Medium and Large Fleets

Most buy them then lease some out on lease purchase . Many smaller fleets lease to have better service availability and replacement tractors for longer shop time on repairs .

 

They buy them straight from the factory.

 

I agree with 550, most are factory bought for large fleet and go to places such as arrow and select truck to be sold. I have seen a lot of swift and werner trucks at select trucks for sale whereas most if not all of swifts and centrals volvos end up at arrow and volvo dealers.

Hunter

 

I'd be very surprised if many of the fleets "owned" their trucks as that would be a huge amount of capital tied up. They are more likely to lease, or have some other financing arrangement.

 

I have to agree with the other posters . I see them coming right from the factory with company logos and numbers on them . How much interest do you think they'd pay financing these trucks ? Many of these newbie drivers put a lot of dings and dents on trucks . If you own it you let it go . If you lease it you pay the leasing company's body shop to repair every scratch .

 

I don't doubt they get delivered direct from the factory. When you look at large company financials though, they operate different than what you would see as a "retail" lease. For example most airlines and railways don't own their airplanes or rolling stock; they are leased. G.E. is one of the biggest leasing companies in the world; they deal in these kinds of arrangements. There are many more companies that you or I have never heard of; companies that are owned by foreign governments, etc.

Another difference would be the condition of the vehicles on these large deals vs. the typical retail lease. Yes, when you or I lease a vehicle, especially if we are talking about a personal use vehicle, there are clauses regarding the condition of the vehicle upon return. When talking about a large trucking firm that will turn over hundreds, or thousands of vehicles a year that type of thing is much, much less important ... almost to the point of the leasing company only caring if the vehicle is still physically present.

Over the years I have set up these types of programs for both large and small (including my own) enterprise (I've seen leases done on all kinds of things you wouldn't expect like oil & gas drilling rigs and production platforms, ships, etc.). There are a few reasons for going this route, the primary one being that it requires far less money than if a company is purchasing their trucks. It also looks better on their books as the cost is carried as an expense rather than a liability (as a loan would have to show). The most extreme example was a partner of mine; in one of his other businesses (a very successful paving contractor) they rented all their equipment every year ... everything from pavers to rollers to graders to pickups.

There's other stuff to get into such as depreciation, etc., but as I said in my original post, I'd be surprised if many large fleest owned much of what they have rolling down the highway.

 

Werner buys all of their trucks. Then when they're done with them, they have their own sales company sell them off. I imagine when you're buying 1000 trucks at a time, you get a pretty good discount on them.