Leasing A Truck

Now there are probably some who will jump in here and tell you differently, but if you will go back and talk again to those drivers that told you they had turned their trucks back in I think you will find an honest confirmation of the very things I'm telling you. I don't expect you to just take my advise, but I do wish you would at least consider what I'm saying when making your decision. I happen to like the way Schneider handles their lease operators by allowing them to choose their own loads right from an online load-board, that is a nice feature, but overall I just think these lease programs are designed to benefit the bottom line of the lessor without a whole lot of consideration to what happens to the lessee.

I take this seriously and what everyone tells me about this, a great many of the guys that i talk to that turn their trucks in where because of what you had said or its simply to hard of work that they did not expect, among the most was pay.

No doubt it is to benefit the company bottom line but compared to some of the lease programs I have seen, like Land star or I can't think of the other where you only get to keep 65% of the line haul pay, imo schneider is a little better, just a little lower on mileage pay.

I honestly don't expect to make nothing more than maybe enough to pay my bills at home and put everything back into the truck and saving.

I worked at US Xpress for a number of years and got to know some guys in management. One fella told me that on the average 500 mile run the company averages a profit of $50 after paying the driver. Think about that. It's a lot of risk to make a few extra bucks, and that's a company that's been around for decades. You think you know as much about the industry as they do? You think you can match what they're doing at this point?

Just some stuff to think about

To be honest, my knowledge of trucking is very limited to only 6 months, but thats what I'm trying to work on is learning this job better. In a year i still wont know as much as i need to such as which lanes go cold when. How do i learn this? Is it better to talk to a fleet manager or learn n my own? when you're in business for yourself you do what you have to make money and if that the only loads they give you why wouldn't you take it or change to another company?

Both Old School and Bretts post are extremely informative, and i have to ask how do you learn about these thing that most company drivers don't experience, such as the many things you said Brett? Such as load boards, the ones i seen at schneider you get to choose and plan your routes from hundreds of loads.

All I have to say is these forums have saved my a#@ many a times. I, like many others who get into Trucking, read and hear about the Lease program and how much more money you will make as long as you follow a couple simple rules. I was undecided all up until the day I went in to upgrade and decided to go Company for awhile. I'm still very new to the game so have lots to learn, but I was slightly pushed to go lease since I was trained by a lease operator, but going Company to me just seemed to make more sense. After reading these posts on these same questions and hearing the same replies from the main contributors, definitely feel good about my decision.