Leasing

Is there any time when leasing is a good option for a Rookie?

Seems like too much of a commitment for someone who hasn't even sat in seat yet.

Have you ever ran a commodities based business where you are competing against 4 million other companies?

Do you have an extra $20000 you never plan to use and could very well never seen again?

Do you know the freight lanes in trucking and and what the price in each market demands?

Do you know the slow times and good freight times in trucking?

Do you know what areas of the country to avoid cause of slow freight?

Well do you? I do. I can answer yes to all these questions.And I used to have my own truck. And I got tried of making only slightly better money than a company driver and now I am a company driver. My net income(take home)was about $68000 a year for the three years I had my own truck. Now I make $50000 a year. I know that's a difference of 18k but that's the cost of one blown transmission or half the cost of a new engine.

If the answer to ANY of these questions is no then it makes no sense to get your own truck.

I did not ask these to make you look like you knew nothing. I was asking them in all seriousness.

You're not hurting my feelings, Guy.

I'm here to find all the facts I can so I can make an informed decision. I appreciate your help, buddy. :)

Come the data coming, as long as you have time, I'm listening.

Have you ever ran a commodities based business where you are competing against 4 million other companies?

Do you have an extra $20000 you never plan to use and could very well never seen again?

Do you know the freight lanes in trucking and and what the price in each market demands?

Do you know the slow times and good freight times in trucking?

Do you know what areas of the country to avoid cause of slow freight?

Well do you? I do. I can answer yes to all these questions.And I used to have my own truck. And I got tried of making only slightly better money than a company driver and now I am a company driver. My net income(take home)was about $68000 a year for the three years I had my own truck. Now I make $50000 a year. I know that's a difference of 18k but that's the cost of one blown transmission or half the cost of a new engine.

If the answer to ANY of these questions is no then it makes no sense to get your own truck.

I did not ask these to make you look like you knew nothing. I was asking them in all seriousness.

Is there any time when leasing is a good option for a Rookie?

Absolutely not.

And one of the things Guyjax didnt mention is that when he was leasing he was running team, not solo. So you can't really compare the $68k he made leasing with the $50k he's making now. There's simply no way to know how many miles he would have gotten running solo. You can't just say "Oh, it would have been half as many so it works out the same." That's not necessarily the case. And also, Guyjax was running like 50 weeks a year and going home like twice a year. Now he's home regularly with a whole lot more time off than he ever had before.

If Guyjax ran his lease truck the way he's running his solo truck now it would have been a whole different story.

So please don't take that as "Lease drivers make $68k and company drivers make $50k". That would be a tragically wrong conclusion.

Stay away from leasing or buying trucks. The biggest takeaway from Guyjax's experience is that he leased successfully for several years but now he's a company driver. He's lived both sides of it successfully and has chosen now to be a company driver. Remaining a company driver is the way to go.

Just to add to what Guy and Brett have already said, think about this. You'll hear all sorts of wonderful things from the guys trying to get you to sign a lease. How many more miles you'll get, how much more money you'll make, how much more freedom in decision-making you'll have, how life will be nothing but puppies and rainbows from here on out. But ask yourself one question: if these lease programs are such a sweet deal for the drivers, why do the leasing departments have to work so hard to get drivers into their office?

Brett is right. There is no comparison from what I was making then and what I am now. Back then ,with a team truck, I was running 6800 to 7500 miles a week. As a solo driver I am only ding about 3000 a week.

Unless you are willing to go over and beyond what is considered reasonable then leasing is not for you.

And Brett agin mentioned something I forgot to mention. I started off only going home 2 times a year. Two weeks in June and two weeks in December. That is it. Then I moved to going home every 3 months as I was starting to burn out staying out that long. It was better but still a long time.

If you look at purely numbers and nothing else I made $275000 a year. Thats $5288 a week.....BEFORE expenses and after everything was paid I took home on average of $1306 dollars a week. That is not a whole lot when you think about all the responsibility i had to take. Heck I make a little less than that $1306 dollars a week now as a company driver. That is $3982 a week in bills. And that is IF nothing went wrong. Try smiling about the money your making when its time to replace all 10 tires on the truck and your writing a check out for $4500 dollars. Not such a good feeling hand out that amount of money at one time. If the weather is bad and you don't turn as many miles that week there are expenses that you still have to pay weather or not you made any money that week.

Now that I have went over the numbers now lets talk about life. I was out long than most drivers. I had no social life at all. The truck and the road was my life. The truck stop employees were my family. Mechanics my buddies. Truckers my brother and sisters. My family at home was 2nd place to what I had out on the road. That is not the way its supposed to be but is the way it was.

My truck was moving 24/7. Only time I stopped is to switch out with my brother and off we went again. Stopping was not an option. The type of loads I was running could NOT be rescheduled. Container freight HAS to be on the ship that is leaving the docks before its time for the boat to leave to go overseas. The freight had to get there and I was the guy responsible for getting it there. If the roads were open I was moving. Snow and ice on the roads? If the road was open I was moving down the road with chains on. Last winter,2011/2012 winter, in 3 months time I threw iron(put on chains) 52 times so I could get over Donner's Pass and across Eisenhower tunnel and Vail pass. Someone had to do it so I did it. I have been driving since May of 1998. 15 years of hard won experience and I still had the rookies dream of owning my own truck. This was my business and I refused to let it fail.

Want to know what weather I drove in WILLINGLY? Any and all kinds. There were times I was the only fool on the interstate going down the road when good sense dictated I should be parked in a truck stop with everyone else. I would see no one for hours on end and if something had happened I knew I would have only myself to depend on to get myself out of trouble cause there was no one else on the road but dumb ole me. Remember the snow storm that shut down the east coast in 2010? Yep I was in it driving on I278. I have proof on my youtube channel.

Why you may ask I was willing to take such risk besides being stupid? Cause I has truck payments to make.

Unless you are willing to do what I did and go over and beyond the thing called common sense then I would not recommend leasing a truck or even owning a truck. Its simply not worth it.

I was lucky. Besides pure bull headed stubbornness I had 15 years worth of trucking experience to fall back on as a driver. Sure you might be more stubborn than me but ,you as rookies, you have ZERO trucking experience and nothing to fall back on.