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

Oh boy, Here we go again!

Well I have to say I feel for you but I think you need a new company. Alot of Schneider lease ops and O/O average over 2k a week net and 5k gross. Don't know anyone that drives for Landstar but have heard drivers claim that it better from there and I know a skateboarder that nets 3k+ a week whether his truck leaves the driveway or not but he has a dedicated company contract.

Kevin, you don't have to "feel for me" I understand this game, and have been doing better than most at it. I also happen to know a lot of folks who make those outlandish claims - I hear them all the time. But Kevin, no one has ever produced a tax return to me that supports their claims, I can only assume it is because they can't.

Now you can follow that primrose path that the O/O and lease operators boast about if you like, but when you do I wish you would jump back in here with some good solid evidence of how you are making a fortune at it. I know all too well what it takes to make a dollar in today's business climate, and there is just not the margins available for a driver to be making a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year (net).

That day of reckoning always catches up with these guys. They go a few months without hardly any maintenance expenses and they think they are making a killing, and then Wham! out of the blue comes that wake up call, and they are singing the blues because they weren't putting money away like they should have been doing counting it as expenses that were yet to be. I realize I can't convince you, but hopefully you won't get hurt too hard when you take the plunge. In business there is a law that you cannot avoid and that is "the return to means." You may get by dong really well for a year, and maybe even two, but eventually something will land you on your backside so harshly that it sucks up everything you thought you made over the last two years. Averages always have to follow their course, otherwise they wouldn't be averages. I was a business owner for thirty years, I learned all my lessons the hard way - you don't lose sight of reality when you learn things that way.

Oldschool and others who point out reality and falsehoods in Lease-Purchase. I am a Newby and it's easy to get "taken in". I've learned a lot from TT. Almost every time I get on here, I learn something. May 26 I start Prime orientation and after 4 days start TNT. Affluence comes over time from hard work.

Thanks. It's good, very good to face reality before I step my foot into a cab. Which will happen next week. I'm excited. I also feel prepared because of what I've learned here.

THANKS AGAIN!!

I would like to hear any update from the OP.

Trucking VA, welcome to Trucking Truth!

I doubt you will hear anything, I am constantly asking these guys who get into the lease programs to come back and tell us about their new found riches, but sadly, I have yet to hear from any of them. I would seriously like to be proven wrong, because if there is a good solid way to make more money at this, then I am all over it - I am a capitalist at heart, but I'm a realist in my thought processes.

Trucking VA, welcome to Trucking Truth!

I doubt you will hear anything, I am constantly asking these guys who get into the lease programs to come back and tell us about their new found riches, but sadly, I have yet to hear from any of them. I would seriously like to be proven wrong, because if there is a good solid way to make more money at this, then I am all over it - I am a capitalist at heart, but I'm a realist in my thought processes.

Thanks Old School. The "idea" of owning a truck in 3 years sounds great, but the devil is in the details.

Here is an article about a report from ATBS on O/O earnings in 2014

Owner Operator Earnings For 2014

Hello Old School,

Thanks for pointing out the truth for all the new bees. This forum is awesome. I have been looking everywhere for work and get great job offers but I keep running into the same problem, "No experience doesn't work with our insurance providers." So I have no been looking into companies such as us express and western express. US Express told me they were gonna send me a bus ticket in 2 days!? I ws super excited until I heard the PAY IS 70 A DAY FOR 175 HOURS! thats less then minimum wage! So I called western express and the don't pay for orientation and only pay $2000 a month until your trained then you can go out and make your average of $1200 a week. But They said Iwill be away from my family for 3 weeks. I have kids and a wife I don't want to be gone that long, but since I need experience I was just to do it for now until I get my 3 mos. experience. I contacted a good knowledgable driver who told me how these companies make you sign 9 mo contracts with them and a lot of times they will leave you stranded for 3 months. I noticed you said you worked for western express and that made me think different also when reading davids blogs even thinking of leasing a truck because my goal at the end is haul cars with my own tractor. Car haulers is "apparently" the highest paying of them all. Now I am truly confused on whether to just go with this company and test it out or stay local and find work here to avoid driving intrastate. This is really a big decision for me and want make sure I make the right one, or maybe I am just thinking way to much and just get started because I do need money like NOW. Thanks again.

- Jim

From the article:

“We expect the overall independent contractor net income average to be over $54,000 this year, which is the highest since we’ve kept track in 16 years.”

That right there sums up my lifelong position on why you should never consider buying or leasing a truck. And that's the highest in 16 years?? omg.

One time I went to a business seminar and the main speaker had spent the majority of his career high in the ranks of Fortune 500 companies. He said two things that always stuck with me. To paraphrase:

1) Never "buy yourself a job". In other words, don't start a business where you're only going to make what you would have made as an employee doing that job. Any driver with two or three years experience can make $55,000 or more without owning a truck.

2) Never go into a commodity-based business. With a commodity-based business only the lowest priced producer wins, and most of the time even they barely make a profit. The rest go out of business or go nowhere.

Hello Old School,

Thanks for pointing out the truth for all the new bees. This forum is awesome. I have been looking everywhere for work and get great job offers but I keep running into the same problem, "No experience doesn't work with our insurance providers." So I have no been looking into companies such as us express and western express. US Express told me they were gonna send me a bus ticket in 2 days!? I ws super excited until I heard the PAY IS 70 A DAY FOR 175 HOURS! thats less then minimum wage! So I called western express and the don't pay for orientation and only pay $2000 a month until your trained then you can go out and make your average of $1200 a week. But They said Iwill be away from my family for 3 weeks. I have kids and a wife I don't want to be gone that long, but since I need experience I was just to do it for now until I get my 3 mos. experience. I contacted a good knowledgable driver who told me how these companies make you sign 9 mo contracts with them and a lot of times they will leave you stranded for 3 months. I noticed you said you worked for western express and that made me think different also when reading davids blogs even thinking of leasing a truck because my goal at the end is haul cars with my own tractor. Car haulers is "apparently" the highest paying of them all. Now I am truly confused on whether to just go with this company and test it out or stay local and find work here to avoid driving intrastate. This is really a big decision for me and want make sure I make the right one, or maybe I am just thinking way to much and just get started because I do need money like NOW. Thanks again.

- Jim

$70 - 100 a day is about average for any company during training. Have you you looked into any companies other than USX & WSXI? Schneider & Millis, I believe, are two of the better training companies. Schneider's training process is unique compared to other carriers. Your first week is spent training at their OC, second week spent over the road with a trainer and finally your third week back at the OC for additional training and testing out. I'm not sure what the pay is during training, but I'm sure it's pretty much the same as most places.

Millis has their own school that they require students to attend. It's $500 up front, but if you work for them for a year, you owe nothing else. After school you're with a road trainer 4-6 weeks.

Trainee Pay for Millis is:(from their website)

Days 1-21: $72 per day Days 22-35: $78 per day Days 36 +: $86 per day

Millis has really pretty trucks, too LOL

I forgot to mention.....Schneider doesn't have a school anymore. You have to go a private school before going to Schneider. They have tuition reimbursement up to $6,000.00