Melton lease
 

After my three week mistake at Covenant I took three weeks off at home reading CAD morning noon and night. I decided I want to flatbed.TMC sounds great but I dont think it would take me three or four weeks out with a trainer to fly the space shuttle,let alone learn to flatbed. Right now I have the option to either go company or lease with Melton.Ive been told by a few trucker friends the only way to expect to make it with a lease program is to hire someone to do my books.As Ive stated in my previous postings,I would not move without consulting you folks here at CAD.So give me the good,bad and ugly.I know you vets get tired of explaining the lease program,but I think Im a fast learner and if anyone can do it I can.Im just sitting here wishing I was driving down the road, I will respond to all replies quickly,till I get back to work this is all I have to do.

We have written a lot about these fleece purchase deals. The short of it is that you will make more as a company driver than if you lease a truck from the carrier for whom you work. If you want to make more money, get some experience, save your money and buy a truck on your own. You will spend less money to buy than lease. You can't afford to run for what most of these fleece operations want to pay you as a lease operator. If you want to post the figures for their lease and how they pay, we will be glad to give you specific input.

OK OK NO lease program for me...boy they make it sound sooo good,the lease pitch the companies sell is almost hypnotic. I stii hear the recruiter's smooth voice telling me about how everything will work out so easy.Even after reading everything on CAD I still almost fell for the lease deal.I been driving almost 9 months and I see driving is the easy part to this business.Trucks run this country,so why does everybody want to screw us over???

The do it because they can. They get away with it because that is what many drivers want. There are so many drivers who will do most anything to be an owner operator, even if it means selling their soul. Most people gain some experience in a business before starting their own. You either need deep pockets to get you through the learning curve or work for someone where you can learn as much as possible. It is still different when you are the one who is responsible for paying the bills. Running a truck isn't rocket science, but it does take a certain amount of intelligence and more importantly, discipline. You don't need to be a genius, but will need to discipline yourself to do what is necessary to be successful.

In defense of these fleece purchase programs, companies must go through a lot of drivers to find the few who will get the job done and take care of the equipment. When a driver is leasing a truck, he will usually take better care of it than if he was a company driver. He has the illusion of being an owner operator without the benefit of ownership. He normally will have forced maintenance which he must pay for along with his own fuel, etc., The carrier still owns the equipment, but has the assurance that the equipment will be better maintained since the driver is responsible for the costs. Since the driver isn't an employee, he doesn't receive the insurance and other benefits given to the company drivers. Most of the fleece purchase deals offer the driver a low mileage pay rate. It is a sweet deal for the carrier.

Glad ya saw the light....lease deals are HARD to make work. Melton has one of the less desirable "deals" you wont own the truck in the end. You would still have a balloon to pay and have to finance that same truck AGAIN just to pay it off.

There is a guy on the what about this company board under "swift flatbed" who has just leased his truck and is writing is story if ya want to read his story.

Best thing to do is save your money till ya get a down payment and then get your truck.

tootie

Ive worked in banking,and for a very large global software company,and Ive done all types of residential and commercial construction. Ive never seen a place like CAD.There is no reason for a trucker to make a stupid move,just register,login,post your question and BLAM..Strenght in numbers. OK,I want a new International Eagle with all the goodies..I got 8 month OTR,whats a realistic timeframe for getting my own rig?NO LEASE.

I think most places like to see 2 years exp. Whether you lease on to a carrier or go on your own you will need the exp for ins purposes MOST of the time.

tootie

If you have the cash you can buy it anytime you want. Finding a good carrier that will lease you on may not be so easy. :P

I like lease purchase because you invest nothing and you really get to see what owning a truck is about. I too agree that you shouldn't expect to ever own that truck, only that you are making a wage and just learning trucking shizzle. Then, when you are ready, you line up your financing and pick out a truck and away you go. But, I'm not very popular :cry: :cry: :cry:

Here's my contribution to this thread, company flatbed is stupid (trying to boost my popularity :lol: ) Seriously, these O/Os who pull flatbed would never do it for van wages, why do company drivers pull flatbed for van wages!? New guy to a company I worked for, picking up pre-loaded flatbeds next to each other. We're out there placing our straps and he says, 'what do we get for doing this?' He was a veteran and had pulled everything else so he wanted to try flats. I told him, 'pride?', 'fresh air', 'an extra one or two cents per mile'? An exta penny or two, van guys will make that up in no time in miles.

Melton only pays about $1.20/mi too. Throw fuel, insurance, and 1 meal a day in the equation and you'll see how its not as great as it seems.

