I Lost Money...I'm Going Bankrupt... It's Over... Week 14 Knight Transportation Lease Purchase 

I owned my trucking company for 7 years. Sold everything in 2022. Had 4 trucks on the road at one point. Made a lot of money and enjoyed every minute of it but my trucks did not even move out the yard for less than $2.50+ a mile loaded or unloaded. When rates started dropping lower than that I simply started selling it off. Enjoyed it while I had it but I’m not working for free

I'm a retired owner operator flipping through channels and came across you. I like your honesty. Knight Transport sux but its live and learn. Hang in there and be safe.

Damn. I'm glad I'm a company driver.

Too much headache for such little pay and large expenses.

Frightliner shops NEVER get the truck fixed the first time.

72k a year for OTR owner operator. What a joke? Trading your life for pennies, and huge liabilities. I am very happy that you are transparent and expose the reality of the industry. You will be better off as a company driver making 70 cents with a smaller carrier.

Leasing with Knight seems like such a nightmare... For only 3k more, it is much better to go to the Company and not deal with the headache. You can make 2x the amount you make as a fuel hauler in a company driver position...

Lease programs should be against the law; it’s a form of extortion.

Really impressed with your data charts. You got into it during a blood bath market. Plain and simple

Sorry to hear of your troubles. I hope the weeks ahead turn out more positive.

It seems to me its better to make a down payment to a truck titlte it to your self and your own LLC and if you dont like the company you are leased to take your truck and leave. Lease ops seem to get screwed in every way possible.

You can buy one of my trucks. 2016 Volvo 700k miles clean. No issues. 25k$

Hang in there, I love what you do and your channel. I watch you every week. Maybe you need to run to the Midwest

Dude, your stat info is great

Leases are great for companies. Sucks for drivers. By the time you pay your truck off, the only thing it’s good for is a down payment on a new truck. But in the meantime, you make less than company drivers.

I like your style of videos and the spread sheet is kick ass …. How do you not have more subscribers… good luck with the leasing

Good news! As of March 11, 2024, you will be a company driver. The FLEASING IS OVER!!!!

Everyone goes thru hard times with work! hopefully the following weeks will be better for you!

Lesson learned do your best do t let it ruin your credit .. but cut and run when you can.

Good vid. Keep head up and still work on financing for the rig. Breakdown can hurt anyone in the industry.

Mama always said you gotta take the shit with the shineola! But seriously you have the right attitude about good weeks and bad and anyone that's in business for themselves that says they've never tossed money is lieing. Wish you all the best my friend stay safe

The driving footage in the first minute of this was gorgeous

youve got yoru act together with all those numbers. I used to work at an over the road trucking company , westway express, as a dispatcher and then a fleet manager. the company recruiters would always push me to sell being a lease purchase operator to the drivers. i refused to do it. too much risk. if you are lease purchase, and anything interupts your driving such as getting sick , or problems at home, the bills never stop. but the pay does . I dont think these programs are fair to the drivers, espesically when they are working for only one company. you are at their mercy. the company and the casino always win. I had one driver that was a lease purchase driver. he ran like a mad man for a while. then one day he killed himself via suicide. very sad. trucking is a very tough lonely business.

You have character. Go to a better lease carrier. Your time is worth something. God Bless

the only way to do lease is with your discipline. If someone can't be a detailed and focused as you they should say company. Well done, Happy Trails.

I remember leasing with Trans Am. When I received a negative check, I quit.

1700 miles per week is insane. Hope it's not always so low. No wonder you can't make money if they don't keep you on the road.

Parked my paid off 2019 cascadia and company driving dryvan sometimes hazmat for .70c ... not worth the volitility folks

I would usually run the worst case scenario over the length of three months, then and only then you can take it from there, all the best with your venture, and cheers.

I’m kinda glad I’m a driver for knight instead of a lease employee. The way everything is set up for lease runners it’s really not worth the stress or the little bit more money you could make. Why are you always running out west? I’m curious as to why they don’t run you from California back to the east/ northeast. Thanks for sharing.

Hi Seas!!! Things will get better!!! Try not to listen to the negative Nellie’s!!! Thanks for the spreadsheet info!!! You do such a great job with that!! 💪

The problem most “owner operators” run into, is they hit a week or 2 of negatives, now they’re complaining they can’t buy food. Which is100% their own fault, no one’s else’s. Like you said several times, you WILL run into some bad weeks, sometimes even bad months, and even bad YEARS

Everybody is going to have some bad weeks everybody is going to have some maintenance costs but the biggest problem I see with your numbers is you are never going to turn a profit with an average load of 500 MI you only make money when the wheels are turning and if you're constantly doing pickups and deliveries that's going to cut into your income

I worked for knight . Worse company. Terrible pay

I’ve looked at a lot of lease contracts and have visited with OOIDA and the general decision is you can just about beat any of those contracts just by being a company driver.

