What are some good companies to lease on with?

Wow... a broad question in so few words. It has been my experience that the most satisfaction is with the carriers that are around 300 trucks or less. They usually have a robust customer base, are more regional, friendlier, and allow you to actually make a living and still have a social life at home. There are problems with the smaller carriers as well, but if managed right, they beat out all the "big boys" in just about every catagory.

Key here is..... Check out the carriers business philosophy. Never, never lease on with a carrier that has more than 10% of their business (preferably no more than 5%) with any one customer. And what customers are they? Look for a customer base that is relatively solid even in bad times. What are the standards of the carrier? They better be darn high. Take a look at the O/O trucks they have already. Any junk trucks pulling their trailers? I am not talking about age or model here... are they solid looking and well maintained. That speaks volumes about the quality of the people who own and drive them. What is the carrier's dispatch philosophy? The one I am with has a out and back dispatch policy and 80% of the trucks running today have to be preplanned with tomorrows freight before the operations people can go home tonight.

When you contact a carrier, before you get to the obvious things like rate per mile or percentage, check out their SAFESAT rating on the FMCSA website. Ask for them to fax or mail you a copy of the contract so you can review or, better yet, have a lawyer look it over. If they won't do this, then move on to the next carrier. Any carrier that is any good will also handle all the questions about them. My last carrier I was with for almost 10 years was selling, I spent nearly three months, after I narrowed my selection, to almost daily calling and asking questions of the carrier I am with now. Never once did they get frustrated with me. They were open and honest with me and after almost a year and a half with them, they didn't blow any smoke.

Good carriers and contracts are out there. Even in these tough times. There is no other way around it..... you have to do a lot of research and leg work to dig out the really good carriers. They usually won't advertise in the slick magazines.

I would highly recommend my carrier. They just won the "Best Carrier over 100 trucks to drive for" competition in the Truckload Carriers Association. Get on the TCA website and see the press release for yourself. They are not putting on units now, because of the economic situation. They want to make sure they are keeping those they have on now busy. But then, you have time since you haven't bought a truck yet. Now is the time to do all the research and be a step ahead of the game when the economy starts moving along better. Heck, you may want to do like I did.... I studied them over and asked all the nasty questions for 3 months, then I joined up as a company driver to "feel" them out, then I put a truck on with them and haven't regretted it one bit. Still averaging around 35,000 miles a quarter, home on the weekends, on the local bowling league, and usually by the house a couple of times a week. March has been one of the best months, net wise, that I have ever had.

Good Luck!

 

The good news is that if you want to stay in the Twin Cities, there are a lot of excellent carriers to lease on with as an O/O (never, never do lease purchase with anyone).

I agree with what cowpie said. Also, I would drive as a company driver with the company that you are thinking about until you have saved enough to buy your own truck. If you like the way they do business, you can buy your truck (from a dealer, not from the company) and lease on. Some owner operators only want to drive for a pure owner operator carrier, as they feel that company drivers get preferential treatment. I dunno, maybe they do at some companies, but I haven't seen that. Of course, company drivers say that O/O get better treatment, so who knows?

If you want to stay around Minneapolis, I can give you names of carriers based out of here that are good and where I know owner operators that are successful. If you don't want to stay around here, I can't help you as much.