Trans-Am Leasing Program
 

Does anyone have any info on the Trans-Am Leasing program? pros cons any info would help. I also have 2 1/2 years o.t.r. dry van experience so im not a newbie. i have no family, no bills, etc. so im thinking about taking on a new challenge. any info about the lease and anything else about the company would be appreciated.

Tune in to this guy on Sirius Road Dog you can even reach him at the station or by Email. He has a definite stand on leasing and supports it with facts.

Trucking Business and Beyond
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Kevin Rutherford hosts a one-hour call-in program focusing on how company drivers and owner operators can become more profitable. Taxes, tires, engines and new technology are among topics discussed.

Is there anyone that is currently doing the Lease program at Trans-Am. I would like any info about this program.

Why do you want to lease, rather than be a company driver?

wanting a new challenge in life. going to try something new.

This evening, I searched and searched for a post where I laid out the expenses and income of a lease driver at another carrier (who actually listed sample truck payments, insurance payments, etc.) and it wasn't pretty. For THEIR projected mileage figures, a driver would earn $50k or so yearly BEFORE taxes. For my mileage figures (2,500/week versus their figure of 3,200/week), the driver would've earned $14k yearly.
I couldn't find such figures on Trans-Am's website, but I doubt they're any better. Their payments may be higher, since they run KW's, instead of Century's. A good way to help sort this out is to get them to mail you a copy of the lease contract and get the facts and figures from them in writing. Then go sit down with an accountant and run the numbers.

This is what I think about lease purchase:
I am an independent recruiter who hires for a lot of companies that have lease purchase. Even though those companies pay me huge commissions to put you in a lease truck. If you call me and want to do lease purchase, I will do everything in my power to try to talk you out of it. If you still want to do it, I will give you this advice.

*make sure you have a wife or girlfriend who has a good steady paycheck, you will need it some weeks.
* Stay on the road! If they say they can get you home every two weeks, screw that....if you want to have a chance at succeeding at least purchase...stay out MONTHS!
* Even though they will tell you "no forced dispatch"....never turn down a load.

Recently I have been looking at Celadons lease purchase. I have to say, it at least looks better on paper than other lease purchase programs. They have a truck payment that is based on mileage, not the same every time. So if you have a bad week, you will have a small payment. But with that said, I havent stuck any of my drivers on it yet. Im waiting until I talk to a driver who has done it, before I send them one....unless YOU want to be my Guinea Pig. My only requirement: you cant call me up 6 months from now and yell at me if it sucked...lol

Why not buy a decent used truck and lease it on to a carrier instead of being a company slave paying all there bills!! Remember the DM has you by the balls and if you piss em off be prepared to sit and sit if your wheels ain't moving your not making any money then there goes your condo. Do they pay for insurance and the electronic tattle tale and so on if they do then right there its a rip off. To be honest the money is not with the mega carries. Do you have money saved if you don't then what happens if the truck breaks down are you good at saving money? Do you have good accounting and book keeping skills as you'll need to be an accountant and book keeper to. And with the way diesel prices are today and with freight rates in the crapper I would not do it.

hope this link helps in your new adventure

trans am trucking | Ripoff Report | Complaints Reviews Scams Lawsuits Frauds Reported

can you do your own maintance on your truck as you'll be doing alot of it as well to save your money. i dunno to me it's just alot of money thrown out the window in a short period of time. you'll come out alot better if you use a program that the companies don't desighn to make themselves money. and another thing to think about if that truck is making the co so much money then why in the hell are they leasing it out?

Why don't you save you breath and steer drivers interested in leasing to a company that they will more likely succeed at? I don't have a second paycheck coming in (or need one), normally get home every other weekend for 3 days (11 on, 3 off) and I'm pretty sure I've turned down more loads than any other driver in my fleet. During the 4 years of my lease I took home a little over $260,000 after all truck expenses and averaged less than 2,400 miles per week across those 4 years. I didn't have a special deal or some neat-o dedicated gig, just whatever random loads needed to be hauled.

