The Good, The Bad, The Honest Truth of a New Roehl Lease Operator

Correction it was the oil feed line to the egr. We thought the first one fixed it went to pick it up and noticed my turbo wasn't working, at all. And the leak was 2x worse. So hopefully the new line will fix both problems. If not it is probably the v pod again and ill be home till Monday. This sucks I wanna drive dangit

 

Anyone else catch hell and crap when they non commit on a load that doesn't make since and you feel is a bad business decision? Thought it was our decision to make

 

I'm the same way. I did them a favor taking a 63 mile load because they were overbooked. They took that as a signal that they could give me a 200 mile load, because no one else could cover it. I told them I'm out here to make money and these short runs won't cut it. Poor planning on their part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part. Oh, the best part of that 200 mile load was that I was going to have to sit for over half a day till it would be ready.

They need to get loads delivered and we have contracted with them to pull their freight. However, our first responsibility is to our business, our family and ourselves. Just as you can't take cheap freight working with brokers, you can't survive pulling short loads at fixed rates. If dispatch doesn't understand that then someone has to explain it to them. You should have seen the reaction from my dispatcher when he sent out a load that I had rejected. I ripped him a new one and he was quite contrite.

 

Preacher Man...wonder where you get the idea that with a new truck that you are putting away $1000 a week for payments? I purchased a new Volvo in May. Weekly, I put away $650 for the truck payment which is $2533 a month. In addition, I ended upside down (owing money) on my last truck that nearly put me into a financial grave. I am making a small monthly payment to the bank over the next 3 years (remaining time on original loan) that loaned me the money for my first truck. Keep in mind that I don't have the repairs like a old lease truck. Mine is under warrenty. My escrow does just fine in paying out for maintenance costs. Before anyone thinks that they cannot afford a new truck do the math. You might find that you come out ahead without all the repairs of an older truck. I know that I am doing better financially with this new truck not sitting in shops trying to get repairs in a timely manner and figuring out just where the money is going to come from to make the repairs. I can run the miles without worry of down time. I have seen my miles come up since both my FM and the planners see that I have equipment to get the job done. Been down once on the road with a repair in 6 months of ownership. A Nox sensor that ended up being a weekend down that I got a nice 34 out of the deal. It was under warrenty. Walked with no money out of pocket except for motel which is a business expense. Otherwise shop time has been just PMs. My friend, who also purchased in May, has also seen the benefits of having new equipment for just a bit more than he was shelling out for an older Roehl lease truck.

 

PS Preacher Man, I'm putting away only $170 more a week in "payment" (in savings) for my new truck payment than you are with your payment to Roehl. That is really not that much when you look at your repairs on your P&L and figure out what those repairs are costing you on a weekly basis. Food for thought

 

If you can afford a new truck, more power to you. There is more than one way to run a business, but I'm not the only one who believes the secret to success isn't how much you make, but how much you keep. Since I first got in this truck the only repair that killed me was the radiator, other than that either the maintenance account has covered it or I've just paid for it out of pocket. In my case $170 a week would almost allow my wife to quit her job. Keep in mind that works out to $720 a month or $8740.00 a year. That is more than all the repairs, routine maintenance and misc. parts such as lights that I have spent on both the truck and apu since I started my lease. What I didn't list were what repairs were done, but I can tell you that if you've had your truck more than a year you could find yourself on the hook for the same repairs I've had done. The over $500.00 repairs were the exhaust, starter and radiator. The apu was the starter and alternator.

 

I agree that there is more than one way to run a business and to the "what you keep" philosophy as Kevin Rutherford says. That is why a new truck can be the better decision for some businesses. For my business the best decision was to go new. I've paid for a lot of repair on my old truck out of pocket (take home paycheck). That is the "what you keep" pocket that I wasn't keeping. Even after owning my truck for a year I still have warrenty to cover major. Good routine maintenance can help keep one off the hook. Tax advantages are another reason at times to look to new. Each business is unique. The other advantage that I have is that if I down the line I decide to leave I can take my truck with me. I'm not starting over with a new lease. The other part of owning your own truck is you get to decide brand and creature comforts that you want. All I wanted to do was give some numbers (and dispell some financial myths) and maybe one person here might start thinking about growing and expanding their business outside of a company lease.

 

As I posted in other replies on this thread and others, a company lease was the best option open to me a year ago. There are two good reasons to go with leasing a truck from a company. Your credit has not sufficiently recovered from past problems to allow you to obtain reasonable third party financing and you or your spouse want the security of a "walk-a-way" option if things don't work out. Before looking for a truck or even deciding to go o/o I set a budget for a truck payment among other expenses. The key then was to find a truck that gave me what I was looking for and could afford. That is why I got an 09 in 2010 with 241,000 miles on it. Not new, but new enough. As for the never ending lease, my plan from the beginning has been to have a truck with low enough miles that paying off the lease left me with enough truck to continue using for several more years without the payments. What I'll save on payments in the first year after retiring the lease would almost pay for an inframe and transmission rebuild.

As far as the future, when I was a photographer I was at a business seminar where the consultant said the goal of any business owner should be to work themselves out of a job. The idea is to build a business that doesn't rely on you working the front line. In the case of trucking, the idea is to add additional trucks over time and put drivers in those trucks. My wife's concern is that we don't want Hugh, Rick and Dave driving our trucks.

One more note- Roehl has a fair lease, many other companies are a complete rip-off which is why I stayed at Roehl instead of going elsewhere. The companies that did offer an honest lease didn't offer enough to make it worth leaving and going through the hassle of switching companies.

 

You got lucky to find the truck you did in Roehl's program. If this is you business plan great. I just didn't want anyone to think that the new truck was out of their reach because the idea was in their head that it takes $1000 a week to make payments.

I originally had planned on going into Roehl's lease program to get started but it never went that way. They have one of the better programs out here. I got into my first truck with the help of a good friend who had been a O/O before and was financing a truck with his bank who bespoke for me. Bank never had seen me before. Don't think I just walked in with my good credit scores and walked out with a loan. I had my business plan in hand. I had to meet with the higher Vice President of the bank with the Vice President of the branch I was dealing with to discuss my business plan. They had reservations about a lady O/O making it. Had very little up front money (widow trying to rebuild a life). They still have my car for collateral. Well I'm still around 2.5 years later after struggling with truck that was a maintenance nightmare. Now the bank is wondering if they can refinance my loan with a lower interest rate than I presenty have with current lender.

I don't agree totally with the "work yourself out of a business" idea. Some of us like to work at our businesses. A few of us out here don't have spouses to work a second job. Gives you something to do with yourself after life hands you a situation that blows the world you knew apart into pieces. It gives you a reason why to get out of bed and continue to live.

Agreed that some have poor credit. After 25 years in a prior business, I have maintained good credit. However, do not let less than stellar credit keep you from trying. Sometimes you keed to test the water to see what you need to do to improve your scores to improve your equipment/business. I know someone who didn't have top numbers in credit scores. He didn't think he could finance a new truck. But because he had been in the lease program with Roehl for over 7 years and had shown good profits in his business all those years, is now driving a new truck. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.