After Overdrive reporting on a dispute between the National Owner Operators Association and an owner-op engaged with their leasing program (called NOOA Logix) earlier this year, more owner-operators have come forward with similar complaints. NOOA's Mike Boston, meanwhile, has acknowledged some "mistakes."
That earlier report detailed a conflict between Boston's NOOA Logix, and what NOOA representatives said was their first-ever leased owner, Russel Holland. Holland accused Boston of misrepresenting insurance costs, which came in significantly higher than the lease quoted, as well as using a newly reinstated MC number that many brokers denied and outsourcing dispatch duties to a Pakistani firm. Boston and NOOA quibbled with the insurance costs charge and leveled some counter-accusations at Holland, but did not deny using foreign dispatch or a newly reinstated MC number.
[Related: 'Fraud apocalypse': Brokers circling the wagons, cracking down on new carriers]
Since then, two additional owners shared stories that closely mirror Holland's. One also provided documentation showing that Holland wasn't the first leased owner to run under the authority of Boston's WM On Time Trucking small fleet.
Jan and Rob Baker leased on with Boston about a year before Holland, on January 9 in 2023. The lease agreement looked a lot like Russell Holland's. The Bakers' contract had them paying $2,000 into an escrow account and agreeing to pay Boston 20% of every load.
"We had messaged with [Boston] a lot in the year prior" to leasing on, said Jan Baker. "We really wanted to have dedicated runs so we knew where our driver was and our driver knew where he was."
Baker said Boston had promised exactly that -- likewise an inside track on helpful services like fuel cards and trailer rentals.
Instead, the Bakers got "worse runs" and "even worse rates" with nothing but spot market freight, she said. Holland described the same lack of dedicated or direct freight, but by 2024 when Holland leased on, Boston had hired a dispatcher based in Pakistan.
For the Bakers, things got ugly, they said. "He was blaming us, saying we were bad owners [and] we didn’t know what we were doing," said Jan. The Bakers took offense to that. "We have 50 years in transportation experience," Jan added, spanning two countries and both truck and bus operations.
Boston then, according to Baker, denied having ever promised dedicated runs. By "early February," Baker said, they'd flamed out of the contract. And just as Holland described his experience, the Bakers said Boston kept the settlement from the final load as well as the $2,000 in escrow money.
The Bakers took Boston straight to court, and won a default judgment in small claims court in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit in Lee County, Florida. Boston didn't even show up for the court date, they said. The judgement entitled the Bakers to $3,052.97, plus a fee of $350, which will all accrue interest until Boston pays.
Only the Bakers couldn't initially find a valid address to serve Boston the papers. The Midland, Texas, principal place of business listed for Boston's WM On Time Trucking authority filing belongs to an airport parking lot. Reps from Premier Parking previously confirmed no trucking businesses headquartered there, as far as they knew.
"I sent it to the address in Texas, but it’s not a real address. It came back as unknown," said Jan Baker of the Midland parking lot address. She tried several other addresses associated with Boston, including that of his BOC-3 process agent. "I presume he got it because I never heard back."
Overdrive asked Boston for comment on Baker's account, and he admitted some wrongdoing but also attacked this publication for inquiring.
"We recognize that we have made some mistakes in the past," he said. "We strive to do better and we support owner-operators and small carriers. We have a brand-new, small program that we are trying to get started."
Overdrive gave Boston the opportunity to point to advocacy work he'd done or carriers he'd helped, but he declined. Previous organizing and advocacy work from NOOA, like their announced boycott of big brokers, has mostly come in the form of statements without measurable participation. NOOA does pay Lobbyit, a lobbyist company, $20,000 each quarter, according to Opensecrets, a research group that tracks money in politics.
[Related: 'TQL pay me my $8,000': Owner-op confronts broker over nonpayment]
Six months following the Bakers' experience, another owner-operator fell out of a lease through NOOA with a dispute over the final settlement.
Devonte Neal signed on with NOOA in June of 2023 after getting scammed out of a few hundred he paid to an individual to help him establish his MC number, he said. Boston successfully retrieved the money from the scammer, said Neal, earning his trust.
