Wanting to go Lease Op

Why don't you just tell your company you need more time on the loads? Any half way decent dispatcher will understand. Who do you drive for BTW?

 

There's nothing brilliant about it. Every accident one of their trucks gets into is a potential multimillion Dollar lawsuit against the company. Every OOS violation is a strike against the company.

 

Just a bit of advice: as temping as it is, never, ever give a reason for quitting. Giving a reason for quitting will never help you and will only hurt you.

They will ask. It will never do you any good to tell them. And it's very unlikely that it would do them any good.

And never let them talk you into staying after you decide to quit. Just walk away, after your two week notice of course, or whenever they want you to bring their truck back within that two weeks.

 

If you haven't ever been in business, don't even consider a lease purchase program. Most people don't make it to the end of the lease, lose the truck and ruin their credit. My advice is to switch companies to, say a dry van company like Crete or Heartland. You may want to try flat bed also like Boyd, TMC or Melton. I did the refrigerated thing for a year and hated it. I am now an owner-operator with my own flat bed and love it. The hours are much better and you aren't nearly as "rushed".

If you are determined to stay with your current company, take charge of the truck. You are the captain of the ship and you drive when you are comfortable with driving, at the speed you want to drive. Dispatch can make a lot of noise, but it isn't their license and lively hood on the line. If they keep harassing you, keep a log of all their threats and contact OOIDA. If they keep bugging you over the Qualcom, silence it and reply, courteously at your leisure. Don't let them run you ragged.

Be aware that if you lease purchase, they still "own" you. You pay the truck mortgage, pay the fuel, pay the insurance, but can't leave at your will. You can turn down a load, but then they get you back by not dispatching you. You will be broke with no where to go. You will be much better off by switching companies.

 

Giving a reason for quitting normally results only in anger toward you, which helps no one. It won't normally result in an employer changing its ways or anything else positive. They might change their ways if word gets around that nobody wants to work for them, but it will never help you for them to know who specifically has a problem with them.

And don't fall for the "just tell me why unofficially" line. If they really wanted constructive criticism they would have asked for it before you quit.

 

That sounds like me. Not that I'm a stickler for legality, but I don't want to run myself ragged week after week. Now, I run hard when I feel like it, take it easy when I feel like it, go home when I feel like it, etc. I don't make as much money as I could make running hard every week all the time, but life is too short to spend it running yourself ragged all the time.

I would point out that being your own dispatcher isn't a walk in the park, though. It takes a significant amount of time and effort, especially at first, until you get a good idea of freight patterns, good and bad areas, etc. But it's well worth it in my book, as long as you start out financially sound so that a couple bad weeks wouldn't be a problem.