New Scheme Rent to Own Tires!!!!

[bradepb]

Originally Posted By: Fleetmon
On a sort-of-related-topic, a lot of heavy-duty fleets lease their tires and pay by the mile. Depending on how the contract is written, the company can leave the responsibility of proper air pressure, wheel torque, alignment monitoring, and etc to the leasing company.....makes a lot of sense when you have 10k tires on the ground.


Quite common here too. We don"t do it on our fleet but a lot of school fleets and large truck fleets do it. They even come to your yard and monitor pressure ,wear etc. Two biggest expenses are tires and fuel so getting the max out of both saves.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I guess I don't understand. Even if they were to throw it on a high interest credit card, seems like they would spend less.

I do like the 15'' tires on my Focus. If I absolutely had to, I could get the cheapest of cheap tire for $50...

I feel bad for people that are desperate enough to have to do this

, not for the ones who use this to put 22'' wheels and rubber band tires on their 15 year old car

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: Donald
The article had one person in an Infinity rent tires. Come on.


Why is that hard? They (Infiniti) made a Pathfinder sized SUV for 10 or so years. It could be that the person picked up one of those cheap and now needs tires for it. From what I remember, the old Infinitis depreciated a lot.

Other than that, Renting tires is insanity.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Originally Posted By: Shannow


If the lease company is making money, then how does it make sense over doing it yourself ?

Extreme example...hiring in cleaning staff full time (not hiring a one man company for evening couple of hours)...how can that be cheaper than hiring the staff directly.


Because in the case of tires, there is the road damage risk, which is assumed by the lease company. Therefore the operating cost for the operator (including labor for change-out ) is fixed and predictable. I used to do financial planning for a large transit authority, and once the tire contract was written, your per-mile tire cost for the duration of the contract was a given.

Tires as a service makes a lot of sense for a fleet. You provide them space in the facilities to do their work, they do the rest. Periodically you tally up the miles and write them a check. End of story.

 

[99Saturn]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
I guess I don't understand. Even if they were to throw it on a high interest credit card, seems like they would spend less.


Unless the person can't get approved for a credit card.

 

[Fleetmon]

^ this. The company that owns the tires has a vested interest in running them as long as possible without damaging them, i.e. viable recappable tires and running them with proper air pressure. The lease company would also identify vehicles that exhibited signs of alignment issues and if our company didn't take care of the problem, could be billed for destroying a tire.

Our fleet runs about 60,000,000 miles per year and it makes sense to not have to purchase the tires when leasing them runs about $500 per tire per year and the leasing company accepts the lions share of the risk. Fleet expenses are high enough as it is and as stated prior, tires and fuel are the largest expenses for a fleet......we use a little over 1,000,000 gallons of fuel per year and about 45,000 gallons of engine oil just for PM's.

 

[mjoekingz28]

Originally Posted By: Fleetmon
^ this. The company that owns the tires has a vested interest in running them as long as possible without damaging them, i.e. viable recappable tires and running them with proper air pressure. The lease company would also identify vehicles that exhibited signs of alignment issues and if our company didn't take care of the problem, could be billed for destroying a tire.

Our fleet runs about 60,000,000 miles per year and it makes sense to not have to purchase the tires when leasing them runs about $500 per tire per year and the leasing company accepts the lions share of the risk. Fleet expenses are high enough as it is and as stated prior, tires and fuel are the largest expenses for a fleet......we use a little over 1,000,000 gallons of fuel per year and about 45,000 gallons of engine oil just for PM's.



I don't believe it. 1 million gallons to 60 million miles. Are you running Honda Insights or something similar?

 

[bvance554]

I got a flyer for this in the mail the other day. Rent to own tires and wheels. Someone is doing it.

 

[EType]

Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
Originally Posted By: Fleetmon
Our fleet runs about 60,000,000 miles per year ...we use a little over 1,000,000 gallons of fuel per year and about 45,000 gallons of engine oil just for PM's.


I don't believe it. 1 million gallons to 60 million miles. Are you running Honda Insights or something similar?


If he is then with a 3.4qt crankcase capacity, he's changing the oil every 1133 miles on average.

Great 60mpg fleet fuel economy management. But hold off on the Jiffy Lube visits.

 

[Fleetmon]

sorry....I guess the missing zero would make more sense.....our fleet averages around 6 MPG.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: Fleetmon
^ we use a little over 1,000,000 gallons of fuel per year and about 45,000 gallons of engine oil just for PM's.


What do you do with all the used motor oil? Do you have to recycle it or can you mix it with your fuel and run it through your fleet?

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
People are poor for a reason, I have no sympathy for anyone doing business with these places.


Some people are poor due to stupidity, others due to circumstance. When my son was born 19 years ago, he was in and out of the hospital several times, (we didn't think he was going to make it a couple of times). We didn't have the greatest of insurance so all these hospital visits started adding up. That kept us in poverty for about 10 years. While I never went for things like these "rent to own" places, we did do what so many do, sell most everything of value we owned to pay bills. Then, when you run out of things of value, you start just getting by, (like selling your good car and buying a car at the police auction - I picked up 3 Lincoln town cars this way for 150 bucks each - I used two to keep the one running). If you're poor, you have to be creative and some people simply don't have that creativity and become trapped in the poverty cycle. Today, my son is 19 years old, is six feet tall, weighs a little over 200 pounds and is all muscle.

 

[Mr Nice]

I saw on TV during the Nightly Business Report that places like Rent a Center have been doing great due to people 'renting' big screen TV's / electronics, appliances, etc...

 

[Fleetmon]

all of our used oils are sold through statewide contracts. A few of our facilities tried waste oil heaters but the maintenance involved was not worth the effort (I doubt the maintenance was that difficult but IMO, they probably had too many hands in the handling of the waste oil which led to "dirty" oil).