Problem is you’re running for $1.70 a mile. We flatbed in Ca, Or, and Wa. Rarely drop below $3.00 a mile. I have no idea how you’re keeping afloat at $1.70

I am a city bus driver making 35 dollars and hour, with all the overtime and holiday pay i received i made over 90k last year, i never leave the city and I'm home everyday.

I retired 4 years ago at 64. I get a pension of 2k a month and social security of 2k per month. I drove for ABF for twenty years. Home every other night. Slept in motels, not sleepers. All expenses paid for by company. If wheels weren't rolling due to break down or load wasn't ready or maintenance or anything really, I was on the clock- $20.00 hr. If you have an ABF hub near you, go get yourself a job there.

yes unfortunately this happens to all of us from time to time but i wish u better luck next time. Keep us posted.

very nice spread sheet

Been running OTR for 32 years, last 20 of it as an O/O and it is sad to say the most money to be made in trucking today is at the company driver level; little risk and mostly reward.

I worked as a lease op for Knight, and i had my ups and downs just like this. The big thing with Knight is that during those three days you were down, you could have rented a truck from them to be able to keep moving. Ultimately, i would go back to their program they have one of the best ones in the industry. The only reason why i left is cause my 2019 volvo kept having mechanical issues after issues. Just keep pushing forward, and it will pay off in the end.

Good luck man don't give up. As a small business profits no matter how small still show the company is profitable. Pay in your quarterly tax and never stop seeking advice.

FMCSA will put the kabosh on lease operators very soon. You will be running on your own authority or be a w-2 employee.

I retired in 2021 and never fell for the lease scams. Drove for 29 years and always made good money. You said if you were a company driver you would be getting. 54 cpm but those were payrates form 10 years ago. When I retired it was . 67 cpm and going up. I ran 2500 miles weekly and only worked Monday thru Friday. Was always home Friday and left out Monday morning.

Dang you didn't add medical insurance and retirement and taxes. Many operators forgot about this but its there hiding in the dark

You might want to consider different company in general. There is some other companies with much better programs. Also you have to consider the new law that is going to be in effect in 03.11.2024 about the Independent contractor. From what you said you won't qualify for IC according to the new law. Start researching and just get out of there

Start listening to kevin rutherford on his podcast. Its called "lets truck" and is on monday through friday starting at 8 am pacific. Great content! Best of luck

Brother, with those Excel skills you would be better suited to work in public accounting :)

Great video. Thanks for posting. I’m a company driver, and I’m still in my first year of experience since getting my CDL (March 27th). I do local routes. Other than nights like tonight, when I’m waiting on a trade show to load at a convention center, I’m home almost every night. I think I’m pretty lucky to land this gig. $27.5/hr + overtime at 1.5x. From what I hear, freight brokers somehow infiltrated the industry and destroyed it for the actual drivers.

Your living the American dream.

I don’t understand how you run a business you cant negotiate not one load and at the will of the company you run under. Doesn’t it defeat the whole purpose of supposedly owning your own business? Wouldn’t that be a scam?

No one makes it to the end on lease payments.

Seems Knight pockets part of your fuel discounts as a lot of companies do. Here at Prime they give their drivers the full discount. For example I paid $2.95 per gallon in New Mexico several days ago after our discount. So my fuel expense was like 11 cents per mile for both loaded and empty miles. And we get 72% of what the load pays.

The ship is sinking, please my friend get on a life boat and leave before sunset. (Respect to your determination).!

Great coverage of the profit n loss books! Can u share your excel sheet!!

A lot of owner operators work on their own truck. You will get it. The more you fall the slower you get up. UnTill one day you decide to not get up and think about why you keep falling. This day you become different

The trucking market is the worst ive seen it.. Been in it for 15 years and have seen the eb and flows.. Crazy times were living in.

If you make it by the end of the year, I'm speculating that the company driver will surpass the lease operator pay. Still have to pay 1099 taxes & the equipment will just get worse. I salute you though sir, very brave endeavor in a horrible market.

Contact the FMSA because there doing investigations on why companies are doing people wrong on lease to own

It’s ridiculous that you’re not allowed to sleep in your truck while it’s in the shop. They should be required to have cameras on your truck, a restroom, and a couple emergency exits.

You should seriously consider looking at a different company.

What a rip. Im a company driver and i run more miles for more a mile than that. And im home every other night

The true measure is your average, cannot focus on individual weeks, it is tough, but yeah averages.

