Gman, If you buy a truck them let me lease it from you I promise that every other month I will make a payment to you that is at least HALF of what I owe you. That is if there is any money left after the usual expenses i.e. chrome, beer and commercial company. Scouts honor.

One of our drivers has 11 payments left and he will own his truck, he had tried another lease purchase program, and they charged him for everything, needless to say, he failed. But with this program, he got a copy of the lease, while he was a company driver, they didn't push any thing on him, he followed the program, and now he will soon own his truck. He averaged 3500 miles a week, and the only he sat, was when he wanted to, our carrier keeps us rolling. Legally too.

In America, everything bought and sold has a mark up, somebody somewhere is making money on just about everything we buy. I worked for a furniture store that was big enough to buy La-Z-Boys for $25 a piece from the manufacturer, they then turned around and sold them for $350 a piece in the store. They sold like crazy, folks thought they were getting such a great deal. What a profit.

The selling and leasing of trucks is no different, however you purchase your truck, someone is making money on the deal, sometimes, big money!!!

Fuzeme, do you currently drive for USX as a company driver? If not, maybe you should consider that option before doing a L/P. Think about this, if they have the freight now, then you will stay rolling as a company driver and they have 100% of the expenses of running that truck. If you take L/P, you have 100% of the expenses of running that truck and they may not have the freight for you. L/P is the carriers way of getting those unseated(empty) trucks off the fence and have you drive it paying all of the expense, when it gets close to the end of your lease, they starve you so they can get the truck back and lease it to someone else. I can lease you the truck of your choice if you are the right candidate and you can haul my freight averaging $1.90 per mile to you. You probably wouldnt like the work, you cant get 4000 miles per week.

Man, I could really make a lot of money off of you, Jumbo. I would not want you to be without the necessities of life, such as your chrome, beer and commercial company. :lol:

No I don't work for US Express, I work for an owner who has trucks leased on to a 100% owner operator company. So if I get into my employers l/p program, I would get the truck from him, my loads would come from the carrier the truck is leased to, so the carrier has no vested interest in the truck at all, it just needs me and my truck to haul the loads it books on a daily basis.

And they keep me hoping, I sit only if I want to, I get to choose the area I want to run, and when I get home, which is every 7-10 days, I let them know when I am ready to head back out again. All this as a company driver. I run the south and southeast, I love the Carolina's no chains in the winter.
With them picking up new accounts all the time, I would have no problem finishing my one year lease, then the truck is mine, free and clear. My employer gave me a copy of the lease, so I could look at things real close, trucks aren't new, the one I'm going into is 3yrs old, when he gets it in, his shop will go over the truck, put new rubber on, completely service the truck, and then I get to test drive it for a month or so, to see if i like or not.

I love this country.:clap:

Load it, you are right, I got 4000 miles on a 7 day rotation, I left on a Friday, by the time I got home the following Friday I had 4000 miles. We were really busy that week, most of the time my miles are between 28- 3200.

So no I don't do 4k every week, be nice if I did though.:clap:

What company pays $1.90 to the truck? Must be expedited freight.

And if I get the truck I want, I would never make any money, I love Pete's, 379 my favorite, big Cat, 18 speed, 270 inch wb, all the chicken lights, keyless entry, ect.:clap:

How do they pay? on percentage of the load, or by the mile? the carrier not your boss.

Fuzeme, sounds like your 100% owner op compnay is the place to be. You need to get USX out of your mind unless you have ample vaseline. Why would you even consider USX L/P with the deal you have in your hand? Hmmmm?

Yeah..stay driving a company truck.

With the attitude like this, i'd hate to see you hang it up like many do.

Keyless entry = the difference between a failed O/O and a successful one.:rofl:

So are you saying you can't make it with a Pete 379 all tricked out? While I agree this poster should keep his expenses to a minimum starting out, I also feel it is much more important leasing onto the correct carrier instead of what truck he buys.

They are out there and no they are not expedited freight, in fact those guys usually make way less than that after all deadhead is figured in. Why would anyone want to run 4k miles a week? Find a carrier where you can work less not more for the same money.

No, am not saying that...

Its like a 16 year old wanting a Mercedes as their first car....

And why would you want a tricked out truck, expecially starting out in this economy? If they made me more money then I would understand...and the pool of these ,,correct'' carriers is getting smaller by the day. Is Dana hiring?

The kind of truck that one buys I think has alot to do with ones financial buttom line I think, but thats just me.

