Western Express Lease Purchase,,,the good and the ugly
by Lease purchase
(Nashville Tn)
Okay over the next few days I'm going to tell you about my experience with the Western Express lease purchase program. It appears to be a good program from the outside looking in. the famous of all, the read through it will tell you that the equipment is well maintained... and promise you 2500 to 3000 miles a week. they will also promise you that you will pay I think it's $700 a week and payments. a couple of things at the recruiters and do not tell you is that you are required to buy fuel at pilot and Flying J truck stops. so as an owner operator, if you're trying to save money on fuel and if your cross the street is 30 cents per gallon cheaper than the pilot or Flying J you are not allowed to fill up there. something else that they changed is the percentage they charge you for the equipment rental and it's based upon miles so one week you're a Crip equipment rental might be 30, the next week it might be 60 miles that you run. I experienced the Western Express lease purchase program and if dispatch would have giving me the miles that I was promised, it would have been an OK program and I would have stayed. even though the truck was not well maintains and after I pick it up its at the shop for a week. they gave you a 30 day warranty on the truck. so in that 30 days you need to find out what's wrong with the truck and get
it fixed. so consequently you will not be making a lot of money if your trucks in the shop the first month. I found that dispatch and the people that handle the lease purchase program were very nice. overall it appears to be a pretty good company it's just that they are not serious about ensuring that the lease purchase driver gets what they were promised before they came. another thing to that you want to be aware of is that as a lease purchase driver they can hold your final check up to 45 days after you resign. if the truck is not turn back to Birmingham Alabama out with all the equipment, they will charge you I believe it's at 3 cents per mile to get the truck back there. its wing the two's CRST Malone and Western Express I think that even though CRST Malone has a higher percentage per mile rate that they charge you for repairs, it is a better program only because you are paying for the equipment plus you have the ability to pick your own load and you are not depend upon the whim of the company. that is the biggest drawback of this lease purchase program. if you don't have to make 1200 to 1500 a week, it's a good program because you will end up with a truck, assuming that they will give you miles at the end of the lease in order for you to pay off the truck. that's the best I can do for now if you have any thoughts please post them.