The owner I work for is going to replace my current trk, which is a 02 Century, and old Interstate Dist. trk, with a 05 T-600, it will have a Cat backed up with a 13 speed. Now he leases/ sells trks to his drivers for a good price, they can drive the trk for a while to obtain the data they need to decide if they want to buy/ lease the trk.
So I think for me that will be a better way to go, I can test drive the trk for several months as company driver, if it turns out to be a money maker, I'll get into his lease program. That way I'm not changing companies, or leasing a trk I don't know, or have any data on.

If I do decide to lease from him, he will set up my accounting, insurance, escrow accounts, I will be a clone of how he runs his operation. He started out with 2 trks, now he has 27 and growing.

If he's like pretty much every other l/p company out there, once you start renting a job from him, he may be able to add 1 or 2 more to his fleet.:lol:

Best of luck.

Does this at all make you wonder why he would do such a deal? He already has the truck and the driver, why would he turn around and lease the truck to the driver? He doesn't gain a truck, he doesn't gain a driver. In fact, he turns a driver that he had a decent amount of control over into a contractor whom he has much less control over. The only reason it makes sense is because he retains the same truck and driver but it costs him a heck of a lot less. So how does one account for the difference in cost?

We're leased on to a really good company, he doesn't provide the loads, they do, so if I lease a truck I get my dispatch from this company, like I am now, and I get paid directly by this company. I then pay him the agreed upon amount for the trk. I watched another driver go through the program, and he is now 10 wks away from owning his truck. He started out with a year lease.

This owner is like any other dealer, and or leasing company, they provide the trk, your carrier provides the loads. Are truck dealers, leasing companies, and trk owners making money on used trks, of course, and the thing with this owner, he owns his own diesel shop, the trucking business is just a side thing he does with his shop.

All our loads come from the carrier he is leased on to, not from him.

So why doesn't he just open a dealership, since you're pretty much saying he is like one of those "BUY HERE, PAY HERE" places. He must be making a killing on this. He lets you take all the risk, and simply provides you the rope to hang yourself, making a tidy profit in the process. He doesn't even need to do the work of finding you loads!

Wow....

Well it really wouldn't be any different if I went to Freightliner or a KW dealer, what risk are they assuming if I buy a used truck from them? Can I get my tires, parts, and repairs at a discount through them? I think not.

They assume that if I am buying a truck from them, that I know the risks involved with owning a truck, the same with this situation, he will not put a driver in this program who is not willing to use good business practices. He told us " this is a business, and you have to run it like a business, and this business can put you under real quick if you are not careful."

No dealer, lease company, or truck owner is going to allow you to test drive a truck for several months to see if you want to buy it. And if I decide to stay in the truck at that point as a company driver, what have I lost? What has he lost? he still has me, and his truck.

None, and the price you pay usually reflects it.

Nope, and you can't get them at a discount through this guy either. You can, however, get them at a discount through the company you lease to.

If you're going into business in a "trial run", you likely haven't done your homework first.

Well we can get all that through him, even the fuel discounts he gets, if we continue to use his fuel card.

Tires, repairs, and parts can all be bought through him, because he owns a truck repair shop, but we can use any place we want, just a better deal going through him.

As far as the trial run with the truck, I would still be a company driver, in a company truck, if I decide to get into his program, at that point I would become a lease operator, in a lease truck, with our current carrier.

IF I go with US Express, I would be in a rental truck for 90 days, then they would put me in a '09 or '10 Pete, with weekly payment of 620- 667. They are all out of the Century's, a lot of folks are doing their lease program.

Why are you comparing the two? Why go into business for yourself at all? What do you have to realistically gain by going into business for yourself? What do you have to lose? Given the current market, going into business for yourself right now is an even bigger risk than it was a year ago.

But like I said earlier, the probability fallacy will rule, and you'll think you're the exception to the rule. Debating this is completely futile, as you've already made up your mind. Best of luck.

$667 a week is $2668.00 a month. WOW.