Give it to me straight
 

I'm the father of 5. I've been driving a truck for 3 years now. 2 years over the road and the last year delivering fuel locally. The pay is just enough to get by.

The lease purchase deal at John Christener is tempting. I can run pretty hard. Everything on paper looks as if I'll still be making pretty good money even after maintence and expenses.

The problem is, I know things on paper aren't always what happens. Can you tell me if this would be worth it? My wife and I are a little afraid to jump into the deal without hearing from a lot of people first.

Thanks....

Stay local and watch your kids grow.

In a breath

they will be grown up

I second that motion... Stay home and live with your family, they'd rather not have few less trinkets than have you be missing everything for the sake of the truck.

If you think you are barely getting by now, just wait until you are in a fleece purchase deal. These are designed for one reason only, make money for the carrier. There are lot of hidden costs involved in running a truck. If you want to be an owner operator save your money for a good down payment and find a lender. Better yet, save enough to pay cash. I don't recommend buying a truck without having money in reserve. You can buy a truck with a monthly payment of about what most of these fleece purchase deals want weekly. If you buy a truck, you will own it at some point. You will never own a rental unit. If you want to publish their figures on this forum, I am sure that you will get a lot of input. Some of us have owned a number of trucks. We will be glad to give you honest answers to any of your questions.

If your motivation in getting into one of these fleece purchase deals is making more money for your family, it isn't going to happen. Perhaps you would be better off looking for another local or even regional job that could pay more money. Good luck.

Over the years, I've known very few companies that had it set up so that you actually make any money with a lease-purchase. The companies have it set up so that you will run to make your payments, but in the process, you will be making them more money than a company driver because of your "incentive" to own the truck. The vast majority of lease-purchase deals are like revolving doors. A driver goes into it with high hopes, but after realizing the truck payments, maintenance costs, insurance, etc, he realizes that there is still nothing left to pay the bills at home. Two months after they go into the deal, they're gone. If you're barely getting by now, you will most likely find that one of those lease-purchase deals will sink you. Find your own truck, something like an old cab-over in good shape, for about $7,000 to $15,000. Sign it on and get it paid off in a year or so, then build up your reserve to buy something better.

Re: Give it to me straight
 

Exactly!

Short answer;- Forget it, don't ruin your life, all you'd get, is a "cash flow mirage", if that! :sad:

It's tooo true. Save your money and put a good down payment or better yet buy a good used truck for cash. The big companies will lease a truck to almost anyone... That driver will make the companies payments (times two usually).

The only way you will have any money left over at all is to run,run and run. Then you ran so hard the maintenance expenses start to mount up!

Put away a little each week and before too long, your kids will be older and you will be able to buy a truck. Don't get sucked into the "fleece program"! Patience and good luck

You can buy a good used truck for less than $20M. With a good down payment and decent credit, you should have no problem getting it financed with 10-30% down. Most will require about $20%. Payments will run around $500/month, much less than you would pay in a fleece purchase deal. If you choose to lease to a percentage carrier, they usually don't care about the age as long as it looks decent and will pass a DOT inspection. Paying that much for the truck, you won't put such a strain on yourself and actually be able to make money. There is enough stress in this business without the additional pressure of not bringing home a decent paycheck.

Georg
92 cpm + 100% surcharge
If you want a divorce,
This is by far the best route

Go pester the heck out of the regional/local carriers (ABF, OD, Overnight, Roadway, Estes, etc.) and see if you can land a line-haul gig that will get you home every day.