FFS people.

I suppose there are success stories at every company that does lease purchase out there. Hell, I worked for JB Hunt corporate for many years. I had at least "some" drivers do very well at their lease purchase. Just because "some" succeed, doesnt mean most will most likely succeed at lease purchase. Im just not the type of recruiter who will attempt to influence a driver by BSing him.
Here is the problem I see with lease purchase programs. Its not really the companies. Like I said, every company out there has lease purchase success stories. Here is the deal: If you are a driver and you want to become a Owner Op. You have two choices. You can buy a truck, if you have good credit. Or you can lease purchase. Of course buying the truck is the way better choice here. But drivers with bad credit dont have that option. Now, not all, but A LOT of people with bad credit have a history of being irresponsible and of making bad choices. Those same people with bad credit, simply dont have what it takes with personal responsibility to succeed as an owner op, or at lease purchase. They get drawn in to a dream of making big bucks as an owner op, and then fail. They will usually end up blaming the company, but it reality, their own failure is most likely their fault. Lease purchase is a lot like "rent to own". If you want that big screen TV and you dont have credit. You can pay a rent to own company 3500 bucks for a TV you could have bought at walmart for 500 bucks. When its all over and paid for...even with rent to own, you still "succeeded" at purchasing a TV...you just paid way too much for it.
The reason I try to talk drivers out of lease purchase is simply a personal choice. Its not really because of the companies. I have been recruiting drivers for over 10 years now. I just got tired of drivers and drivers wives calling me back a few months later and yelling at me because they failed. When a driver calls me and wants lease purchase. I just tell them the truth. Most drivers fail at lease purchase. I try to talk them into going to the company as a company driver first. Learn the companies system. Talk to drivers who have already been in lease purchase and find out what they do to succeed. If I do that, and they still want lease purchase, I will be happy to put them in the best company I cant find. But I can also sleep better at night knowing I did my best telling the driver what to expect. And if they call me back a few months better and complain, I can say "Hey man, I told you and was 100% honest with you.......you failed all by yourself". And if they succeed, they did it all by themselves too.

If someone has their mind made up to lease a truck, there is little that anyone can do to change their mind. We have seen it time and time again on this forum. I know that some do make it work, but I doubt that most realize what they will need to sacrifice in order to get the title. If a driver has some discipline, they could commit to saving $100-200 our of every paycheck for a couple of years and be able to buy a truck rather than getting involved in a lease. They would also pay much less for the truck. One problem that I have noticed with those who want to do a lease purchase is that they want to be an owner operator NOW!!! They have no patience. They also have no discipline. If they had discipline, they would have saved money and worked on building their credit to a point where they could qualify for a conventional loan. I understand that things can happen which are out of our control, but I have interviewed a lot of drivers who have lost their shirts doing a lease purchase. They all have certain traits which seem common to all of them. Until they change themselves, they will never be successful. I doubt that most carriers are willing to make the success or failure rates of their lease programs public. I would speculate that as many as 90% fail. Few people are willing to do what is necessary to insure that they will be successful. It is much easier to blame the carrier or others for your failures. Successful people accept personal responsibility for their actions and make changes in their business plan or themselves in order to achieve their goals. Failure is a personal decision. You make up your mind to either become successful or to fail. Everyone fails. It is part of life. The difference is how you treat the failure. It isn't that successful people don't fail, they just treat their failure as a learning experience and ask themselves how they can do things differently. Those who make a career of failure want to blame the company or circumstances and continue making the same mistakes over and over again. I had one driver who leased 3 trucks and lost all of them. He wanted me to do a lease purchase on one of my trucks. When I refused, he started looking for other carriers where he could do a lease. He also looked for people who would finance a truck for him with no down payment. He is someone who should remain a company driver. He just didn't have the discipline to achieve success as an owner operator. This is a driver who had driven a truck for about 16 years and yet had no savings. His credit was in a shambles, but he continued to do things which would keep him in debt and harm his credit. Had he saved money for those 16 years, he could have paid cash for a good truck. It doesn't make sense to me to spend $650-800/week to lease a truck when you could buy a good used truck that your payments would be $500/month.

