Thinking about leasing a truck

Don't lease from the company you work for, they will act like they own the truck Sorry to inform you but they DO OWN IT, you are paying for the opportunity to USE IT and hopefully you make a bit more $ than if you just drove it for them.

 

When leasing a truck you really need to have the right mentality coming in the door. You're going from a company driver, where all the decisions (maintenance, fuel stops, and routing) are generally made for you to a business owner that has to worry about everything involved in running a truck.

It is true that the company owns the truck, but as a lease op you have certain rights that company drivers don't. I don't work for Swift ... yet, but another company that I did work for had very strict rules governing just parking the truck during time off. As a lease op you didn't have to deal with that and could bring the truck home, or take time off where you wanted to.

I have friends that have leased and all of them have had different results. The one that I know that is very successful both works like a madman and trains. He is never home, and when he does take time off it's for a day or two at most no matter how long he's been out. The others that failed a leasing tried to continue working like a company driver. Leasing will simply bleed you dry if you have that sort of plan.

I guess what I am saying is if you want to lease make sure that you know what your getting into ... you are going to be going from a job to running a business, and not a business that was your brain-child, but more like a restrictive franchise. I wish you the best of luck. You can make it work, but you'll bleed along the way. If you're okay with that and understand all of what it means then go for it.

Just my 2 cents.

 

I have a couple friends leasing who are very successful at it, even without working every day of the year. One of them leased a brand new truck and is on track to pay it off within this year.

But I hear a whole lot more stories of drivers failing at it. Our scottied was very excited about leasing a few months ago, now he's obviously changed his mind. This is the more common story. Be very careful and think long and hard about every angle before signing anything. It's a whole lot easier to be successful as a company driver. Sure, you give up a few perks. Are they that big a deal? Is it that important to fuel whereever you want? Have an inverter? A dog? Those things get really unimportant when you're facing financial ruin. So think about it. A lot.

On other thing I always share with people who are thinking about buying/leasing a truck. My mom works for H&R Block doing taxes, so she sees everybody's income. She has never seen a company driver make less than a O/O or L/O. It is always the other way around.

 

So very very true.

I bought a truck / trailer from a O/O going bankrupt a few months back

Hired him to drive it , he is all 's actually making $. He is a great driver but was a very POOR $ manager.

 

Thanks for your honesty Scottied.

Too many people try to paint a pretty picture of something that is clearly a one-sided deal, in favor of the company.

 

An inverter is pretty #### important I must say. lol. Anyway, I've heard it several times that the people with the best chance to make it on one of these is a single person with no commitments at home. Well that's me but that doesn't mean I want to have to drive days on end with no end in sight either. If I were to do this I would save up the five grand or whatever for a down payment on a truck and sign it on with swift.

 

If I were to do it, I would save up enough to buy the truck outright. Why have a payment at all? If you can't handle money well enough to save, how are you going to manage a business?

 

It's really not about the payment nor is it about saving as I said I would save the down. To save for the entire amount, well lets just say id like to do this before I'm 50. You never had a car payment? actually that isn't even a good analogy, its more like a car and a house rolled into one so to actually have some kind of payment is not unreasonable.

I just don't want to pay rent to the company I'm already working for.

 

I wasn't trying to slam you personally, AZS, I apologize if it came across that way. I personally do not like being in debt- I'm too proud to owe anyone anything. I did once have a car payment. I signed the loan in a moment of insanity and paid it off ASAP. I don't ever want to feel that way again. It shames me.

As for becoming an O/O before 50, well, I actually intend to be a millionaire by 50 at which time I won't need to work anymore anyway, so it's a moot point for me

 

Oh so that's how you were going to pay for it! Now it all makes sense. Oh you said you aren't going to work then, maybe you can pay for mine? lol I guess I view debt as a necessary evil but your view is far better for you obviously. If you can swing it.