I see you making this work. You will need to find a new company is all.

It's worse for the owner operator. From Aug 2022 ($2.55cpm) to today (< $1.50)! freight rates off the load board have dropped dramatically. I'm done!

Business is up. Business is down. It's extremely difficult pulling for a mega carrier. Especially if you're overpaying for one of their used trucks. I want you to consider coming over to Landstar. Your biggest problem is you're in a dead zone. You gotta get east of I 35 if you want to make any money. Pull something out of the Chicagoland area. Those rates are always good.👍👍👍

Couple of things i noticed that i believe you should implement into your spreadsheet. The biggest one is tax advantages, you have cost and you have tax deductions this is a more difficult thing to implement into your cost but I personally believe its mandatory to properly gauge your performance. Knowing your true net, is the single best indicator. A company employee has no where to hide their money from taxes, where you do. This could technically make or break this whole experiment. Couple other things doing a quick look at your sheets, they are doing a VERY VERY good job at limiting your empty miles which major kudos to them. This is another item you need to be specially highlighted is EMPTY miles. This is a 100% expense, and needs to be accurately separated and tracked. Overall, im very impressed with how well you're doing with how high your overhead is vs the income.

I have a truck I'll put you in at Landstar if you'd like to do this correctly.

Swift is currently paying 1.15 dlls every mile over 800 mls And 1.30dlls per mile every mile under 800 mls. I can’t believe that!!

Do you pick your loads or have a dispatcher? Honestly I’ve been looking into lease purchase and I keep looking at SFI /Schneider bc they have a load board and I pick where I go

when the engine goes down and it will the overhaul cost will be 40,000 to 50,000 plus the time to get it fixed i know guys driving for xpo making 1600 a week. 50 weeks in a truck 1000 a week? i can't believe people are telling this guy to hang in there for what

Would it make much of a difference if you ran all 48 states? I'm assuming you're running a regional or 11 western route.

Cickbait title, but losing money happens...

But you also owe full taxes, while company drive social security are split 50/50 with the company

Out of curiosity are they giving you routes away from Colorado and the mountains because of the snow? Or are you on a specific account?

Welcome to the game called trucking! And hang on, we ain't seen nothing yet!

OUCH, double ouch!

The game is for the company to pay you like are an employee while you bare all the risk of an owner without any of the rewards. If you are an OTR driver with 2-3 years experience and you are making less that 100k, you are dumb…

Sad 😢

100% #SCAM Alert ⚠️

lasted about 91 days with these crooks, was told if i averaged 10,000 miles over the first 3 months i would get 1 cent raise first month made it second month made it third month had 9.996 miles no raise talked to owner he asked if i think i deserve the raise i said not my fault i was 4 miles short cause im not a dispatcher and i nit gonna work for your chicken outfit got another job in 2 days and in 21 years had no tickets and no crashes that were my fault

What app do you use to show your trips you have done

Any way you can add the estimated O/O pay to the graph ?

Do knight break down everything like you’re spreadsheet?

If you leased a truck from them with alot of miles you bought their woes so they dumped it on you. I wouldn't on a new truck to many problems with them i have 05 classic and it made money but i paid my dues on learning and what to do and not do so hang in there go find you a glider truck and someone got longer runs stay off west coast not worth it way fuel is out there and stay out of northeast also

Run

you should have done your homework before signing a lease.. there is tons and tons and tons of videos and websites warning drivers to not do leases.. it's the biggest con in trucking

What spread sheet are you using

Bad deal, way better off with a mom and pop company. Gl

Why take it to the dealer they always overcharge compared to smaller shops

Leased operators lose anywhere from 30-50% of gross revenue and a percentage of the fsc although that is a hidden loss. The only way to truly be independent is to have your own operating authority and have your own customer base. While the cost of said operations is higher, so are the benefits. Buying a truck, leasing it on is a futile venture. As I always said, I can stay home and go broke.....Walk away.

I keep telling people trucking is done.

How many months you got to pay lease security deposit

I do not think you used, trans-parent correctly in your sentence. Did you mean, transparent?

Truckers could not get a pay raise since 1970’s. Truckers love being pushed around by dot and epa. Since truckers agree, enjoy and prefer to be pushed around - no one is taking them seriously - It is also evident in their pay scale, environment in which they also work and live.

Don't forget, some of those (parts and labor) repair and hotel expenses you suffered will be tax deductible, whereas if you were still a company driver they wouldn't be...so that should affect your bottom line some.

Man you need to be a data analyst or something, not a truck driver.

I don’t get why you’re only getting $1.63 a mile I thought national average is $2.15 a mile?

$3000 to fix a sensor?😂 run for your life dude theyre scamming you.