Why do lease operators fail on a lease I want to learn why

Because they are clueless as to how to run a business ... no ability to build a business model, no business plan, no ability to execute a plan, no ability to manage a business.

In other words those that fail are a lot like you ... enamored with the idea of making big bucks and fail to dig into the real details of what needs to be done and then be willing to do it.

Any lease can succeed, any lease can fail.

 

I wonder if it's a function of them being unable to work with their dispatchers. I realized, while hauling fuel in No Dak, that I had to do what my dispatchers wanted me to do with more enthusiasm than when I got to do what I wanted to do so that they wanted to give me the runs I wanted. You know, using sugar water to catch flys. Works a lot better than salt water. I bet if you're nice to your dispatcher and do your time quietly you'll start getting good loads and long runs. Your company wants you to succeed. They might not care about you, they probably don't in fact, but if you're not making enough to pay your lease payment, they're losing money. Also, for every dollar you make, that's $.35 in their pocket. They want you running, but I doubt they'll go out of their way to find you better miles or more rapid loads if you're a jerk all the time. Professionalism would be great, but it's not always present.

 

the devil is in the details
sounds of a lease is big money but reality is different
by the time you pay truck payment ins etc
escrow for breakdowns
difference between FSC and fuel burned
along with many brand new drivers who have poor time management skills
(not even their fault)
and try to run before they can walk

 

I agree wholeheartedly with this, You have to know how to manage your expenses. Its not a free for all, It also takes hard work and you have to have a goal in mind at the end if it and cant be in it for just the money.

 

I've never been in a lease op situation but I was a leased on O/O for years. In looking at most of the lease purchase offers that I have seen, $600 per week in a tractor payment would be way too much to sustain for any length of time unless you are living in the truck. The biggest payment I ever had was about $1400 per month and even that presented some challenges along the way. Unless you can get a smaller payment like $300 a week or so, you would probably starve out sooner or later and probably sooner than later from what I have heard from some people that I know that are lease ops. The guys that are successful as an l/O that I know negotiated low lease payments on used trucks, have good business sense and don't take bad loads and drive sensibly to control fuel and repair costs. Good luck in your endeavors.

 

it's a losing proposition. The company you lease on with controls the amount of money you make. They can give you crappy loads, sit you too long.

Why would anyone want to pay the maintenance on a truck they are leasing, and don't own?

 

will if the company pays their lease driver 94 cent a mile and it cost 70 cent a mile for the truck to go down the road....1 break down and it over...you'll never be able to take time off...

 

A lot of these people look at the gross numbers and not the net numbers. My old boss was that way. He complained about loads that were paying around $800 a trip and you could do one trip a day deadheading back for the next load with a cost of about $200 in fuel. Instead he took loads that paid $1100 and deadheaded back for another load costing $600 in fuel and it took him 2 days to do the round trip. Both of these trips were instate runs.

Load 1 would bring in $3000 a week after fuel

Load 2 would bring in $1500 a week after fuel.

Pretty easy to figure out. I guess he was not smarter than a 5th grader and is now out of business.

They also do not save for rainy days when the truck breaks down.