I'll put my bottom line up against anyone leased to a McMega carrier, I don't care if they got their truck as a birthday present. Thats why I say it's more about who you lease onto and not what truck you buy. I net more than they gross.

Not sure about the hiring thing, but if you had a truck around Charlotte friday you would've had a job, busy as hell.

I know you've been looking for a reason to tell us youre doing goo there at Dana, am happy for you but, you misunderstood my point.

If one, who just starts out, goes out and buys that Pete which is pricey, he or she will not only pay more for the truck, but also pay more in interest and everything else concerning it. You arent just starting out?

As far as your terminal here, i had a talk with that menager of yours who runs the place and found the guy to be very anal and disrespectful. I've talked to Maniac about it. I wish that I can see him in a local Wal-Mart just to give him piece of my mind.

But you won't even acknowledge my point that the company you lease to could run you bankrupt no matter what truck you buy. I said that the OP should not buy a Pete 379 starting out, considering what companies he's looking at. I took exception to your comment that made it sound that you had to buy a cheap truck in order to make it as an O/O. If I mis-understood your point I'm sorry.

I work out of Michigan and only have limited dealings with the guy you speak of in Charlotte, but can't say I disagree with your statement. Stay away from that Maniac guy, he's trouble. :)

It would be much better if he starts out with something less expensive than a tricked out 379. Starting out it is much more important to make money and most 379's get lower fuel economy than some of the more aerodynamic trucks. They will usually cost more to purchase. You can sometimes buy 2 of a different brand, such as a Freightlineer and get better fuel economy. I understand what Dejanh is saying. All of that chrome won't make any more money for you. The more you pay for a truck the higher your operating costs. Collision insurance will be more on a more expensive truck. Since you pay more for the truck other expenses will also be higher, such as interest. If he is determined to buy a 379 Pete, I am sure he will find plenty of them on the repo lots.

Question for GMAN and Dejanh, which of these companies would you lease to?

Swift
CR England
JB Hunt
US Express
Celadon

You forgot to include Prime.

Schneider..

I would not lease to any of them.

Why not?

None of them pay owner operators enough.

Oh, because all the advice I have seen from you guys has been about buying a cheap aerodynamic truck with small payments and nothing about the company you are leasing onto.

So maybe since you wouldn't consider any of these cheap carriers maybe my giving advice that it is much more important to consider which company they lease to than which truck they buy wouldn't seem so bad.

I don't care what truck you buy, I don't believe you can make even as much as driver wages leasing a truck onto one of the McMega carriers. My advice from the beginning was to buy a affordable truck and look for the best paying carrier you can find, which is anything but a dry van carrier these days. And doing L/P deal thru any of these carriers is a financial death sentence.

I maintain that if you find a good carrier that pays decent percentage of the load line haul plus accessorials that you can buy any truck you want(common sence applied), including a "dying breed" long nose Pete.

The pay you receive from a carrier is critical, but saving where you can is like putting money back in your pocket. It is much like some of the fuel discounts offered by many of the larger carriers. The money you save can be put back in your pocket. I don't care what someone else drives. I don't have to pay for the fuel. However, when rates are down and more sparse, any money you can save could make the difference between making money and losing your shirt. Personally, I like Peterbilt. I hope they continue making the hoods. I don't know if I will ever buy another one or not, but I still enjoy looking at them. As I believe I have previously stated, I have friends who won't drive anything else, even if it means that it will cost them more to run them due to the typically lower fuel economy. If I got a good enough deal in a Pete, I might consider buying another one. But at this point, I am not sure if I will buy any more trucks. I may just continue to repair the ones that I have. I am not that keen on sticking with any brand. I just look for something that meets my needs and then shop for the best buy.

I have two teams that run the same round each week,just different days. One spends approx 750-800 more on fuel,when fuel was up it was 1150-1200. They say they will not buy another truck or trailer. 50 rounds a year 40,000.00. Guess the different kinds of truck.

I'm thinking this is a trick question but.....................
That's a lot of difference in fuel. I'm wondering the difference in there driving habits as well.
Pete 379 (the less efficient) big cat and driver that won't keep his foot out of it.
volvo (small one) and a more efficient driver.

am I close?

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I'm not so sure about that point of---keeping your foot out of it. I ran produce for an o/o and I ran two different trucks the same way- 80 mph everywhere even ca. Both trucks had 500hp 13spd geared the same. The pete 379 500 cat, the century shaker a 500 come a long, the shaker had the best fuel milage in the fleet of petes and w900's. No one ran their truck harder than me, yet I have to say the reason for me having the best fuel mileage is the more aero dynamic truck, because I ran them all the same---balls out.

