Lease/Purchase?

The Easter Bunny is real ... now the easret bunny on the other hand, is a mythical creature.

 

there is definitely more money to be made as an o/o. but not if you are going to sign the typical mileage pay lease. those typically pray around 1.40/ mile after the fsc. even after my high % dead head, my cheapest loads pay better that. if you have decent credit, not great, just no major fouls, repos/bankruptcy. and have saved just a little bit of money as a down payment, any major truck dealer can get you into a good truck, with finance terms you can succeed under. much much better terms than any lease purchase plan will offer.

the problem with these carrier lp plans Is they are all based on 2800 or more weekly miles just to break even. they have payments as much as a thousand dollars higher than what a finance company would expect.
so save up about five grand, shop for a good but cheap and basic truck that will get the job done and is specced to get good fuel mileage, and find a good percentage pay carrier pulling open deck. that's a situation in which you can make some quality money. carriers tho look into: admiral merchants, fikes, mercer, landstar, ace duran. there is probably a couple more out there, but I don't know of them.

 

Even CRE breaks even at 1800 miles ... I break even at 1000.

 

I've seen post after post on this forum from guys talking about their lease purchase plan and most need to run nearly 3k miles per week just to earn company driver wages. very very few lp guys make substantially more income than the typical company driver. and not a single one of them what an o/o leased to a quality carrier makes. to be clear I'm speaking of carrier lease purchase, not independent financing companies where you get the truck and sign on to whatever carrier you like.

 

I'm very shocked anyone could consider this a good deal. the truck is either over priced, or really freaking nice and more truck than any first time buyer should have. seriously man, just call a major truck dealer, atleast do that much to see what type of terms you can get. first time buyers should always go with a no nonsense no bling cheap but dependable unit. take the truck out of the equation and it's still a bad deal. plates and permits run me several hundred les than you will pay, my occupational accident ins (you can't get woman's comp as a contractor, but everyone calls occ/acc work comp) is under 200 a month. 130 for ins isn't too terribly high, if that includes bobtail/unladen ins. if not, it's a rip off. and then you are talking 1.31/mile?! just do the math man!! you won't make money running for that rate, any one that says you can can't do math.

3000 miles a week( why anyone wants to run that hard, week in and week out is beyond me but hey, let's assume you can handle it. that's 3940 gross revenue per week @1.31a mile

now let's add up your expenses.
what mpg do you expect? do you get fuel discounts? (if you don't know the answer to these two things you are not ready to own a truck) let's say you get a REALLY good fuel discount so your average cost of fuel is 3.60 a gallon. and you get a fairly average 6.5mpg. that's 55.3 cents per mile for fuel. 1659 bucks a week.
6 cents a mile for escrow is 180 week. factor in all the fixed costs you listed above and we have a total weekly output of
2502.65 in expenses, not touching oil changes, tires, or anything else (unless you can withdraw from the escrow fund for everyday maintenance items,I thought those were reserved for unexpected major breakdowns)
after just these basic costs and using a ridiculous expectation of 3k miles week in and week out you are looking at 1437.35 a week with a lot more expenses coming out, losing that great health care you mentioned earlier, and we haven't even touched on income or self employment tax yet. or even set aside a single penny for that crazy high 18k dollar buyout due. does this still sound like a good deal to you?!

 

I don't think the price is the worst for a zero down truck, but 1.31 is ridiculous. You'll make more as a company driver making .40 cpm.

 

for comparison sakes I'll put down some numbers of what you could be doing.
You go to a truck dealer after saving a few thousand bucks 3 to 5, you buy a cheap no frills truck, your payments are about 850 a month with no balloon payment at the end, you pick up a basic flatbed for another 500, and you average a very easily obtainable 1.80 mile after factoring in the fuel cost on your dead head. You run 2400 miles a week getting the same 6.5mpg(tho I always get a lot higher pulling a skateboard vs a box on average), and buying fuel for the same price
4320 gross revenue
1327.20 out for fuel
315 weekly for truck and trailer (1350 monthly payments, divide by 30 times 7 gives you weekly)
2677.8 revenue so far, keeping your original other expens (tho they are high) we get another 317.50 plus 144 in escrow.
2216.30 weekly vs your 1437.35. how's that deal look now? nearly 800 less, running 600 more miles, and this one got you a brand new trailer.

You are welcome

 

When you are actually buying the truck in a proper purchase agreement, and just running under the company's numbers, it does work. We get full freight rate and fuel surcharge, and pay a 10% fee on the freight rate only. Just like if we had owned the truck from a different source and were running under their numbers. The only kind of "lease" deal I would ever consider. It's not even really a lease deal compared to most others.