Lease Purchase - Farm2Fleet Trucking

OK, I know, another lease purchase thread. But thought this should go under its own thread.

And the reason I keep coming around to this is I believe the concept of a good program is a valid one to help drivers become O/O's. And I agree that in a perfect world a driver should pay cash and have a large reserve. But we are far from a perfect world and I am the type of person that is willing to help someone achieve a better life. I have had help and my wife and I believe in pay it forward.

Will also state that what I am looking for here is feed back. In my position I am presented with finance deals on a weekly basis. Most are worthless, have one or more terms that I can't live with or are plain scams. This one seems more like a program I would do if I wanted to be in the finance game. We have a driver working with them now, they have over 100 trucks on the road and have good references.


What I would like is feedback.

1. This is an example of the type of equipment they are financing. Basic, high mile, easy to fix and work on starter truck.
2. They will help with repairs and will pay to make sure the truck is DOT legal.
3. At the end of the term you own the truck with a $1 buy-out.
4. Very few trucks have been returned. They have even helped finance major repairs.
5. Truck can be taken to another carrier. I even get the feeling that they will work with you to go to a carrier that is not currently approved with them. I doubt they would be comfortable if you wanted to become independent but I am sure that would be a case by case scenario.

One of the things that I like is that they are requiring something down. Not a huge amount but something. Terms seem to be in the $1500 - $2500 down, $375/week range for 18-24 months. One of the keys is that they look that when the lease is completed that they average O/O is still going to have some life in the truck. And if this is something that we decide to do our drivers tend to have less miles so they could use the truck as a good down payment on another truck or still run it for several years.

Here is a sample truck. I have removed all information on the company so that I am not advertising for them.

So what are you thoughts? What am I missing?



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[TD="align: left"]2005 Freightliner Columbia
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[TD="class: normalBold"]Price:[/TD]
[TD="class: normalBold"]$375 Weekly lease
24 months
$2,500 down payment
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[TD="class: normalBold"]Vin:[/TD]
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[TD="class: normalBold"]Mileage:[/TD]
[TD="class: normal"]759,000 miles[/TD]
[TD="class: normalBold"]Stock #:[/TD]
[TD="class: normal"]1551[/TD]
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[TD="class: normalBold"]Exterior:[/TD]
[TD="class: normal"]Orange[/TD]
[TD="class: normalBold"]Engine:[/TD]
[TD="class: normal"]6-Cylinder
14 L Detroit 515 HP[/TD]
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[TD="class: normalBold"]Interior:[/TD]
[TD="class: normal"]Gray[/TD]
[TD="class: normalBold"]Transmission:[/TD]
[TD="class: normal"]10 Speed[/TD]
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[TD="class: normalBold"]Trim/Package:[/TD]
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[TD="class: normalBold"]Fuel Type:[/TD]
[TD="class: normal"]Diesel[/TD]
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[TD="class: normal"]Financed Estimated Payment
$375/ Weekly-lease
24 months
$2,500 down payment
*subject to approval

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[TD="class: xlargeBold"]Vehicle Notes[/TD]
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[TD]2005 Freightliner Columbia, 772k miles, 14 Liter 515 HP Detroit, 10 speed transmission, DOT ready, dual 140 gallon fuel tanks, double bunk condo, factory battery invertor, no tears or stains in seats, clean truck ready for work. Truck is available through an internal financing program. Can Lease Purchase this truck for $2500 down and $375 per week for 2 years (104 weeks[/TD]
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Are you saying we, Farm2Fleet, should have different options or that you would like to see more like this out their?

I think this is very different from the types of leases that drivers are down on. I am against them for other reasons than what most state. Mainly it is that when you put someone in a truck that is over $100k they are going to have payments and insurance that runs at the level of a $100+k truck. This creates a fixed expense that my guys getting over $2/mile would have trouble covering but these are companies paying $1.40 with fuel. But don't want to turn this into another evils of the mega carrier lease thread. I do want to see if I am missing something (did this before and avoided a mistake because of some feedback on here).

Regarding the rebuild - These model Detroits are 1.2 million+ mile motors. Will you get a bad apple? Sure. But I have some very strong feelings about getting into this business. This truck is going to do the same job as a truck that costs 2 or 3x as much. If you are new and don't have a lot of money why would you take on more debt and expense unless you are going to see a greater return on the expense.