We are buying the 2006 Freightliner Classic XL that we were assigned October '05, Werner sells their trucks , not a lease. We know this truck, we like the truck and we are getting a good deal. 320,000mi ....I just want someone to convince us we should not do this. We are scheduled to sign paperwork first week of January '07, they guarantee for 30 days that anything we can find wrong or needs work they will take care of, we have been looking into this for 6 or more months, talking to other owner operators.....bring it on...ask those questions...give your best experience and advice...good or bad we are ready to make this happen...thanks!

What are they asking for that truck?

Yeah - how much, and why are the getting rid of it so soon?

you always see ex werner trucks going down the road with private owners, that must say something about their maintenance schedule.

my questions are whos it being financed through and who are you leasing onto?

What are you going to be doing for work, your own authority or are you leasing it back to Werner or some where else.

And what kind of warranty are they providing, if any?

My friend Dan sells trucks for Werner in Indianapolis, I was in there one day when Select Freightliner in Indianapolis called and bought 16 classics and told him what colors to have them painted before delivering them. I think the trucks are well maintained and you get to buy the one that you are driving, at least you know the truck. I wont comment on price since you didnt mention it, but for a guy to buy one off the street, I think they are pricey. I had an O/O who had a former Werner classic, I dont know where we got it from but he paid $50,000 and it had problems. He couldnt wrench it himself, so it stayed in the shop for a lot of little things. His wife was the brain, so he didnt last long. I think you will be getting a good truck.

These are all good points and great questions, we are negotiating around $60K, that they say is blue book- I am checking into that on this week off, having experienced Werner as a company driver for 14 months now, I have witnessed their maintenance policy- they have new trucks but their mechanics do very little preventative work and usually just do only what they have to in order to get the truck back on the road- as an owner operator we will take better care of this truck in general...Werner sells their trucks when they reach between 330k to 370k....they offer their company drivers a complete accounting setup through the company, the driver must get approved financing through Wells Fargo or a limited number per year through Werner direct---you sign the note, they guarantee the loan- it is not a lease option. We will run for Werner until we find something that pays us better or is a more comfortable employer to work for...we would not be allowed to leave the company until we paid off 20% of the loan balance at the time we would choose to leave....it is a bit rare that a driver is allowed to buy the truck they are assigned as a company team as in our case....the truck had 50k miles when we were assigned it in Oct.'05, it now has 310K and we will put another 30 K before the end of the year so the truck 'Wilma" qualifies to be sold, we have been working on the fleet sales guys for 6 months with this in mind...we know we will work as hard or harder than we do now- staying out 7-8 weeks at a time, but we also know that not being tied down to the company bullshit that we have experienced, plus we should be able to make 15-25% more dough and have a future that will present more possibilities for our trucking world, and when we get ahead we can take several 2-3 weeks breaks to put our band out on tour during the festival season....it has been a very successful first year, we have kept our eyes and ears open trying to learn all we can about driving and staying safe, and learning the trucking business, we have learned much valuable info and we have much more to learn...we thank you all for your words, wisdom and your experience ...it is invaluable to us......

I would see if I could nock that sucker down closer to $55,000

Just for the heck of it I did a search on Truckpaper for Classic XL's (2004-2006) similarly equipped to a Werner truck (Detroit power, etc) and found 4 trucks priced between $55k-62k and all were 2004's and their mileages were between 302k miles and 478k.

I'd say given the fact that this driver has a history with this truck, and knows how it's been maintained and driven for the last 270,000 miles, $60k seems to be good deal. 8)