I have been a lease purchase operator for about 4 months now with TransAm.
The plan itself is one of the top ones out there I believe, but they will not help you when you have a problem.
They leased me a piece of crap truck. A lemon if you will. The first day after I left orientation with my truck it broke down. I put it in the shop the following week and yes since I just started out they did differ my first truck payment. Ok 2 days after I got it out of the shop it started acting up again. The check engine light came on and because it didn't affect the performance of truck I let it go for 2 months because after my rough start I needed to make some money. I spoke with the leasing dept. About getting a different truck and they said I could but they would prefer if I kept it because they didn't want me to trade one problem for another. I said ok fine I'll keep it and maybe the bugs just need to be worked out of it. The truck is an '08 it had 96000 miles on it when I leased it.
Anyway I got tired of seeing the check engine light staying on and I had built up my maintanence account so decided I would put it in the shop again. Well i came off my hometime and had a load going to Cheyenne. I figured ok cool I can drop it on the yd in Olathe that way I can get a loaner truck they always said I could get. And also I would at least have some miles for the wk. The ld had 2 extra days on it so there was no rush to get it to Cheyenne. I picked it up Monday it didn't deliver til Friday. Long story short they wouldn't let me drop it on the yd and they didnt even have a loaner truck. So I went in the hole that wk. I arrived in Cheyenne wednesday afternoon put truck in shop and didnt get it out til Saturday morning. This is just one example.in the three and a half months I been with TA my truck has been in the shop 6 times.
You are an owner operator of sorts but yet you have to go thru them everytime you need something done on your truck. Even oil changes they have to approve before it's done. But then when you need help it's not there.
I was runnin good for the first 2 months. I take every load they give me and my miles were great. After 2 months things started going down hill. I now have to fight like hell for miles. I'm not doing anything different. You can say its slow time of yr. Maybe but I dont believe thats the only thing.
They are a student geared company. I am an experienced driver with 10 yrs on the rd. Clean MVR and all that. But it doesn't matter to them. They treat experienced drivers like students. I don't have anything against students everybody has to make a start somewhere. But to treat an experienced driver like a student is just not right. If you're not in a "click" with somebody in the office you will not get any respect.
Before you sign a lease with TransAm do your homework. Talk to as many drivers as you can. There will be alot that tell you the same things I have and there will be some that are very happy. I was one of the happy ones for the first 2 months but not anymore.
I beleive there is potential to make a good living here but you have to go thru alot of BS to get there
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