The first whiff of trouble came even before Neal signed the lease, he said. At that time, small fleet owner Joseph Awad headed up what NOOA was calling its carrier division. Neal thought he would lease to Boston's WM On Time Trucking authority, but instead got handed a lease connecting him to Awad's Melody Logistics, LLC, which he had some doubts about given what he saw as a last-minute change.
Neal said Boston vouched for Awad, and that Awad's position as head of the carrier division at NOOA should put him at ease. Neal reluctantly agreed, and leased on, agreeing to pay $325 a week on a $23,400 2016 Freightliner Cascadia with the intention of buying the truck.
Neal had been a member of NOOA's Facebook group since before the official start of NOOA in 2023. Neal closely followed Boston's plan to launch a new load board, which he's been working on for at least a year now, according to his posts in the group. In the previous report on NOOA's leasing program, a broker said Boston offered to pay him a "significant" amount of money to post loads on the board. As of this writing, no public-facing load board has materialized, but NOOA members said Boston did spend the money to have it developed.
Despite insurance coming in higher than expected and giving Melody Logistics 20% of his revenue on top of truck-lease payments, Neal said he was "doing OK" under Awad's authority, but like the Bakers and Holland found a lack of direct or dedicated freight.
"They don’t have loads," said Neal. "I kept asking where the NOOA load board was, and dispatching myself. Money kind of gets low because we're on the spot market and paying all these damn fees."
Neal added that the program didn't come with special rates or business relationships with the network of vendors it farms out its services to. Trailer rentals, for example, came from Repower at the regular rate, Neal said. "This is just third party stuff. This is middle manning."
According to Neal, the lease ended with Boston cussing Neal out and Awad holding back payment, which Awad disputes, saying Neal owed money for repairs.
Neal, like the Bakers and like Holland, initially sought out Boston because he takes a hard line against predatory leasing and scams in trucking, but all three eventually came to see themselves as victims of a scam from Boston.
After the fallout with Neal, Awad said Boston turned against and fired him, and the NOOA masthead changed, this time naming small fleet owner Jayme Anderson as the head of the carrier division (Anderson in June of this year said he has nothing to do with the leasing program).
NOOA's in-house corporate debt collections specialist, Jennifer Chrestman, then went after Awad for payment to Neal, threatening him by saying Boston had contacts at FMCSA and would report Awad to the "FMCSA fraud department" and that former FMCSA administrator Robin Hutcheson would "personally elevate" Awad as a predatory lessor.
[Related: Carrier lease-purchase programs should be 'outlawed': FMCSA truck-lease task force chairman]
"FMCSA will be bombarded with emails reporting your company and your bad behavior. Time is of the essence, govern yourself accordingly," Chrestman wrote to Awad.
The FMCSA does have a Truck Leasing Task Force, but it's an advisory panel, not an enforcement task force, and doesn't pursue individual companies for "bad behavior" in the way NOOA suggested. If NOOA did believe Awad's lease was predatory, it's unclear why they recommended it to Neal.
Awad didn't take Boston or Chrestman too seriously and said he never paid Neal the disputed amount. FMCSA said it was not aware of NOOA's issue with Awad, and since then, the whole dispute essentially has blown over.
Chrestman would herself leave NOOA in July of 2024. Upon leaving, Chrestman cited Boston's conduct as the reason. "I still like NOOA’s values of broker transparency and fighting for the carriers," she said. "I just think that you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar."
Despite the bad blood, all parties here seem to be doing pretty well. The Bakers now work for a tour hauling company, where Jan reports good income while working in some cases with celebrities. Neal still wants Awad to pay him, but he said he's up to four trucks and leased on with a better outfit. Awad's staying afloat, and Boston's WM On Time Trucking now lists five drivers and five power units in FMCSA's Safer database, after showing just one in June. Chrestman still works at her debt collection firm, Tucker, Albin and Associates.
[Related: NOOA leasing program in battle with its first contracted owner]