That 1.20 per mile INCLUDES the fuel surcharge.

Fuel, insurance, and meals are a deduction from the $1.20. $1.20 is with surcharge, i agree.

That's pretty hard, huh? I just want to apologize to anyone I may have offended. I wouldn't do it and I've said why, but that doesn't mean someone else doesn't have their reasons.

I did it once. Took me two months to finally ask myself, "Why????"

Take some time and go to OOIDA under the tools link and get your hands on the spreadsheet tool. Then come back here and read the thread "From desk to authority" and the part 2 that was started by Steve Booth and plug in some numbers that our resident experts shared on what it costs for insurance, maintenance, equipment, and expenses. Then go back and compare the numbers your getting from any lease operator per mile with FSC and figure it out for yourself. Real numbers are eye opening for sure.

Don't forget that you have to get paid, and have expenses of your own besides feeding the truck, your own insurance, benefits, social security, taxes etc that have to come out of that money. Any profit that might happen with a lease operator will likely be coming out of the wear and tear on the truck. If your lucky enough to work through the lease you end up with a worn out truck and you barely made a living.

I realize you have already said you are staying away from the leases, but take some time to plug the numbers in for yourself so YOU know. It is a good exercise and will help you understand the costs of an OO and what you will need to do in order to be a profitable business owner.

Buying a truck is just a small part of the business. Knowing the numbers, for total cost of ownership of the truck, operational expenses, the gotchas, and the hidden costs are all part of the overall picture of this business.

When you read through the posts here it will always boil down to buying new vs. buying used(quite a spirited debate at that). You will not hear the lease operator as part of any equation or conversation as a viable reality.

If you want to buy a truck and lease back into a carrrier that might be an option depending on the company, the pay, the benefits such as discounted fuel, equipment, insurance. But weigh your options and do your homework. Don't be in a hurry. If you don't already have a healthy chunck of change(ie cash) saved to get started in your business then I would say get on with a good company and start saving. Don't get yourself into an impossible situation. Take your time and do it right. It will give you the best chance possible for success. Listen to the resident experts here.

I am in the save money mode and preparing for my own business right now, and I can tell you that I will pay Gman for his consulting services when I get ready to launch my business if he is available to assist me. There are so many great resources here. If you will take the time to listen to the great posts and advise you can save yourself a great deal of grief, pain, and hard earned cash. BOL

Longsnowsm

I'd pay GMAN too.

As for company flatbed drivers being stupid, I'm very close to doing that. I was going to go buy a truck and sign on with CRST Malone, but I'm not too thrilled with the recruiter. She's not on top of things. I have the cash to buy a truck and I only have 10 more months to hit the 2 year mark for my license. I'm working on getting insurance now, but if this doesn't go through, then I might go with Melton. When I do get a truck, I need to do my own thing anyway. I like being in control of my own affairs.

Actually I would be paid about 7 cents more than I am now, but it's not really the money. First I always need to be learning something new. Second, I'm not gaining weight, but this is not healthy sitting down all day. I brought jump rope out with me but never did it once. At the end of my day, I don't feel like skipping rope in a urine smelling parking lot.

I will say this though, if I do wait another 10 months, I definitely see why people wait to learn the business. I haven't made much money, but I've learned a lot.

Actually today, I blew my first tire. Man was that loud. Well I went to buy another and the company I work for told the tire place they don't have to pay sales tax. I didn't understand why and neither did the dealer. Anyway the shop head faxes over a reseller license or something like that. That is that they sell trucks, they don't have to pay sales tax on things. I'm not sure of the whole deal, but that was the gist of it. But if that's the case then depending on how much the licence cost, it might be better to sell a truck then trade it in and not have to pay sales tax on things. When I get back I'm going to find out more about it.

why would anybody want a rough riding shiternational??

Here's my biggest, totally number one hang up about pulling or in my case going back to flatbed (I do want those higher rates).

Here it is, nothing just falls or bounces off a dry box and don't give me a ration of doggy doo doo about a picture you saw one time of a guy who hit a bridge with a load of flammable liquids and his dry box blew apart! :lol:

Seriously, I close those doors and I'm off to la, la land with a book on CD or the cloud formations or plotting out the next meal. In 10 months I never got fully comfortable that everything on the back of that skateboard was just going to stay there, no surprises. I'm more concerned about this than I am rolling out a filthy tarp 12' off the ground on an irregular surface.

edit...in Georgia in July!