Your thoughts on a lease program

Well I will tell you this, I am not going to spend the time check the source of the funds. Some of the best business people I know started with nothing and scratched their way from the bottom. Not saying I am going to be taking a risk because a driver talks a good game. But attitude towards the requirements that we put in place regarding training, reporting, how to run their business, etc are more important to me.

Guess it is all a balance.

 

Just wanting to comment, regardless where the funds are coming from even the best loans never ask the source. As Bill said the company would not be on the leash for the loan.

 

I know it's hard to verify stuff. Been there, done that.

If a lessor (bank) makes the lessee do all the footwork to provide verifiable docs then it lessens the lessors workload to some degree.

When I had a car dealership, we were required by the bank to verify everything when a borrower was financed.

Credit check, employment, utility bill in their name, five references, in-state residency for six months, etc, etc, etc.

If everything checked out, they could take the car.

I had a full-time, in-house finance person that would do all that. She was the highest payed person in the company.

If the borrower skated with the vehicle and/or stopped making payments, I was on the hook for the full amount. Payable within 48 hours.

If they made the payments on-time for a certain amount of months (usually three), the bank had the responsibility of repo after that.

Problem with that senario was that that the finance company would tightened the criteria on us. We got spanked.

Gotta' think like a bank 'cause that's what you become. Just my experience.

 

I do not understand thinking like a bank when bill's company as he stated is free of recourse on the lease, perhaps I am missing something.

If I were to receive even crowd funding with the precipitous to lease and sign on with Bill's company why would the source be such a requirement for disclosure?

 

Anyone that can start with basically nothing and turn it into something viable is to be commended.

I've had a several businesses that were successful. Not one of them were started on borrowed funds.

I worked a job until I saved up the required amount of capitol and then pulled the trigger.

One out of three of those businesses were successful.

Maybe, if a person had a bulletproof business plan I would loan them money. I would want to ensure that I have complete control over company assets, bank accounts and be able to step in and run the business if things go sideways.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

 

Fortunately in this set-up we would have none of that. And if we did I would not be interested. They are taking all the credit risk. I would be taking the risk that I already take in terms of leasing a driver. I see it being increased because in almost all cases it would be a first time O/O. So I have to increase my standards on that side and it likely will make the company even better because I will be forced into providing better training for these O/O's that could then be offered to all.

The big one is going to be skin in the game. No way they are coming in without some money to cover cost associated with getting a truck on the road.

 

Well, you are talking to one right here. My previous life was pretty well destroyed including having to drop out of law school after 2-years because of a family issue. Not complaining because family comes first and I would do it all over again for my kids.

A lot of what we do with our business going forward is a lot about paying it forward.

But other aspects are clearly looking at opportunities. Taking one aspect of the business that doesn't work or works poorly and find a way to make it work. That is what this is about. As I stated earlier, I believe most company leases fail because you have the wrong people getting into them. When the only requirement is you have been hired by the carrier and you are willing to sign the papers. But I can see when you have a qualified person doing a company lease that they can not only make it work BUT can make more money than a company driver.

So with this, I see the opportunity to work with qualified people, provide the business tools and training to help towards success and where they can be seeing significantly more money on the gross side than what they do with other companies. I am still on the fence if it is something that we are going to be wanting to do and wanted to get some feedback.

Scary thing is that we could add 10-15 units a month with this and I am not sure that I could do the job that is needed to qualify people at that pace. I am likely going to have to have more help on this but not comfortable handing this off to just anybody.

 

If your the middleman and have no financial risk exposure but are able to profit from it, then that is a great business model.

If you can pull that off I am all for it.

 

That's why I had a finance person that could do it. I wasn't qualified and no time.

It would need to be a person experienced in leasing.

Gotta' keep a close eye on finance people too. They can steal from you. They will have access to everything you do.

Never happened to me but plenty of other dealers I know got ripped off. A couple of them for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Once you expand, a finance officer may become a necessity though. Just like a bookkeeper or accountant.

 

Bill, I've always been a save up and pay cash guy. However, recently my truck has taken a nose dive on fuel mileage. Think about this, if you can offer your potential lessee's a tractor which will get them 7.2 mpg that may just make the lease payment for them ! My truck is getting about 5.8 now. So figure 8800 miles/month and $4.15/gal fuel, that would be a difference of $1224.33/month ! It just hit me like a ton of bricks when I did the math, I could literally park this thing and lease a brand new one getting better mileage and it would barely cost me anything overall. I think I can do some things to get my numbers up on fuel though, we'll see.


Of course, some of your guys like Rollin' that do short mileage/high rate loads fuel is not as big of a factor as for me. But I would say one thing you could do to help make the leasing reasonable is make sure the trucks get good fuel mileage.