Lease Purchase Question
Topic 28595 | Page 1
Hello everyone, My name is Joey, I used to be an owner operator years ago. Mid 90s to be exact. I joined the Army 21 years ago and I am now retiring. I still have my CDL and will start working with Werner Enterprise to get back into what I miss doing. My question is, is the lease purchase worth it? I want to eventually become an Owner Operator again.
NO, it's not worth it. Company driver can easily make as much, or more than lease purchase without all the hassle and risk.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Owner Operator:
An owner-operator is a driver who either owns or leases the truck they are driving. A self-employed driver.
Joey, thanks for your service!
Enjoy the benefits of retirement, enjoy the part of driving you loved. Don’t take on the headaches if you don’t have to.
The romance of business ownership (in ANY business) isn’t what it once was. I’ve owned a few and even made one successful enough to sell it. Now, I drive, bring home over $50k/year, get home multiple times each week and someone else has to pay for repairs and keep the equipment maintained.
I hope this helps.
DAC:
Drive-A-Check Report
A truck drivers DAC report will contain detailed information about their job history of the last 10 years as a CDL driver (as required by the DOT).
It may also contain your criminal history, drug test results, DOT infractions and accident history. The program is strictly voluntary from a company standpoint, but most of the medium-to-large carriers will participate.
Most trucking companies use DAC reports as part of their hiring and background check process. It is extremely important that drivers verify that the information contained in it is correct, and have it fixed if it's not.
Welcome Joey and thank you for your service!! Congrats on your retirement.
Dymamics in the industry make it much harder to be an O/O these days, and honestly it doesn’t show any signs of getting better.
Leasing a truck from a carrier is a bad idea on many levels. Bottom line is no matter the company those leases are crafted so the company makes money, without any regard if the driver does or not.
Once you get back into the swing of things if you have reasons with your situation to go back to owning your own business then buy a truck on your own. There are some benifits to leasing your truck onto a major carrier in that scenario.
Last couple years were good. This year with lower rates and some big repair bills I will make about what I made my rookie year.
Keep us up to date how your journey goes
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your advice. I'm looking forward to being out on the road again.
NAVL (North American Van Lines) pulled this crap in the 70's. No experience needed. Come up with 2500 to 3000 and you too can be an O/O (oddly enough the ad was in owner/operator magazine. Very misleading title for the mag. They were right opposite of Mike Parkhurst's Overdrive magazine). They went on to tell you,you'd get 2 whole weeks of trading at home office in Ft. Wayne. After that,you'd get your truck. A pile of junk Transtar 4070 cabover or an even worse junky White cabover. You'd run for a couple months okay,then they'd starve you out. I'm hearing same thing about these lease purchase programs today.
Thank you. I really appreciate everyone's advice. I thought it sounded to good to be true. It's been awhile since I was drove. Alot of things definitely changed in the last 21 years. I am definitely looking forward to getting back into it.
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Hello everyone, My name is Joey, I used to be an owner operator years ago. Mid 90s to be exact. I joined the Army 21 years ago and I am now retiring. I still have my CDL and will start working with Werner Enterprise to get back into what I miss doing. My question is, is the lease purchase worth it? I want to eventually become an Owner Operator again.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
Owner Operator:
An owner-operator is a driver who either owns or leases the truck they are driving. A self-employed driver.