at Dedicated Fleet Services up here in Appleton, WI.

I have a coupon for a free PM that I can have performed up here in Wisconsin that includes engine oil, oil/fuel filters, oil sampling, ECM printout, greasing of the chassis, and an inspection.

I also have one for a free quarterly DOT inspection.

Lastly I have another for a $199 DPF cleaning, a $449 steer axle brake job including shoes, spring kits, drums, and steer tire rotation, and a $799 drive axle brake job including shoes, spring kits, drums, and drive tire rotation. Honestly brake jobs are pretty easy but considering I no longer have access to all the monster impact guns and torque wrench and the convenience of working at a shop I will probably be using these LOL. All of those coupon prices include labor.

At this shop the general labor rate for us is $65/hour which honestly is very good.

Tomorrow I should get a call letting me know I my new fuel card is activated and then will go fuel up and scale. I drove the truck around a bit more today and have been sitting it it for a few hours this afternoon staying nice and comfortable with the APU, all seems to be working great. Tomorrow I will probably go over the truck extremely closely one more time as any problems I catch before I leave will be covered by Schneider.

One more thing I should add is that during the first 30 days of my lease term, if any additional issues that show up on the tractor itself on parts that are necessary for the operation of the vehicle (i.e. not the APU) that are not covered under my tractors warranty, SFI will cover 50% of the cost. That's the easiest way I could put it without trying to type out the full page of fine print, lol. So, I'm assuming that lets say I had a issue with the headlight wiring that popped up within the first 30 days, me and SFI would split that 50/50.

My above calculations and #s are probably not 100% accurate, so take them for what they are worth. Math was not exactly my strong suit, lol.

 

On the Choice program we are paid a percentage (think its 65%) of the load.

The mileage program is obviously paid by the mile.

Choice is only available for solo drivers, mileage can be solo or teams.

No idea how pay works for the mileage IC's running teams.

Something interesting I did hear today is that they are starting a pilot Choice program out of Indy for teams, but I don't know anything more about it.