The Hunt for an Ok Lease Program

So I figured I would keep you guys uptodate on my hunt for an okay lease program, and solicit your feedback as I go. Basically I went the age old method of stopping by the Pilot and grabbing some of the 90 magazines featuring adverts.

Husband has decided he wants to do O/O again, he has the experience with it. He wants to team again. And he wants off Schneider. I'd prefer to stay home but I miss driving enough that I am like sure whatever we can team for a few more years. Home will still be here right?

So our plan is now to find a lease purchase program we can live with, lease the truck till we own it, and then decide what to do from there. On the shortlist of considered lease purchase companies:

JCT - They were looking okay until we got informed we wouldn't get to pick the kinda truck we'd be leasing. That turned me off immediately. If I am going to be paying for it I darn sure am going to pick it.

Centeral - Looking at the W900 lease, pays a little iffy but they seem like a solid company.

High Country - Smaller, does flatbed and pnematics husband loves pneumatics. Won't hire a team, but I could be a rider. Nice trucks, nice small company, very good lease program.

CR england - Mostly for ##### and giggles contacted them to discuss their truck lease, can't get a straight answer out of any of them, asked for a copy of their lease contract. See if it ever comes or not eh?

Freymiller - This is the one we are most leaning toward, very nice lease program and the trucks are excellent, O/O package is okay, they do teams, take pets, and they aren't running insane miles on their team trucks.

The important things to us are that the breakeven is manageable and we make at least 700 bring home at the end of the week. We need 2000 a month for our house bills (that includes mortgage, elecric, water, etc), and 400-500 a month for otr expenses (food, and misc).

From what I am being told at Freymiller, we are looking at around 600 a week truck payment. Still working out all the numbers but it looks pretty good at the moment.

 

I'm assuming that your husband has already looked at and decided against leasing on with Schneider. If he isn't against pulling a reefer, Hill Bros out of Omaha, Nebraska might be worth considering. I've leased a truck with them since June of 08 and am clearing considerably more than 700 per week after all truck expenses. I was sent a copy of the contract on request before I made my decision. There is a link in my profile to my blog, which includes quarterly posts covering my revenue and expenses. I looked at many L/P opportunities before I started, as you did. I dropped JCT from consideration for the same reason, lol. Good luck, Jim

 

Well at first it wasn't an option with Schneider for two reasons one, we'd prefer to team (and I hate Schneider), and two their trucks are not that great. If we are going to be paying and working our tails off, and we will if its our truck, we want to know we are HAPPY with the truck itself.

Neither of us wants an automatic, now myself, I'd be happy with a short nose of certain kinds. (Pete, Ken, or a nice Lonestar heh), but we'd be MORE happy with a long nose. And we are aware it will cut into our profits a little bit, I've tried talking him into a 387 instead, but push to shove, the long noses CAN be put into the 6-7 mpg catagory with a little intelligent driving, and some small modifications.

And we are trying to get on with Freymiller because the truck their lease is for is one of the nicest I have seen for the least cost per week. On top of this they have okay references, their pay package is acceptable, and they run reefers, which I am told is a good gig to get into right now.

But today my hubby told me that Schneider's team divioson has tiers that would help us with our issue of not wanting to roll 24/7. Now I am twitching at that information because up till this point my stance on Schneider is bad, I don't like them, they tried to screwed me 1.5 years ago. I hate their rules, I hate their ugly trucks, and I hate the fact my hubby was supposed to be home weekends and most nights and isn't.

But... I do like money. And their team tiers allow us to chose a MPD rate we are comfortable with, rather then shove us into a situation where we are forced to drive 24/7 at their beck and call. My god people I am actually suddenly considering the Pumpkin outfit shoot me please. I have never been so conflicted in my life.

 

Well, SNI's lease program gives you many trucks to choose from. Or it used to. No orange! (unless you really like orange.)

Also, as slow as things have been out here, they might not be a bad choice. There may be a little bit of job security with them.

I ran team with them 4 years ago, and they treated us well.

 

Ah but then we would be back at square one because the original issue with Schneider was with my Service Dog, and I still have a service dog. They hate pets, even if they are legally required animals that provide a service medically for their owners. And even if that would be illegal to have a problem with.

Schneider's lease program has many trucks but no long noses too. Eh... we shall see. I am considering riding with my husband for a week to see if I could stand Schneider.

 

Just be careful with Freymiller. They have filed bankruptcy a few times since I have been driving and left their drivers high and dry. Things could have changed, Good Luck...

 

Yeah, Freymiller has filed bankruptcy a few times over the years. And last time I checked, they were only paying O/O's .90 a mile. Unless that has changed.

Have you thought about buying a truck on your own, and then leasing it to whomever you want? That way you're not tied to one company, and I'll bet you could get more truck for the money, by buying it yourself from a dealer, VS leasing it from a carrier. Plus most of the trucks carriers try to push for lease /purchase are old company trucks that they took out of service for whatever reason. If they're not good enough for the company drivers, why would they be good enough for an O/O?

 

Ok I just gotta ask. Why do you have a service dog?

 

No nice way to say it, so I will put it bluntly. It is none of your business why I do. You are not my employer. Now had Schneider asked that, they would have been clearly within their rights and I would have happily provided the information from my doctor stating why the dog was needed, what the dog was for, and that the issue would not interfere with my ability to drive a truck and was not barred by any known rules for truckers. But we never got to that point. There was no legal ground, since undue hardship could not be proven and reasonable accommodation would of simply been allowing the dog. There was no special modifications needed in anyway that would have cost $. And now, as far as I am concerned, if they would skirt the law in one instance they will do it again. And since they have proven to be untrustworthy liars, I cannot knowingly work for a company I can not trust and whom I feel will screw someone the moment an issue presents itself.

Bankruptcy makes me leery hmmm, I would love to just buy my own truck, then we COULD jump right on landstar, but sadly, there are credit issues to be noted. I suppose I will have to make some more calls today.

 

A few years ago there was a really cool process you could go through to get your pet ordained a service dog. This would give loving owners a lot more flexibility to take thier dogs places they wouldn't normally be allowed and be within their rights. So they expanded it to include things like cat allergies where the dog would theoretically repel cats from the area, stuff like that.

Anyway, after word got out a bit, especially with places that ban pets and came across this more and more, it's being challenged more and more. Hard to say who's full of it anymore. So yeah now you paid to get a service dog, but they also know they couldn't survive the scrutiny of a legal challenge, so most people just let it go when their service pet is banned.

I'm not saying this is what you did, just saying why they might not care.