management trainee

trailer mechanic

outside sales representative

operations assistant

account executive

Xtra-Lease

No one day here at Xtra Lease is the same. One day you can have very few trailers come through the gate, but a lot of road calls requests where mechanics and vendors drive to locations to service equipment; while the next day you can have 20+ gate moves, phones ringing off the hook, and vendors stopping by to talk about invoicing or try and gain new business. I've learned how to multi-task effectively; switching to tasks that or urgent, making a note, and then coming back and finishing prior tasks effectively. The hardest part of the job is management as they preach autonomy, but every little decision that affects senior managements bonus gets put on blast and you must have a good reason why you made the choice you made. Micromanagement here is handle by a sales team who is not involved with daily operational duties. They need to have someone in senior management who has the same skill sets as operation managers, put in place to advise and lead them. Having a sales manager tell an operations individual how to check in a trailer is laughable. They really need to revise their advancement opportunity for their operations staff as after an operations manager, there is no additional advancement opportunity. The highest title you can receive is an operations manager and you can get promoted to bigger branches while your sales side can shoot all the way up to CEO if they work hard enough. Re-vamp your career opportunities so ALL employees who show positive skill sets towards a specific position can apply. Also, need to look into more employees at a branch. Smaller branches get overlooked. Having to work 3 months alone with no lunch break and not compensated for working the hours can lead to a lawsuit by the US Department of Labor

Typical work days consisted of inspecting trailers going in and out. Managed vendor and mechanic repair work on trailers. made constant decisions on damages, work handed out to vendors, and what trailers i wanted to put on lease or rental to customers. As an assistant my co-workers were great. I worked with 3 other Operations guys and a sales guy. We all got along extremely well and communicated just as effectively. our leadership came from a regional stand point and then  corporate. there were multiple levels of leadership and management. Being micro managed was probably the one aspect of the job that seemed to be a negative. hardest part of the job was just making sure you didn't miss damages  on trailers. The company saw it as a way to re-coup money on our assets on returns. When I was promoted and moved to Albany, NY, I worked by myself a majority of the time operationally. I had 1 sales manager. I enjoyed working by myself because it allowed me to embrace the responsibility of everything in one location. Everything was on me and I thrived on it similar to what I am dealing with, with my current company competitor Premier Trailer Leasing. I learned and continue to learn about the transportation industry and how demanding and fast paced it can be. At the same time I have learned how laid back it is if you know what you are doing and not overwhelmed by everything that goes on.

If you are looking for high earning potential and with a relatively good work life balance you may initially be sold on working for Xtra Lease. On paper the job sounds appealing but as you dig in, you will quickly see many glaring red flags in their company culture. 

The company is grossly micromanaged from the top down, and as a sales rep you are expected to maintain a near minute-by-minute recap of your day. So much time is focused on maintaining individual rep accountability that sales, the primary function of the position, become secondary to providing live updates of your meetings and what you're doing.

Additionally, be prepared to relocate. I was made aware of this early on but was not told that the terms of the relocation were completely and totally non-negotiable. I was offered a "promotion" to another branch in the country and was terminated after asking for a slight salary bump. Yes, you read that right - Terminated because I attempted to renegotiate the terms of my relocation across the country.  

Needless to say I was utterly shocked and totally disheartened by this decision to treat a hard working employee this way. 

My one recommendation is this... If you value yourself as a person, do not work for this company regardless of how good the money may seem. No amount of money is worth your dignity as a human being.

I have a very strong feeling that they do not care about the Operations Managers in Training and it probably won't get better if you are promoted to Operations Manager. They say they only promote from within but if you are in operations, almost no one gets to switch over to Assistant Branch Manager and they won't train you either. If you want to become an Area Manager or VP of a region, you can't without being a Branch Manager so you will likely never make it past Operations Manager of a medium sized fleet. Also the promotions to mega branches (there aren't that many)  that everyone tries to get are almost always held onto for decades at a time so good luck getting their spot if it opens. 
On the other hand, the Branch Managers and Operations Managers are usually chill and fun to work with so if you do work here, it shouldn't be too bad unless you are within driving distance of Region HQ. Region team is not your friend, regardless of how wide a smile they have, you are most likely just numbers to them.

