Nationalease

I only read your last post and the original post so if some of this has already been stated I apologize in advance. One of the main things with leasing companies (Salem, Ideal, Pac, Worldwide ect.) is that they want to have a minimum time in business typically two years (you can buy out this clause typically $10 k per year per truck deposit). Basically they want to see that you are established and can maintain your business. The first leasing company I ever used actually called on current customers to see how we did and if they were happy with the service.

I have quite a few trucks leased and the average monthy payment is $2200 plus $0.08 per mile. It is not a bad deal they keep the maintence up on them because if something happens then they are paying. One of the main reasons I got into leasing was that I had a customer that required 24 hour dedicated servcie with trucks moving product non stop there was a clause in the contract we had that if a truck was down for more than two hours we would get penalized if a load was missed. Every leasing company I talked to at the time had no problem offering replacement truck option with in an hour and it worked out great.

Also you may have misread that lease on the Ryder truck becasue they are the most expensive of all leasing companies I have dealt with. With Ryder they would be around .15 per mile these are my experiences on leases they have bid with me.

 

Not going to diminish your question but even if you out right rent a rig you still need your own authority and all the other little tidbits they can penny you to death on, so wheither you rent, lease or other means you have to factor in the legal expenses as well.

 

I've spent $14,000 on repairs since I bought my truck in July.

It's not if, just when you'll spend money on repairs. It's partly why i put 15 cpm in maintenance.

 

I haven't spent any money that would lead me to believe my truck is a lemon.

I'll get you a break down on it this weekend.

 

See that's the thing about free advice. You don't get to be choosy with the answers. The reverse is true as well. When I take the time to type out a thoughtful response and the OP that asked the question proceeds to tell me how wrong I am, well.. I'm not too inclined to follow that topic much more. Did you ever think that maybe some of those posts you don't like actually have merit and come from someone's personal experience?

So here's my two bits on the rental idea, if you can even find a company willing to work with you. Another way to consider the pricing on a lease or rental: like insurance. You're betting something will go wrong and the supplier is betting it won't. They hedge their bet with maintenance and probably a lengthy study of mean time and cost of failures. Then they will charge you for the worst possible case no matter what actually transpires during the term. The only renters that have any leverage will be large fleets with a similar body of knowledge they use as negotiating leverage. Or they take on some of the risk by owning all or part of the maintenance plan.

In any event, you will find that in most cases, a rental will cost you more than other options will in the long run. Penske, Ryder, and the like wouldn't be in business if it didn't work that way. Renting doesn't magically make the risk go away. Someone pays for that and it isn't the rental company. Even if you get repairs included, you still are impacted by loss of revenue/reputation in a breakdown. Replacement truck will take care of much of that, and the cost for that standby truck is baked into your rate. Don't kid yourself that it isn't.

A more common scenario is something stupid like a tire or minor mechanical issue. You're stuck on the side of the road waiting for the authorized road service to take their sweet time getting there from the nearest terminal 500 miles away. In the mean time, had it not been for that, you'd have looked up the nearest road service suppliers in the area and had a service truck out in an hour or two. Not saying that's always gonna be the case. Sometimes they might be quick about it. Thing is, you have to work it through them and you don't have final say about how it gets handled.

If your real fear is with buying a lemon, there is no way to avoid that 100%. Do your due diligence and learn what the common issues are with whatever spec you've decided to equip with. Before buying or leasing in the case of a Lone Mountain or the like, get an independent inspection, oil samples, and dyno. That will usually prevent getting something that might have an imminent catastrophic failure, but of course still no 100% guarantee. Regardless of what you buy, you can pretty much count on a few thousand dollars of stuff to fix in the first month or two. It just works that way. You'll be fixing all the stuff that last owner elected to bail out of. I've been through it three times as a buyer and once as a seller. So maybe not the most extensively qualified member of the peanut gallery, but my wallet has a few scars on it for credibility.

 

You might not like to hear the truth but that's what it is. You'll see when you get out here the rates won't support that. For someone so risk averse you sure seem to have some blinders on to that key little fact.