This Is Why You Don't Lease...

Some of you may know that me and only one other person survived Centrals Sponsored CDL School (of our class). I consider that other person a good friend and me and him both agreed on how stupid it is to lease.

Well, he became unhappy with his 300-500$ paychecks. Said it wasn't enough for bills. I told him to develop a better relationship with your DM and the miles will come. He didnt listen.

So he leased a 2013 Peterbilt 587. Which is the "best" truck that Central offers with their lease program.

The first week went by and he constantly texted me about how I should become an O/O too.

The second week goes by and he's silent.

The third week goes by... And I looked on his wall on Facebook and he says on his wall "time to swallow my pride. I got screwed this week with my paycheck. I got no money and I got no food. Can anyone help? Apparently his paycheck was only 3$.

He is so out of options that he needs to call upon Facebook to give him money just for food.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is why you don't lease. I will admit, the people encouraging you to lease definitely know what their doing. They lure in anyone who is uneducated about the industry with $ signs that the driver never gets to see much of. They are amazing at it, I was expecting the stories but even I was surprised by how well they made it sound.

Feed yourself, feed your family, pay your bills - just dont lease!

My question is, why would a company encourage people to lease if they're likely to get in to that situation? That can't be good for the company either.

My question is, why would a company encourage people to lease if they're likely to get in to that situation? That can't be good for the company either.

its like rent to own or lease to own stores they make their money from this they lease a truck for x amount of yrs then offer to buy it back from the broke driver then turn around and do it all over again,each time it goes for 2 - 4 yrs its called a turn and just before a turn is up they like to trade and renewal the turn the idea is get 4 turns per truck.

Here's the thing with companies that offer to lease you a truck...

The trucking industry has a multitude of ways to make money (or try to make money) - owning trucks and hauling freight, offering logistics software and services, freight brokering, parts and repairs, consulting work, warehousing, etc, etc. There's a million different strategies you can take.

Now any company, regardless of industry, is going to do all they can to turn a nice profit. That means they need to pursue profitable opportunities and avoid unprofitable ones. So if a company is trying to convince you to become a business owner in their own industry, there's a reason for it - because they don't want to do whatever it is they're trying to convince you to do. Why? Because there's no money in it.

This is definitely the case with leasing a truck. Ironically, there's almost no money in owning a truck and hauling freight. It's a commodity service with cut-throat competition and razor thin profits. So companies outsource the unprofitable parts of the business to you and make money by offering to provide services to you - leasing out the vehicle, logistics services, freight brokering, parts & repairs, reselling insurance, etc, etc. They take little or no risk because they're pushing the riskiest parts of the business onto you and keeping the more profitable aspects of it for themselves.

As a business owner myself I can assure you that I'm not about to encourage anyone to go into business in my own industry doing things I know are quite profitable. I'm going to keep my mouth shut and pursue them myself. And that's what trucking companies that lease trucks to drivers are doing. They're keeping the profitable aspects of the industry for themselves and outsourcing the riskier parts to others.

Leasing or owning a truck is risky business at best.I have completed 2 leases and was able to put money back and save. Thing is you have to know what you are getting into BEFORE leasing. I have ran my own business and was a manager for a fortune 500 company and I know what long hours are about. I worked my butt off and had little social life. I only went home every 3 to 6 months and I ran teams with my brother. So the average driver being solo and wanting to go home once a month is doom end to fail.

For the average person stay a company driver. You will be a lot happier. Have less stress and enjoy trucking more.

Leasing or owning a truck is risky business at best.I have completed 2 leases and was able to put money back and save. Thing is you have to know what you are getting into BEFORE leasing. I have ran my own business and was a manager for a fortune 500 company and I know what long hours are about. I worked my butt off and had little social life. I only went home every 3 to 6 months and I ran teams with my brother. So the average driver being solo and wanting to go home once a month is doom end to fail.

For the average person stay a company driver. You will be a lot happier. Have less stress and enjoy trucking more.

There is also A LOT more paperwork. Making sure your IFTA and fuel taxes are straight, using what little time you have updating books and filing quarterly.

I think I'll wait. I spoke with a rookie, who is with Trans Am. He decided to go the lease route.

Dave

Here's the part about Central's lease program they don't tell you about. They don't own the trucks they're leasing out to drivers. They're leasing the trucks from the dealer, just like the company trucks, for the 3 year warranty period. That's why there's no lease-to-own program or balloon payment offered. That lease payment you're making? That's the lease payment Central is making to the dealer, plus 5%. That's right, they're charging a markup on the payments so they can profit on them, on top of the added profit they get for all the reasons Brett mentioned. I'm not 100% sure it's legal, since they don't own the equipment, but unless a group of people gets together and files a complaint with either the state of Utah or the federal government, there's not really a whole lot that can be done about it.

That's right, they're charging a markup on the payments so they can profit on them, on top of the added profit they get for all the reasons Brett mentioned. I'm not 100% sure it's legal, since they don't own the equipment, but unless a group of people gets together and files a complaint with either the state of Utah or the federal government, there's not really a whole lot that can be done about it.

I don't see why it would be illegal. They're basically subleasing and I'm sure that's what most companies do. That's exactly my point with leasing - trucking companies lease the truck to drivers and then turn a profit on the services they provide - reselling insurance, freight brokering, parts & service, etc. As far as subleasing, they're basically providing you the service of setting up a lease for you and acting as the co-signer in a way.

It should immediately throw a red flag in your mind whenever a business wants you to go into business for yourself in the same industry they're in. Businesses exist to make money. They're not going to hand good money-making opportunities to other people. They're going to keep them for themselves. If they're "handing you an opportunity", it's almost certain they're handing you an opportunity to do something that needs to be done but they're not interested in doing it. In this case, owning or leasing the truck, hauling freight with it, and taking care of it isn't something they want to do. There's little or no profit in it. They'll let you do that and simply sell you the support services you need to stay in business.