West Coast Choice Program starting up

Re Kindling an old thread. After coming back and hauling chips for 3 years or so, I'm looking at my long haul options. I worked for Swift in 06 in their Walmart Grandview division, and liked it and my treatment overall. Seemed like at the core there were actually a lot of professionals... I guess the image and the trainee problems overshadow.
Talked to Schneider about choice again, they quoted me 2 trucks at that time. Said they'd like to have me back on Choice. But I'm told by a friend that the rates have dropped and its not so great anymore.
The two trucks were a 2014 T680 with 184,000 miles (98,000$),a 3000$ down and a somewhat smaller baloon payment after 63 weeks of lease than the frieghtliner which was :
2015 freightshaker evo with 173,900miles, 91 week lease (about a year and 3/4(payment: 775.00 + 189 maintainance account).... baloon pay 58k$. (don't remember the total, but this was their ZERO down option.

The T680 is what I want. But recently I've heard that the 2018 Cascadias have a much larger living space in them than the old ones. Despite the smaller balloon payment on the KW, Neither of these are good options to me.
Ok, Its very useful that I documented my previous time with Choice here, and the fact I put some numbers in place and shared my experiences helps as well, because my computer crashed and took some of my documents with it.

The last day I was with Choice, I had gone home and parked and cleaned out the truck, but I was thinking I might do another several trips, so I didn't end it until after a week... big mistake.
Once done, (Grandpa Died but I'd already spoken up for a local job and said I'd take it) I got a little info, but my paychecks pretty much zerod themselves out.
The day I ended it, all of my access to all of my online paystubs and documents in Schneiders system STOPPED. I hadn't saved all of them I think, so when I called and complained and said I needed that stuff they said, sorry, maybe you can get someone in your dispatch to print them for you, sometimes they will do that. I didn't want to put those good people who had helped me so much every day through that, and said F$T& It.
After repeated calls to Brian Culp at Schneider Finance he finally stopped taking my calls. I was asking about the 5-7k in my maintenance account.
Eventually I got a large profit loss statement from Schneider and It seemed I had netted about 20k.

Finally this year, after being re-accepted into Choice again pending my getting a truck, after talking to ATBS and the Finance guy in Arizona, I watched a video where a guy (who was on Choice about the same time I was) said he had just gotten a bill with a demand letter like 5 years down the road. Never heard a thing til then. After consulting with his attorney they determined that Wisconsin didn't have to immediately bill him.
I asked the Schneider Finance about this and he said he checked that first. They said they let me slide a bit on a few things and used the last 5k of the maintenance fund to zero out my account (an early termination fee on the lease) So I owed zero.
But he really tried to put the pins to me, how do I know you are going to finish the lease this time if I lease to you.... etc. Schneider is busy saying yes, come work, he's saying are you SURE you are going to be able to make that 1300$ a week payment?

My answer is NO. I will not submit to that kind of pressure when there are many trucks out there, large fleets are shedding them every year in various states of disrepair or repair.
The 2014 that they want to sell me goes for about 70K. Found one from a third party in Wisconsin, a beautiful burgundy with a 500 and an 18 speed for 69K.
So... 98K for a truck that an owner op lease person already paid a significant amount towards. With 189k miles on it, that means it was leased twice already probably or once and the guy bailed finally.

If the truck originally cost $160,000 which is possible because Schneider gets deals but still orders premium specs, that means that the payments of the previous lease holder have probably been applied and they've had to account for depreciation and wear and tear as well. It probably is an accurate or semi-accurate amount in terms of the correct TRUE value of the truck in Schneider's eyes, but as far as market value, they are overpricing it by 28K$. This means that you start out upside down as far as value on the truck (to start with). It also means that those payments are going to still be up there.
My wish to start with Choice would be a truck sourced from a third party, insurance purchased through a third party. Lower truck payments are the only hope to get ahead. I know people who have made it over and over again, but they were running where freight is worth more I guess.
I was told recently that longer hauls are getting more and more difficult to find as the large companies are putting DC's closer and closer together.
Amazon is putting in a major one in Troutdale just outside of Portland, Or. as I type this.
I may end up as a lease operator in the near future, but right now company driver is where its at for me.
Swift has offered me my full experience with a max on short runs of .63 cents a mile and .47 on long ones. That will get us where we need to be until we decide to go lease again.
An interesting note, as before when I worked for Swift, the people have been totally professional. I'm hearing that Knight basically has control now that the merger happened and they are leaning things down and people who basically knew they couldn't make the cut have been jumping ship like flies. The terminal Staff in Portland has been (at the managment level) very good, and seems to contain a lot of experienced people.
We'll see where this road takes us... but at least with no home bills, I should finally start digging myself out financially.