Do larger trucking companies buy or lease their trucks?

Not sure about all companies but i run ltl and we buy our trucks. And they get ran until they are unusable. Pretty much new trucks go to the road where they get miles put on them. Some get 1000+ miles a day. Not sure how they decide but at some point they become Extra/spare trucks and or local trucks. Or they get sent to centers with lower mileage runs. And they will finish there usefulness in that position.

 

pretty much every mega buys their trucks. It would be rare that they didn't.

 

Most buy them, Usually (but not always) the ones that lease are the ones that aren’t really a trucking company, they just need a truck to move their own stuff from point a to point b

 

Swift leases thier trucks.

 

Most buy in bulk straight from the factory. The paperwork goes through a specific Dealership. A 500, 800,1000, or more purchase gets a huge discount. Dealer makes a reduced flat commission, since it’s only one transaction. Cost per Truck is up to 35%, maybe more of a single Truck sale. Depending on how many are bought. Often the Dealer doing the sale, has a deal to buy them back after 3 yrs. under 350k miles. Or similar deals. Company keeps new equipment with minimal maintenance costs. Maybe a couple sets of steers. Truck cost of operation stays low, like Drivers pay, simply another deduction.

 

I've seen this at my company an some others in the past. In the permit pack there is an equipment lease. It's called a lease agreement. My company is listed as the lessee. Our address is the location listed for the equipment. Pretty basic. It has the headings term, commencement date, lease payments, payment schedule, an deposit. Our safety guy is signed off as the lessee. Our owner is signed off as a managing member lessor. So it seems as they're leasing the equipment to theirselves. I always figured it must give them some kinda tax advantage. Our trade cycle is roughly every 3 yrs an we have a standing order of 50 trucks a year from volvo. Maybe someone else can answer why they set this lease up like this.

 

We have about 90 trucks and they are 100% leased through Ryder. We get them brand new straight from Freightliner. Specced how we want. I think we have four year leases. Maintenance is fully included and we have a Ryder shop in our yard staffed 24/7

 

Most of the larger have 2 companies
Company #1 "company name" leasing they are the ones buying the truck and all the tax benefits.
Company #2 "the real company" (swift, prime, us xpress ect) leases from company #1 and get all the tax benefits of leasing..