LEASE PURCHASE

I'm getting ready to tackle a lease purchase. I read a lot of the pros and cons, the upside is of course you either fail miserably and quickly or you succeed extremely well and just as fast. lol so I'm gonna add to this post as the process plays out. The general concensus is that if you have a head for business your chances to succeed go thru the roof, if you aren't business oriented than your chances for failure also skyrocket :)) I have interviewed and questioned as much as I can, I've crunched numbers till my head hurts, I've read over lease agreements till the pain stopped and my brain was numb, than went back and reread it a few days later, and a few weeks after that (amazing what you miss when leagaleeze puts your mind to sleep :) I've looked at real work expenses and paperwork, and at the end of all of that, the potential appears to be real, the risk as well O.o lol so I'm gonna lean towards the sunny side of life, and take that risk. My goal here is to give a true accounting of my experiences doing this, I'm not interested in hearing sob stories, for every horror story there is also one of success, so let's keep it positive, and spread that message too :D

I start class in about a week, lease purchase and certified trainer, I've trained before, but I have no illusions here, tackling that and lease is a whole new reality. Maybe thru this process I can help answer questions that others have, as well as the ones I've not found answers to. Sincerely Smiley :)

Hey Smiley. We appreciate the gesture but we focus on helping new drivers break into the industry so we've made it a policy not to discuss leasing or owning trucks. In our opinion you should get a minimum of a couple of years under your belt as a company driver before you even consider buying or leasing a truck so there's really no reason for us to cover it here. It just confuses and frustrates new drivers who are already overwhelmed with the challenges they face and the long list of decisions that have to be made.

But we certainly wish you the best of luck out there!

That's OK Brett, I can focus on the training aspect of this too, lease is only part of my next evolution :)

I start class in about a week, lease purchase and certified trainer, I've trained before, but I have no illusions here, tackling that and lease is a whole new reality. Maybe thru this process I can help answer questions that others have, as well as the ones I've not found answers to. Sincerely Smiley :)

Hey Smiley,

Welcome aboard.

Just curious... You say in your post that you have "trained before" and you classified yourself (on your profile) as an "Experienced Driver." What previous schooling, training and driver experience do you have? Where are you starting class "in about a week?"

Old Rookie wrote to Smiley:

Hey Smiley, Welcome aboard. Just curious... You say in your post that you have "trained before" and you classified yourself (on your profile) as an "Experienced Driver." What previous schooling, training and driver experience do you have? Where are you starting class "in about a week?"

If you click on the name (in blue) of the poster, you will be able to see their profile. If they wrote a BIO on themselves, many times you can see their story.

This is Smiley's BIO: Started driving 20yrs ago, logged 10 yrs and almost 1 million miles than took 10 yrs away from the industry. Certified Trainer for several years and I'm now headed to pick up a lease purchase truck :)

I went thru P.D.I. in new buffalo mi. 20 years ago for the cdl , stayed almost 4 years with first company, trained for 2 1/2 yrs of that. Last company I drove for also gave me the best experience as a driver, J R Schugel, running reefer , nothing but good things to say there :) while I've always enjoyed the job itself I got burned out and took a decade off, started back last year like I was a greenhorn again lol (hadn't stepped into a truck in all that time, was just as nervous as the first time 20yrs ago) and of course they treat you like a noob :)) no one wants to give credit for experience that old, all good though I've dusted off the skills and stretched my legs thru this past winter (Wyoming ain't no joke, spent more time shutdown there than home!)

I found this site very helpful Brett, a lot of good stuff as I was doing my research and hitting the books again to requalify, so a nod and hats off :D

Daniel, you might want to put that shovel away. Smiley is no rookie to the industry.

Old Rookie wrote to Smiley:

Hey Smiley, Welcome aboard. Just curious... You say in your post that you have "trained before" and you classified yourself (on your profile) as an "Experienced Driver." What previous schooling, training and driver experience do you have? Where are you starting class "in about a week?"

If you click on the name (in blue) of the poster, you will be able to see their profile. If they wrote a BIO on themselves, many times you can see their story.

This is Smiley's BIO: Started driving 20yrs ago, logged 10 yrs and almost 1 million miles than took 10 yrs away from the industry. Certified Trainer for several years and I'm now headed to pick up a lease purchase truck :)

Thanks for the tip G-Town.

I just found out the lead driver class is only 2 days :/ 20yrs ago it was a week. You cant have any illusions about why poor training is such a consistent theme. I understand time is money, but you also get out what you put in. I had some excellent trainers years ago but they seem to be the exception to the rule. Some things you simply should not hurry.

Smiley wrote:

I just found out the lead driver class is only 2 days :/ 20yrs ago it was a week. You cant have any illusions about why poor training is such a consistent theme. I understand time is money, but you also get out what you put in. I had some excellent trainers years ago but they seem to be the exception to the rule. Some things you simply should not hurry.

Smiley is that perhaps because you have previous experience? What company? I too am a stickler for proper training, but I do not think poor training is a consistent theme.

Once I had the CDL , I had to log 160 hours of safe driving and 40 documented backs with a trainer before being turned loose as a first-seat driver. Recently Swift increased that number to 200 hours of driving. Fortunately I had an excellent trainer, and so have many of the drivers on this forum. I agree there are some really bad trainers, but I also believe the good ones outnumber the bad ones at least 5 to 1. Read the some of the training threads on the diary forum to see for yourself.