lease vs. buying outright... what does it cost??

While I agree there are ways to look up a truck's value in a black book, what you really need to do is establish what those values are in your area. And at the same time, you can learn a lot of info about various dealerships from repeated perusal of the paper. For example, last summer a trucking outfit in Wisconsin sold off a bunch of their tractors. They were all relatively late model, similar mileage, decent tractors. I took a close look at a couple of them. By looking at the various dealers and the price they were asking for essentially similar equipment, I was able to identify solidly some dealers who sell at decent market prices, and some dealers that tended to be 2000-2500 higher than they should be. There is one dealer that always had nice equpment, but I always had a suspicion that their prices were just a shade higher than I thought they should be. I used this bunch of used trucks to confirm that suspicion. It doesn't mean that I wouldn't buy a truck from them, it just means that I would be more agressive in knocking the price down or getting some extras thrown in on a deal.

When I buy a truck, because of my work, I have some very specific requirements and specs. By weekly review of the paper, I have found some dealers in various areas that tend to have more trucks specced as I need them. So I can eliminate a lot of dealers off of my list because I know they are very unlikely to have anything fitting my needs. For various reasons, there are an awful lot of trucks equpped as I need them in the Minnesota and Iowa area, so when buying time comes that is a fertile area for me to look at. My own area is not so good, though I have found some dealers who tend to have a lot of liteweight trucks set up as i require.

A blue book for values is a valuable resource, but my weekly pass through the truck trader has supplied me with a lot of information as well. I know some things about some dealers that the dealers probably don't even know about themselves. And that gives me a little bit of an edge when I walk onto the lot.

And all I ask out of life is an unfair advantage......

 

I spoke with my dad earlier today, and he had stated that business owners get taxed 15% higher then us employees out of our paychecks. This tax is what feeds poor people who don't want to work by the way. So after deducting Federal Taxes out of the $100,000.00 at 43%. It comes to %57,000.00 minus our Payments of $31,200.00/yr, comes out to $25,800.00. Now we deduct our Fuel, maintenance, and insurance if not already included in the payment. The rest will be take home pay, which will be less than your average fellow company employee.

 

the biggest mistake you can do is to get involved with a lease/purchase with a trucking company.you will get screwed over 9 out of 10 times.they will run you good at first and then in the last year they will starve you out and take the truck back unless youve saved your $$$ to make a payoff.if you do make it the end you have a truck thats wore out & not worth even half of what you paid for it.its a bad idea

 

I'm sorry, I may have worded that incorrectly, I wasn't trying to refer to paying employees. I was stating out of the money the business makes, he is charged 15% more for federal tax. I apologize for that, sometimes I have difficult time expressing what I mean.

 

There are some very good thoughts in this thread. I just want to add a couple of my own, which may echo some others, but some things cannot be said enough....

Leasing a truck through a motor carrier, with a requirement that for as long as you lease that truck from them you must stay with that company, is a dead end proposition. All of your eggs are in their basket, and they control every last aspect of that proposition. Those lease agreements are laden with fees, outrageous charges, and the weekly or monthly payments for those trucks are equally outrageous. The company wins all the way around when people sign on.

When you buy or lease a truck outside of an arrangement with a motor carrier, your portability options increase substantially, and will allow you to move on someplace else if things go bad. In addition to that factor, a carrier that knows you can fly away, and does not have any stranglehold on your throat, will treat you better and work harder to keep you on board, that is if they are a decent company to begin with.

Whenever you opt to buy or lease a truck, know what you are going to sign to own or lease. If you are responsible for the upkeep of the truck, get it inspected by a reputable shop for it's roadworthiness and mechanical fitness BEFORE you sign on that bottom line.

Anytime you lease equipment, READ those agreements before you sign them, and make sure you are comfortable with ALL clauses contained within them. Have anything you are unsure explained to you to YOUR satisfaction, but remember that oral agreements are non-binding and unenforceable in court. What you sign is what you agree to. If you don't agree with it, have it stricken from all copies that you sign, or walk away from the deal if the other party will not remove objectionable language from a contract. ALL contracts are negotiable, but if the other party will not negotiate the terms of that contract, then get up, say "thanks, but no thanks" and let them soak someone else.

 

I sure hope you don't do your own taxes much less anyone else's taxes. Based on the example you are giving, a person would pay about 5 times as much tax as they owe doing it your way. Thanks, but NO THANKS for your financial advice.

 

Do you have a link to the truck black book? I could not find it and I am looking into becoming an owner/operator. I want to go the route of not leasing from the same company that gives you the freight. Thanks!

 

SOOO, if I have disected this right, the ONLY good lease is one that is NOT thru a company. You lease on to one of the better companies to keep you running, and you are a team.
Teams (husband/sife) can do well with a lease rather than outright buy due to all payments being deductible instead of depreciating payments etc?
Is this correct, or have I missed something?
Noob here in school now, with wife planning on company team driving for first year at least, then maybe O/O. Baby boomer age (50).
Thanks for the help and advice!
Cheers

 

That's not good money for a team to clear each week. A single driver should do the same money. If that was all a team cleared then a lot of people would be out of business.

Keep in mind that the truck is aways going to be worth what someone will pay for it. The book values and what it sells for are two different things. If some of you recall back in 2000 through 2003 when fuel prices doubled over night trucks were a dime a dozen. I priced out a 97 379 O/O specs in showroom shape cosmetically as well as mechanically for $14,000. This year I sold a 1993 flat-top for over double that

If you are hell bent on being an Owner Operator read this post http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/ask-an-owner-operator/13608-so-you-want-own-your-own.html along with the others about insurance and the other things that are involved in this business. It gives you a break down of the expenses and some of the things involved.
Also IF you are going to lease a truck I sure wouldn't lease it from Prime, if I recall correctly you would have a balloon payment at the end of the lease which is based on the market value of the truck. What I might suggest is IF you decide to do a lease one year into the lease if there isn't a clause that prevents you from doing so, I'd start looking in to getting the truck refinanced as by then you will have the documents to prove that you can make enough to pay the loan. However you will NOT have the business experience concerning tags, insurance, taxes, etc so you should do your homework on that during the first year of the lease.

This also resolves the issue of being obligated to that company and hence keeping you there even if you aren't content or making the money that you could else where.

I never had a problem making $2300.00 per month combined payments on the trucks and trailers, but I have years of experience behind me and I did my homework so my situation is different than most that get in the business. I can say there is no way I'd go with $2,300.00 per month lease payments or loan payments on just a truck and no trailer, unless I was attempting to pay it off in a short period of time.

What most people don't know is that you can reduce the principle by paying extra on it each month either by splitting the payment and making two per month or when you make the payment add an extra amount in with the regular payment amount and direct the extra money to-wards the principle balance ONLY. That reduces the amount financed hence the interest that you are paying and will let you pay the loan off faster with out being obligated to higher fixed payments. You have to READ the contract and make sure there is NO prepayment or early payment restrictions. Most companies will add it in IF you ask unless they have a policy against it.