This position is everything that they promise.  They will uphold their end salary wise and with the ability to move in the company.  If you are willing to move and are self motivated to sell then i say go for it.  But be wary there are some drawbacks. You need to be willing to move to some undesirable areas in the country.   Along with that, it is hard to say when a position will become available for advancement and how long between openings that it will be.   They do not have many career advancement opportunities if you are outside of the sales management path.  They do lack on feedback, training, and follow up to their employees, at least from an upper management standpoint.  They were once by far the largest provider in the market, but the competition is pushing them aside with cheaper, comparable alternatives.  In fact the competition is opening new locations while they are closing some locations.  In addition to that, they have changed their spec and have lost control of the market that they once had a hold on.   I feel that they will continue to lose control of the market with their increased pricing and drive to change a market that doesn't have a need to change.

Work/life balance with M-F hours. There are no pay raises. Only promotions but you must relocate nationwide to be promoted. Upper management/home office micro manages the branches to a T. They assign petty projects that are a waste of your time as they never use what you turn in or give you feedback. Management, unfortunately, tries to make your day more stressful and this adds up over time. You'll work at a branch with 5ish employees (depending on the size of the branch) You better have a good rapport with co-workers because they can make or break the job. They promise all these opportunites for promotions but keep closing branches and many other branches I wouldn't accept moving to. The day to day job is very fast paced and you must be willing to work partially outside. Also, the company cut cleaning services during the '09 recession so branches employees have to mop, vacuum, etc

This job attempts to cultivate a certain culture where you make sacrifices and work as hard as you possibly can for a promotion to Operations Manager. This goal is hung over you during your entire time, as your entire employment is training you for this promotion. However, the close-knit office culture and constant micro-managing from the regional office makes waiting for this goal miserable, and because of COVID, the opportunity was pushed further and further out. You may be qualified or very good at your job having sunk time and effort into being good, but your manager may dislike you and talk behind your back, or report poor performance to the regional team, who decide whether you should be promoted in the end. 

Decent benefits, an okay opportunity if you can stick it out-- Meanwhile, horrible pay for your work and responsibility load (I was managing the branch for long stretches of time myself, with no reward)

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working with different drivers, and learning new things about trucking. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
When one person is not in sync, and not working accordingly; it slows down other departments. Also when phones are ringing heavy, and there’s trucks pulling up at the same time to be inspected. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It’s pretty chill and laid back; lots of downtime to do whatever; especially towards the end of the day. But as far as the people, it’s cool if your not black. But if your black you’ll soon feel like the black sheep there, and it gets real awkward over time. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Answering emails and phone calls. 
Inspecting incoming trailers 
Identifying the proper work task for mechanics
Billing customers invoices 
Typical everyday office work 
- Scanning/ printing documents

Xtra Lease is a good place to work overall but they make it unnecessarily tough on their sales people to earn a living. I don’t understand the business model here because the company is the biggest player in the game yet is constantly shrinking, closing branches, and laying people off. We rent trailers for 10 to 20% more than most competitors which results in us losing 9 out of 10 deals to smaller, more aggressive competitors.  On top of that the company refuses to negotiate or work with customers on delivery costs and related issues in order to get deals done where as our competitors will. The result is predictable and you lose deals constantly which is very hard on sales people who are at least partly dependent upon commission to make a living.  This contributes to our problematic turnover rate.

XTRA Lease is part of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, which gives them the resources to supply above average benefits but that is about it for the Pros. 

The Cons are plenty. The silo mentality is strong throughout the organization. Any resemblance to a workplace culture is nearly non-existent. Upper management is very distant and their loyalty to even the most tenured, dedicated and talented employees is zero. I've never worked at a place that essentially discouraged new ideas and input from their employees. I worked there for nearly 10 years and not one person was promoted from our department. A part of that reason is that the company is 35% smaller than it was 10 years ago. They are not growing. They are stale and it would take a complete overhaul to see real change.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Management trainee 16 salaries reported	$44,750 per year
Trailer mechanic 16 salaries reported	$29.59 per hour
Outside sales representative 35 salaries reported	$74,629 per year
Operations assistant 54 salaries reported	$38,991 per year
Account executive 21 salaries reported	$70,119 per year

Working at XTRA Lease: Company Overview and Reviews

XTRA Lease

XTRA Lease Ratings

Popular jobs at XTRA Lease

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected