Leasing at Prime

It's something like a couple hundred per week, and up.

 

Not picking a fight... translation: you pay more weekly on an ACE lease.

 

Okay... we got it straightened out. SE was speaking about the "cost" of a tractor. The ACE lease he's under involves the purchase of a tractor, and normally you must have 3 years of lease operator experience before they allow you into one. I'm on a strict lease, so the "cost" of a tractor really doesn't enter into it.

Considering weekly payments... SE's lease-purchase agreement cost is amortized over 3-1/2 years, to take into account the 6 months he ran that truck under a lease agreement, while mine is amortized over 3 years. I end up paying about $75 less per week. If you extrapolate the numbers to a standard 3-year ACE lease, SE would be paying significantly more per week.

SE doesn't incurr some of the per-mile charges that are put into escrow that I do. It's a difference in the contract used to protect the lease operator from charges that the owner operator is expected to pick-up on his own. For example, the mileage charge is put in escrow to repair damages to your tractor; if you walk away from the lease, Prime retains the ballance, but you get the ballance back if you complete the lease. That's about $140 average that is retained from my settlements for tires and mileage escrow.

We didn't include my APU payment, health insurance, settlement accounting services and occupational accident insurance (which I believe SE is required to carry as well) in our comparison.