Your thoughts on a lease program

So I was thinking about this again today.

For a truck that ran well and was clean, doesn't matter how old, I would be willing to rent/lease a truck (not rent to own, no purchase option).

I would pay $2,500 a month, but it would have to include the following:

Plates
Bobtail Insurance
IFTA sticker ( I would pay the IFTA taxes and keep records on miles)
All maintenance and repairs

If you could make this happen, I would sign on with you ASAP. I would even be willing to pay for two months in advance.

What do you think of this? I don't care about no brand new truck, I don't need to rent anything other than what will get me down the road relatively reliably.

 

and how would you get your loads?

Self dispatch? Expect someone else to dispatch your?

How about your billing/rate cons/carrier packets?

 

This is assuming Bill did this kind of lease deal, and that I'd lease onto him.

Now I know we've talked about this, and how you think it's vastly better to have your own plates, but heck, if I can save money out of pocket for starting funds, then I'd be all for it.

It's not easy to save money, especially when I'm going to have to put down a few thousand $$$ on an apartment next week. It may be likely I won't be able to drive as an O/O or L/O until next year, unless I find a deal to where I'd not have to have $20,000 saved up.

 

careful with that thinking....

Someone else paying your baseplate and they are likely to back charge you for said plates at an expense several times actual. Plates are around $2000 annually. Depending a little on your miles driven and value of the truck. MN gives you a table based on year and GVWR. You also have to declare what your miles are each state driven in.

It is good to start with bank. I would be silly to suggest otherwise. But to do it with $20K, $40K, etc, that depends on YOUR level of comfort. I personally did it with $4000 in the bank operating cash and using F2F fuel cards.

When I went to the new company in Feb 13, I was forced to get off the fuel card teat and get on my own fuel card bank. That's a HUGE transition. Suddenly needing at least $2000 cash to cover one weeks fuel. But I did it. You'd be better off taking an OOIDA membership and using the Truckers Advantage FleetOne program and cash. or else getting your own TCH card. I now use my credit card, cash and FleetOne card. Depends on which one is going to give me the best fuel price. If it doesn't matter, the credit card gets used for the rewards points gained. You can rack up a lot of points REALLY quickly that way.

I went into March covering fuel with no issues and going into April, with almost twice the cash I started with in July. Even WITH all the maintenance I have had to spend on this truck since July.

Four things you should NOT get from the company you are getting loads from: Base Plates, IFTA, Trailer and Truck. It has to do with portability. If you decide to move to a new company someday, you are dead in the water where you are at until you have new plates on the truck from the new company. You may not be able to pull a load, but at least you'd have plates enough to get you home or to a new company.

Trailer I could possibly understand if it's a "specialty" trailer like a pneumatic, RGN or tanker. Especially if you are pulling hazmat like fuels or NH3/Propane.

 

I think you are misunderstand this "lease" thing. I wouldn't mind just straight up RENTING a truck - and if I decide to leave, then I just turn the truck in and go home. This is what I'm talking about. So of course I wouldn't own the plates. When someone rents/leases a truck from Ryder, they don't pay for the plates, or the IFTA sticker. It's just an all-inclusive price.

And Bill wouldn't be owning the truck. Read the original post in this thread.

The whole point is to not have to put anything down.

I don't know how you did it with $4,000. Surely you had to put some of that down, and then you rent hardly have a maintenance account.

And besides, with owning the truck, you have to pay for maintenance and repairs.

I'd just as soon rent a truck as if I were renting an apartment, rather than buying one as if I were buying a house, UNTIL I have enough money saved to justify buying a truck, in which I'd probably just buy brand new - and I have the same thinking with a house. I will not ever buy a house until I have the money to just buy it out right. Besides, houses don't appreciate in value anymore, right? And trucks don't anyways.

Ryder won't allow you to be their customer unless you're a corporation with established business.
Other than them, I don't know who else I could long-term rent from. Penske maybe, but I think they'd be the same as Ryder.
And since the rental is NOT by Bill, I could take the truck to any carrier I wish to if I rented from a non-carrier.

