Want to avoid getting burned by a lease-purchase agreement?

If you can afford to buy a truck outright that would be the way to go. Every dime you save not making a truck payment goes straight to your bottom line. I would look at a used truck to save the FET.

 

In my 40 yrs in the work force I was self employed for the better part of 25 yrs. The other 15 yrs were to get back to being self employed after having failed at business a time or two. What most dont realize is the work, the innate business sense, self discipline and self motivation it takes to run a business and be successful at it. The majority of people I have meant or hired in my lifetime we're not cut out to own a business which a l/o - o/o is. 90% of people are satisfied with drawing a check every week. For others there is a challenge in making a business profitable and a certain satisfaction that comes with that regardless of the risk. No matter if you are a company driver or lease operator there is a level of risk vs reward that we all have to realize. Some are just more willing to take bigger risk and with that accept the prospect of a harder fall if they fail..I would venture to say that beyond bad lease contracts most failures are due to ignorance and that is not meant to be a put down but the two most common reasons people fail in business are lack of capital and lack of knowledge. A 3 day orientation class on a lease is not going to educate you on being self employed and running a day to day business. Now that is setting someone up for failure.

 

You mind me asking who you are leased onto?

Right on!!!

Who are you leased with?

 

Cubby that's the real issue. You're getting the miles. The challenge is making money when you don't get those kind of miles. Since I can put at least some money in the bank with 7000 a month imagine what I do when I get 8000 or 9000. Once the truck is in my name and I move on I should be making even more. The secret is learning to control personal and business expenses. I have an apu so I bought a small fridge. Saves a fortune on what I was paying for ice and I've cut the food expense way down. Tonight will be meat, potatoes, dinner roll and dessert of my choice for about a third of what a truck stop would cost.

 

sometimes thats the only way someone can get a truck

 

they turn tukers into suckers thats all those lease programs do based on these facts....new drivers don't really know the industry so they are taken advantage of, they all want a truck thats not governed down to 65mphs, they want a Pete that is spec'd out for a fleet not for an owner op. These companies should be ashamed of themselves for rippin' good drivers off...its like making a deal with the Devil..Your never gonna win. One reason alone you should no that no company pays actual miles in the first place. So rite of the bat they are stealling from you..How this is even allowed is a mystery...Where is OOIDA on that subject alone..You dont get paid for what you do to start, then you have all these others extorting money from you all kinds of ways from lumper fee's to to this idling law... I can't run my truck when its cold outside but if I have an animal in the truck it can run... I don't get it. OOIDA has been taking money for a while. Its time for them to step up their game! If they are going to represent the driver than they got to make alot more noise then they are!! They are no different then these companies out here just taking money from hard working drivers!!

Preacher Man, I like how you just turn the other cheek so to speak but we shouldn't have to do all the things that you do to make money..Apu's cost $11,000, that could be going to keep the truck rolling, or home to the family. You can go in the truck stop and eat. That is what they are there for. I can see snacking but not everyone can do what your doing..The stealling must stop!!! Take a stand not a detour!!!

Cubby, if your happy with 48 grand and a shinny new pete to brag about then I'm happy for you with all that you sacrificed but overlook by saying you drvie a brand new pete...Thats like wearing the masters old clothes. I mean no disrespect but imagine if you got paid for what you did.

 

I'm running a business. Part of running a business is controlling costs. If I can save thousands by slowing down to save on fuel that's what I'm going to do. If I can recover my cost on an apu by reducing idling, then that's another way to control cost. I saved a fortune in food cost alone just by using a Burton oven and a cooler and that was when I was a company driver. You can cook an entree in about an hour.

I care about the company I pull freight for about as much as they care about me. If they want me to deliver a garbage load there needs to be a load at the other end that makes up for the short haul. I'm not "turning the other cheek," I'm making sacrifices now to gain a long term reward.

Not everyone should own their own truck. When you own your own truck you are no longer a truck driver you are a small business owner. With this change comes a whole new look at business and trucking. I'm sorry but when I can have a nice meal that only cost me a couple of dollars or spend ten bucks or more to eat in a truck stop it's a no brainer decision. If you spend twenty days a month on the road that works out to $160.00 a month or $1960.00 a year and that's just one meal. When it comes tax time I get a per diem of $59.00 a day whether I spend $6.00 or $60.00 a day on food. Most people who start a business fail and that is across all industries. Poor management and insufficient capitol are the two leading reasons. That is why I and others constantly say not everyone should be an owner/operator. If a company is trying to force or coerce you into becoming an owner/operator and especially leasing a truck from them red flags should be waving in your face all over the place.

As for how you are getting paid, it's true almost no one is paid dock to dock hub miles. Most of us are paid zip code to zip code. Try it and see how close you come to what you are being paid. Just put in the start city name and the destination city name. It will usually come within ten miles.

 

Its an escape route for companies who lease their trucks to drivers.. they feed them a line of BS..How they will feel like an independent but the bottom line is the poor driver will never own that truck unless there is a balloon payment on the end and then they have to get financing for it or turn it in and do another lease.. those trucks companies lease have had how many other drivers try to make it and fail...they are almost making double their money back in inflated payments and other hidden cost they dont tell drivers. bottom line is for the company that leases trucks and has a fixed payment say like prime of over $700 a week for a new freightliner do the math on it just figure $700 x 208 weeks is $134,400 just in truck payments for 4 yrs. thats not counting fuel, maint, plates,permits,insurance,2290,workers comp, and any health insurance, any violations,...so is leasing a truck a good idea...not really is owning your own truck a better one well yes because it cuts your payment down instead of pumping out $2800 a month but you still have the fixed costs but atleast you own the truck and when its paid you get the title not the company .... its to each his own but if i didnt own my own truck i would rather drive for a company until i saved up the cash to buy my own truck.. JMO

 

I'm sorry Preacherman for for not looking at the time you have spent on the road. That makes a difference, you never expierence a time when deisel was reasonable and freight rates matched the work that was produced. I understand that you want to show how savy you have become as an owner op but again I say in my eyes that is turning the other cheek. There Is nothing to pulling freight and eating something that taste like cardboard every night but do that for ten or twwenty years and ask your artteries how they are doin. If you keep coming up with these excuses for thinking your not getting screwed then as they say, you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink is true with you

 

I love trucking. I come from the Harold Ive's no nonsense whip and ride crew of a thousand miles over night gaurenteed ontime delivery, The Landstar Inway JIT freight days when deisel was $1 a gallon and we still had to fight for a decent freight rate. It might be true about some drivers being owner ops but there ought to be some sort of regulation on these lease programs, that turn drivers into fools. Isn't this like a three card molly hustle.