May be too late but STAY AWAY from Trans Am and their lease. I was out of trucking for 10 years. Had to start over as a rookie. Joined Trans Am-did a lease-BIG mistake. After 12 months with a total of 5 days off for the year. Never late on a load-never refused a load. My truck was in the hole. You will have weeks with no pay because your miles suck but they don't stop paying your truck expenses. TERRIBLE company. You are just there to move their freight and you pay all expenses.

If you can't go out and get your own truck you're not ready then, leasing is for suckers.

I've talked to a bunch of guys about leasing. I'd say its best for guys that are younger in the business or have shakier credit. Alot of the lease companies buy their trucks wholesale and then lease them out plus they tend to know who is going to pay the bills and who isn't. The jerkoff banks won't lend to anyone unless they have amazing credit, which as you know is hard as hell to do as a trucker. Check out Used Truck Finance Wholesale Semi Truck Lease for Owner Operators , I've heard these guys do a good job.

I totally agree. I worked for this company years ago. Kansas is a right to work state. I just finished doing a turn out to the east coast unload then reload and back in under 4 days. Soon as I hit the lot in Olathe KS they wanted to send me right out again!! I told them I needed a shower, something to eat and some sleep and I would be more than happy to head out first thing in the morning. 20 min went by and they told me to clean out my truck!

This is one of the companies that got to big for their britches and does not care about the drivers. Listen to what azjonnie said. STAY AWAY FROM TRANSAM!!

Dont do a lease purchase!!!! EVER!! I dont care who the company is. NEVER DO A LEASE PURCHASE!! EVER!!!!

So I guess I should take a pay cut by turning in my leased truck? For the first half of the year, I have averaged 49 CPM net based on hub miles. That would be equal to around 52 CPM based on HHG miles. Unless someone can point me to a company gig making 52 CPM plus the title to the truck after four years, I think I'll just stick with it.

the way i see it is like this. frieght companies have found a new way to make money and it's not by tugging frieght around especialy in this economy!! it's by leasing trucks out and having the driver pay all there bills and doing all the maintance and buying the fuel. now that being said. can you mod the truck chances are probily not so if you want to drop an apu in your SOL. if things go bad with the company that your now married to for xx amount of years can you take that shiny truck and run chances are probily not. will there be a balloon payment at the end of the lease? will the company let you buy the truck out from under em using third party financing i personaly have found two that will let you buy the truck out from under em. is it just a lease deal or a lease purchase. i personaly would never lease a truck from the company that controlls my pay. if i was gonna go O/O id'e have my own truck and trailer bought and paid for and be a company driver and while i was doing that id'e be talking to shippers and receivers and trying to build up a customer base and see if they would be interested in having me tug there product around and i would also have a good broker and or id'e hop on a loadboard and look for frieght untill i got enough customers to keep me moving from one end of the country to the other. it's not easy buy it can be done. it just takes alot of time and devotion. another thing with fleese deals is they can write crazy thing into that contract that they want to.

TransAm Leasing
 

Would anyone happen to have a copy of the TransAm lease?

In the 5 or so years I've been around, I still can't believe people are asking about lease purchase programs. Look at it like this. In every major city the tallest buildings are banks and insurance companies. Why? Because in the end they don't lose. They have contracts and fine print written by very smart people that none of us read. Not because we are stupid, but we aren't lawyers. Same thing as lease purchase plan. I guess you can have your success stories but those are few and far between. Why would anyone pay a company to work for them? I guess the same reason why there are stores like Rent A Center. I personally would buy or lease a hot dog stand before I'd pay a company to use their truck and then rely on them for work.

Kevin knows his stuff. You won't find many that are that honest and that experienced.