Is Your Trucking Fleet Treating You Fairly?
Be wary of “lease to own” schemes, a more appropriate term might be “indentured slavery.”
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The majority of trucking firms are on the up and up, and want to take care of their drivers. Walmart, for instance, may not pay its cashiers very well, but they pay their drivers up to $90,000 a year. After all, if not for the drivers, they would not be able to deliver the goods and collect the transport fees. However, there are unscrupulous fleet owners who abuse the trust and respect the driver gives them.
Some crooked trucking fleets are charging truckers $300 to $500 a week to lease a vehicle. Some use the immigrant driver’s lack of knowledge of the English language, particularly the written word, against them in contracts.
In addition to the lease fee, there are charges for maintenance, fuel, insurance, parking, and others. Many drivers wind up taking home far less than minimum wage, especially when you consider the hours in the truck on the road.
Some trucking companies call it “lease to own,” but a more appropriate term would be “indentured slavery.”
Is the system rigged in favor of the trucking fleets and against the drivers?
In many cases, it would seem to be the drivers are at the mercy of the trucking fleets and the system. Think about it. Why are these trucking fleets charging the driver maintenance on trucks they are leasing from the company?
Let’s take a look at an average trucker’s “lease to own” charges versus earnings.
Say the driver “earns” $1000 in a week, subtract the $125 insurance, $300 lease, $100 maintenance fee, and another $300 for diesel, what’s left? What’s left is $175, far below the minimum wage for even a forty-hour workweek ($4.38 per hour).
