Your thoughts on a lease program

I know that if you rent a truck from Ryder, you pay a set fee per week or month, and if it needs work done to it, you bring it in and they do it. You don't have to pay for anything. If it breaks down, some companies will bring you a different one right away.

So what I DON'T understand is why Prime or ANY of these other rent/lease programs, making the driver pay for maintenance? If it says "lease" or "rent" anywhere in the contract, I ain't paying for ANYthing. If I purchase it, then yes, I will, and the truck would be mine.

If you want to rent a truck from dealer and turn around and rent it at a higher price to a driver, then why doesn't that driver just go to the dealer? If they have bad credit, then that means they have bad money management skills, and don't need to be running a business at this time anyways.

 

I think the financial piece of this idea has been discussed adequately so i'll leave that alone.

Where your plan would differ significantly from the mega carriers is the recruiting and training piece.

From what I have read on this and other threads you are trying to pay forward experience and help people succeed in this business. So the way i see it the due diligence you perform before accepting someone will be a key factor, as you said the ability to drive and put an X in the required spot wont cut it. So you need a hiring process that will weed out the not so business minded. I'll throw in a dirty word here,"personality test", probably not something you want to hear but maybe a way to identify peoples motivators and also ascertain if they are coachable. If you are planning on taking on 10 to 15 people a month eventually, you would maybe want a dedicated person handling this for you. Also they would be the ones doing the other due diligence, including a national background check.

The training piece and follow up would be the interesting part. I'm not sure but from what i have read this kind of program isn't being offered anywhere else. I believe some insurance carriers offer rebates and/or funding for ongoing training programs which are usually safety focused. Also part of your orientation could be a 1 week management boot camp provided by an accredited trainer with ongoing quarterly management check ins, also a required reading list,"insert book title here". Also it would be beneficial to have a health and wellness program. For the future maybe partnering with a broker, as an association that provides such a program. Also the training piece would probably require a full time employee to administer.

Anyway just some idea's. I am sure the math has been done on the likelihood of success by the right person, as you said earlier you can direct people in the right direction to be successful.

It does sound like an opportunity to do something completely different on the lease side, and would definitely set F2F apart from other carriers, perhaps promoting change in the industry if successful.

 

"If they have bad credit, then that means they have bad money management skills, and don't need to be running a business at this time anyways."

This statement is not true in eveyone's case, that has bad credit.

 

You are correct.

 

Well I have sit here and read this thread and I would like to know what the outcome will be. I get interested in reading a thread and I have to go to work now and I will get home tonight and try to read up on it some more. If you are trying to help people out then I commend you for that.

 

GREAT ideas!!!!!

 

I believe Bill's plan is a good one..

Anytime, at least from my prospective, you set the "bar" higher for a driver to get on with a particular company, there is a higher sense of pride in getting on with that company. You feel like, "that must be a good company, if they are being so meticulous about who they hire".

I feel that if someone, actually sat some of these drivers down in maybe a 1 t0 3 sitting, put the numbers on a big over-head and showed them what their "real" numbers are, than they might take some pride in what they do.

Here is an old saying I learned some time ago; "you don't know what you don't know". That plays into being an O/O like nothing else.

I feel I have done, or am doing, everything I can to broaden my chances of success and narrow my chances of failure but, have I really? What am I not looking at, that I have no idea about? Is there something out there that I have never heard about, but will find out about as soon as I sign the paperwork and pickup my first load?

I realise, not all bodies that want to live the dream of owning there own truck take the time to research but, maybe if they had someone that is/was looking out for not only the business's bottom line but, the success of the driver as well...than maybe they would feel the importance of the decision they were making. That decision effects their life and their families live's as well but, they might not see that, from their prospective.

Just my $0.02

 

i completely agree. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. As nice as it would be to plan for every eventuality, it is utopian at best ... arrogant at worst to believe anyone can completely predict the behavior of another human being.. And I believe in giving people an opportunity to lift themselves out of bad situations with a little assist. Will we get hurt periodically? I am not naive enough to believe we won't. But I do believe in Pay it Forward and in Karma. We take some calculated risks. We understand what our risk is. But I would rather be THAT person than the person that you would suggest I be. And I believe BBB would agree. Rollin Coal took a risk on us. It seems to have worked out. You cannot live your life in bubble wrap....And if your a business owner... You better darn well be risk tolerant.

 

The lease purchase swindle takes advantage of those who have no business understanding, and no numbers or experience on which to rate the proposed lease.... The execs who came up with these plans didn't have warm fuzzy feelings for the drivers they were going to put into these trucks, they were looking at their own bottom line and understanding that company drivers wanted to be o/o's so bad that they would make bad decisions...

72k for the truck.... depending on year, mileage, condition, and history, may or may not be a good deal....

There's the rub.... the rate. Go grab one of the driver opportunity publications that resembles a copy of t.v. guide, you know the ones in the racks at the front of the truckstop... thumb through it.... $1.00 a mile plus fsc.... guess what?? That's about the same money you make as a company driver.... except that you get the business deductions for your tax situation...but there is no extra, or additional income provided as, 1. Return on investment.. or 2. compensation for being the equipment/business owner... they, the trucking company, have just saddled you with the burdens without compensating for these additional responsibilities.... hey, we just figured out how to take a company driver and make him think he's an "owner operator"...

By taking a truck that has already had payments made on it, and has had all of the maintenance and repairs paid for by the former lessee, and then recycling it onto the next driver at the full lease rate... Let's say driver A leased it and carried the lease for 12 of the 36 months.... driver B comes along and takes the depreciated asset at full face value and starts making payments..

Ever hear of Arrow trucking?? They were doing lease purchase, except that no one could ever own the truck because they were not titled and financed as individual trucks, they were lumped as a group... no one could get title until all units in the group were paid.

Only reason they do it is to make money, period. If they're unethical, or maybe just less than nice people, then they reduce your earnings when you're nearing the completion of your lease contract.... they control your earnings, you are at their mercy.... they can starve you out, with their eyes on the next prospects coming through orientation, looking to "lease purchase" the truck.... "but it costs them money to do this".... not much money, and that's what those escrow accounts are for anyway, right?? wink wink, nod, nod.... yes, they'll just keep the escrow, and attribute this to the fact that you failed to complete the lease... now, that's the dark side, but even if they had the driver's best interests at heart there is still the reality that you, as the driver, have zero control of how much you make on a trip per trip basis.... short haul regional runs are where the money's at these days, are the big carrier's fairly compensating their "business partners" on the rate?? Not really, are they?? Let's say they got $3.50 per mile.... they compensated the "o/o" how much??

I hope I just did....