I can't believe you still have a CDL if you drove 80 mph all the time in CA.

billy big rig, eh? lol

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No wise guy, they call me knucklehead. My post goes to saying about speed and aero dynamics or could you not figger that out.

this was what i was referring to, not the aerodynamics... I do agree with you that aero trucks get better mileage than non-aero ones...

Yeah, we are leased on to a 100% owner operator company, who provide good miles, and 100% of the fuel surcharge. No I'm not going to US Express program, trucks too expensive, and they only pay 29% of the fuel surcharge. My current truck is being pulled out of the fleet, and I will be getting an 05 KW T 600, Cat powered, with a 13 speed. Once our trucks make it to the million mile mark, he pulls them, and auctions them off.
The driver that had this KW kept it really nice, and the only reason he is coming out of it is because he's getting a brand new truck. I think the Cat is a 475, and he did say he was able to get fairly decent fuel mileage out of it, and it didn't give him hardly any trouble, so as soon as his truck comes in, which will be Monday, I'll be moving into my KW. If it turns out to be a great truck, I'll L/P it for a year, and then it's mine free and clear.

Be back soon, going from Amarillo TX to Philly PA.

1999,475hp,cat,no apu,spread axle,379
2009,550hp,cummins,apu,closed tandem,aerodynamic
both have same trans and rearends
Both run mainly in 75mph states,at best 8-10 hours of idle time. When their truck was down for repairs they rented one of mine for a round and the fuel was comparable to the other team so i don't think it's the difference in drivers. A couple of other non aero,newer trucks doing the same routes fall in-between for mileage. I think aerodynamics play a large roll in van/reefer operations. Flatbeds a lot is lost in the trailer configuration.

With high speed, you'll get a high difference between "aero" and "classic". If you run "double nickel", it will be hardly noticeable. At 50mph, rolling resistance, takes more power, than air resistance. I'm averaging low 7Th with my Cat powered 2005 T6, pulling dry box mostly between OH and NE region, a lot of hills, lights and congestion's, but mostly with the light loads. I run between 60-65mph, when it rolls, I'll let it roll, on a rare occasions, I'll speed up(to pass, to get out of the crowd...) Could i run 80? I sure could, truck is not governed, but it's gonna cost me about 1 mph, with classic design, probably 1.5-2mph. At 120 000 miles it's around 15 grand difference, at current fuel prices. I have a much better use for that money, but that's a personal choice.

Driving habits have a lot to do with fuel mileage. You can have two identical trucks with the same load and they will most likely get different fuel mileage. The only difference is in the drivers. I am like you, I can find a much better use for $15,000 than putting it in the fuel tank. :thumbsup:

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Gman, I'll tell you the truth, that after 10yrs hauling produce ca. to hunts, and 5 ca. to albuquerque I still have a clean mvr and license---no tickets. I got more log book tickets and 8 hr shutdowns than anything else. The 3 or 4 speeding tickets I received I paid immediately like all tickets and they have never showed up on my license. I remember a driver laughed at me for having 2 cb's and 3 birdogs I passed him 5 mi. later and smoky had him on the side as I rode "bye bye". You cannot go peddeling around ca. at highspeed in the blind. You have to have some sense, I'm not a total idiot, a little but not total. There are and have always been produce haulers like me, and we do not go truckstop to truckstop. More like, we drive like we always have from back in the days till now; 1000 miles a day. As long as they don't check my log book at the gallup port and I mean, run my miles, I consider myself home free. Before they started running miles it was a joke, just start a new log everyday, but for the last 3 yrs they have me sweating sometimes, I'm glad I only run to n.m. these days. The 3 days to hunts. pt. solo are over. An advertiser on this site had 150 o/o's running produce ca. to ny, beantown, hartsford 2 days for a team and 3 days for a solo driver and if you could not do that you did not haul for them. I ran for them for ten years. O/o's built them and now they do not need o/o's.

Jiptwoo, I would say that you have been extremely lucky. States are really cracking down, especially on logs. I am a little surprised that your former carrier isn't pushing for more owner operators. Some of the largest carriers are pushing for more owner operators and reducing their company drivers. Carriers are increasingly being held responsible for the actions of their drivers. That is forcing some of them to change their ways.