 

It is so easy to get into a lease purchase agreement with a leasing company like www.westbayleasing.com

They buy the equipment, you pay the equipment lease and at the end, you pay off a said amount and walk away with the title. Lone Mountain won't work with you on a trailer if you look there.

You have $7500 in down payment. I got a SBA Microloan to cover that for me. It's costing me $220 per month for that. With a equipment lease payment now of $1330 for the new reefer, I am still around $1500 per month equipment expense. For a new O/O, I seriously don't think you want to be anywhere over that number.


I talked with Penske about what it would get into a lease or "rental" like you are talking. It required three years of being in business.

What Bill is talking about is, in my understanding:

Someone wants to become an O/O. F2F is on a list of "approved carriers". They are just one of several. You can only get an equipment lease on the condition that you have a carrier lease with one of those "approved carriers". In return, F2F would deduct your equipment lease payment from your weekly settlement checks.

F2F is now a payment clerk for the lease company guaranteeing the equipment lease company they get paid before YOU get paid. If you are a high credit risk, I'd say that's a safe way to go to rebuild your credit. If you are a good credit risk, that's a slap in the face of personal and business money management skills.


What I hear YOU saying is you want all the bennies of being an o/o, with none of the risk associated with it. The maintenance, the fuel or fixed costs (plates, ifta, insurance, 2290, etc) associated with it. If that's the case, you'd be better off finding a deal like what Windsmith has where an O/O is willing to take you on and let you run the truck and load boards.

 

No, I want more than 25%.

I just think that I'd be willing to pay a little bit extra for not having to worry about paying for maintenance and repairs.

Either way I look at it, a truck, maintenance, repairs, plates, down payment and sales tax is going to cost $700/week, even for a crappy truck. And that includes only $300/week for maintenance and repairs. That is a big variable, you never know how much you're going to have to put into a 10 year old truck. It could be more or less, but likely more.

So why not just rent one, if possible, and not have to worry about that variable cost, and use the extra money I'd have to spend on purchasing one, on other things I have to use it for? It seems to be a decent way to leverage.

$2,000 for plates, $550 HUT, $400 downpayment insurance, $1500-$1800 sales tax, and another $2,500-$5,000 on down payment, all that = about $8000-$10,000. And then I'd have to have money saved for a maintenance fund. Another $5,000 - $10,000.

So instead of having to have $15k-$20k saved up, and put ALL OF IT into a business, why not just rent/lease the truck and only have to put down $5,000?

This would help in getting started. Even if my weekly expenses are $100 higher than it would have been, it is STILL worth it for about a year. And then I could build more cash reserves in the meantime. And also, almost all of my weekly expenses would be fixed, which makes it easier to keep track of profit and loss, for someone who is new in being in business.

And the thing with Bill, or even any other business that operates like his, leasing onto him I won't be forced to take whatever loads he gives me. I would be in control of how much I make. It's not indentured servitude. It's about the closest thing to being independent, and that is what makes it attractive. Sure, there might be issues that arise while leasing to F2F or any other company, but there will be issues anywhere I go.

 

i remember when leasing was just renting for a long term, the owner paid all expenses, insurances, maintenance

and somewhere down the line, the lessor was held responsible for such things, though he never owns the vehicle

 

What ever became of this idea? Kinda curious.

 

Yes, me too. Unfortunately, I was forced to start renting an apartment, so now I have to keep my savings aside for that in case I lose my job, I can still pay the rent. So now my plans to buy a truck are put on hold until next spring, unless I can get into some kind of lease/purchase thing with no money down. And no, I'm not interested in CR England.

Funny, I was getting oil changed at Speedco in Effingham last night. Was talking to another driver there, turns out he is a lease operator for a small company in Akron. He said he runs 4,000 miles a week and nets $2,000. And in one more year, the truck is his.

I don't think I'd be interested in that.