Do larger trucking companies buy or lease their trucks?

I thought they bought them. But, I don't know. That is based off the ability to lease, from Swift, the truck you drive. Seems if they had leased it themselves, sub-leasing it may cause issues.
Anyway, how do you know they lease them? Is it a swag, or is it based off of some actual information? Just curious.
Anyway, I just dug through the paperwork in the truck, registration, insurance docs, etc. It appears that Swift Leasing, Inc. Owns the trucks and in turn leases them to Swift Transportation, Inc. Aka, Bean counter mumbo jumbo. So, we may both be alittle right and alittle wrong.

 

US Xpress leases their trucks, or at least they used to.

 

Whatever it is , Anything and everything they do is to dodge taxes .


Most companies never pay income tax .

 

I heard a medium size company did all the lease operators thru a company his sister owned. Kept it all in the family.

Tanker company I worked for. They bought all the trucks. They would rebuild an engine on 650k or 750k mile truck and keep running it.

 

I remember....my uncle's maintenance region included Allentown so he was part of the purchasing process in the early 70's for Chemical Leaman.

1972 R model ran around $27K and built to spec 486 of em cost CLTL around $17.5K ea. and all were delivered by 'Allen branch' the Allentown dealership.

That was the first year they traded Maxidines and people were lining up to get them.

We all had Mack lighters, hats, bulldog key fobs 'N covers for old land line phones through my uncle. Dad used to beat the dog on his ashtray with his pipe...

 

I leased at Swift ... it was in the contract it was a pass through from Navistar leasing. A friend's contract was a pass through from Paccar.

Swift also passed through leases from leasing companies like ENGS and TEL.

 

Check the vehicle registration in your permit book. The ownership will be on the registration. If it is leased, then there should be a copy of the lease agreement.

 

J Rayl started leasing from Ryder a few years ago, I think a big reason was the network of service facilities. They have around 500 trucks and probably 75-80% of them are leased now. They do still buy trucks, all of our local trucks are owned (we still have a shop and mechanics).

 

Several years ago, most of the megas got such a big discount they could buy a new truck, run it for 2 years, and sell it for what they paid. I don’t know if that’s still the case, because prices are all over the place now.