Lease Purchase, share the do's and don'ts with me please.

I’ve been a company flat bed driver for two years now, I love what I do and the company I work for is decent. Now I’m more and more wanting to get my own rig and looking at companies with a lease purchase option since my company doesn’t offer this. Any drivers out there with experience in this process I would really appreciate any advice or the do’s and don’ts run down; what I should stay away from in particular and as well as what to ask or look for out of the offer or which companies would be better or worse. Thanks much!

 

Most refer to lease/purchase as fleece/purchase for a reason! Being a glorified company driver that's paying for the truck he's driving doesn't sound appealing to me.

JD

 

Why a lease purchase? Why not finance your own truck and lease to a carrier with stable freight? If the answer is because of your credit or lack of a down payment then honestly you’re not really ready for the next step.

 

You mention that you have been running flats for the past 2 years. These past couple of years have been pretty good for flatbed freight. With interest rates for mortgages climbing the future doesn't bode well for flatbed! If folks can't afford the high mortgage rates they aren't buying houses. If people aren't buying houses the builders stop building new ones. If the builders stop building houses the supply yards stop buying building supplies. If the supply yards stop buying building supplies the shippers stop shipping building supplies. The shippers won't need trucks!

JD

 

That's the best way to do it. Most lease/purchase type things are way skewed towards the company.Many do L/P, because they have little money, and bad credit, no way to start a future business.

 

Lease-Purchase transfers ALL operational costs to the driver, which absolves the company of those costs and all liability to you. You’re paying for their truck, they pay nothing to operate it, and is WAY more profitable for them. They have minimal risk. If the equipment is leased from the manufacturer, they have even less risk, yet. It’s why nearly every big company offer it, these days. Don’t be a fool.

 

I've never been an O/O or LP, but seems like lease purchase is just a more stressful way of doing what could be done as a company driver. Instead of eating ham and cheese sandwiches 5 days a week to save as much money as possible to purchase a truck, you're eating ham and cheese sandwiches just to maybe afford to keep a truck moving.

In a market like this, I don't think you'd be gaining any freedom from it either. Money would be 90% of dictating where and how you run, in the same way its dictating where and how your dispatcher runs you

 

Flease purchase is okay if good rates are provided, unfortunately most often you get paid $1 something per mile.

Might as well be a company driver at that point, you'll earn more overall.

 

So I totally get what y’all are saying, I only became interested in lease purchase after talking in person to a driver for ATS running load percentage with lease purchase as well as another working for Prime, both doing flatbed and appeared happy and doing well for themselves so ‍♂️ idk, being new to the game still any info I can find first hand or on here helps to make a better decision I feel. Thanks for the responses!