Western Express Lease Purchase....thoughts???

Fair enough...

You're right Brett. I feel protective over people that could so easily get conned into something life altering but, we can't save them all I suppose and it's better that people get to see the conversation. I remember having to make sales.

Sales usually works for commissions and you could say anything you wanted, including stretching the truth. They have quotas to meet generally as well and you're under threat of losing your job constantly if you don't continue to make more and more sales. We were encouraged to say anything convincing, lots of emotional stuff too and, sad to say, men fell for the testosterone ego pitches like trees in a lumber camp. Women fell for things relating to family. Thank goodness I was only selling cell phones.

I'll continue to be an anti-American, lost wet kitten, lazy generation, corporate wage slave while the company takes care of all the expensive stuff thank you very much!

Name calling and insults aside...

We all know that of someone works hard and with a little bit of luck you can be successful at whatever you choose to do.

I use a baseline of average company driver pay because it's always compared company driver vs lease/owner ops.

A 10% to 20% over what a company driver makes does not make enough of a difference to make it financially viable option if you look at the risk vs the reward.

Using the numbers that were loosely thrown around the average of 52k a year for a lease OP ... Hmm. I am already over that a year making over 61k a year as a company driver with Werner. It would make ZERO financial sense for me to have my own truck and LOWER my yearly income plus assume all the risk evolved with having my own truck and less income.

Many company drivers, with a little experience, can make over 52k a year.

So looking at the above info and the risk vs reward and added stress of owning a truck, which I have done by the way, I can not in anyway recommend leasing/owning a truck.

My second trainer at CRST is a lease op and when I got on his truck he was over 9 grand in debt to CRST cuz his truck was broke down for weeks at a time.... he finally got out of debt after I got off his truck.. I called him a few days ago and he owes crst over 4000 bucks and been broke down for 14 days.... it just ain't worth it...

I would love a current lease op or O/O to come in and show it all.

I plan to compare what I make at the end of this year as a L/O to what I would have made driving company, for my own benefit. I'll share what I find. Others have provided info, but maybe not the detail you're looking for. I may do it in July for a half year, but you'll have to wait till December or January or April (after taxes) for the big picture, and even then, a better view would be for the life of the lease. My lease isn't done till July 2017 (truck was used when I got it, so the lease is only 29 months instead of 48 for a new truck), so maybe someone whose done a full lease will beat me to it.

Got damn why don't guys leave the F*cking guy alone. Seems typical around here when one person goes in on someone the rest of you ****ing followers, follow.. and in turn think of the most disrespectful things cause everyone else is doing it, you guys sound so cool! Maybe he is making money so the F*CK WHAT!! Mind your own damn business. I never met so many damn super heroes in one setting.

Jimmy, dude, was that you on the CB at the TA in Laredo last week!? You talk just like him!!

Simple fact. If a company says you would make more money by leasing they are implying THEY will make less money by letting you do a lease. Do you really think a large corporation would offer you the ability to make them less money if they didn't have a good reason? Their shareholders would be up in arms. It is risk amelioration on their part and I strongly urge you to read The book "Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk". It will open your eyes.

I would love a current lease op or O/O to come in and show it all.

I plan to compare what I make at the end of this year as a L/O to what I would have made driving company, for my own benefit. I'll share what I find. Others have provided info, but maybe not the detail you're looking for. I may do it in July for a half year, but you'll have to wait till December or January or April (after taxes) for the big picture, and even then, a better view would be for the life of the lease. My lease isn't done till July 2017 (truck was used when I got it, so the lease is only 29 months instead of 48 for a new truck), so maybe someone whose done a full lease will beat me to it.

I believe that if you write a decently detailed thread or even a blog post about your experience that people will be able to refer to it for quite some time. And, I suppose it's rude to ask about financials but, rough estimates on things you had to pay for if you do write that thread would be nice to see.

Thanks to whomever bumped this post. Very interesting to say the least. If I could figure out how to repost part of the post (quotes) I would respond to some of the slick marketing tactics, but I fear it would be just kicking a dead horse... I, for one, believe in the value of experience, facts, and that those things be presented in a professional manner. Therefore I remain impressed by, and thankful for, the moderators on this site. Keep up the good work.

Hi, my name is Matt I started the L/O with Western on June 18, 2015. So far not bad and as always things could be better. I had over 1 yr experience so I started with my own truck, 2011 Cascadia with little over 500k. Truck has been running pretty well so far. Now I have read the post from beginning, and yes, stay as a company driver if you are happy with safe steady pay but realize your earning potential is limited. I took this opportunity to be able to own my own truck but also the ability to control my earning potential and home time I looked into financing my own truck but with my credit, they were looking for 20 to 25percent down. I am making truck payments with no down payment and no financing interest. Now my pay, my first week was short week cause I started my first delivery on Thursday and was only able to make 2 loads before the pay week which ends on midnight every Monday. So I direct deposit pay was $177, after the deductions, I thought they should have pro rated my deductions for that week but they didn't. Second week, my settlement was not registered in the system but I was able to get a $900 cash advance. So when it was corrected, my third week pay was $1700. If you add the cash advance with what I got on the third week, I made about $2600 week 2 and 3 combined. I just got my settlement for my fourth week and it is $976. My truck payment started coming out at week 3. I am finishing my 5th week and this will be my best week, finishing up with about 2800 miles.

I have not gotten to all the details but little snap shot of whats it's like.

Little background about me, 49yr old army vet, was 88M in the military and I was making good money with my last company before I broke my leg during work last November, last October which had 5 pay weeks for me, I took home 5k that month.

So why not stay as a company driver, if no one ever took chances, we would all be company drivers lol.

So when does the pay between company driver and L/P operator dramatically change, when the truck is payed off.

I will be on here to answer any questions as best I can.

Good luck to all