Questions about leasing on a driver

HE isn’t going to have any skin in the game, HE wants to try and save money for his own truck. So YOU need to be responsible for your truck and YOU need to take care of all the repairs and maintenance other wise YOU will be stuck with a worn out truck when HE finally has the money to get his own.

Since YOU are hellbent on giving him what HE wants then I would suggest looking into how Ryder structures their full service leases. You should already have an idea of your current maintenance costs and since it’s a dedicated haul you could break it down to weekly rate on top of the lease payment and his fuel. Don’t forget to figure in your depreciation and equipment replacement.

I’d do 80/20 if he’s pulling your trailer under your authority. Then make him responsible for everything on the truck, but don’t rely on him for the upkeep. You need to inspect the truck and handle the repairs and maintenance on your asset. For the sake of keeping round easy numbers, let’s say your average maintenance cost per truck is $10400. You could break that down to $200 per week for 52 weeks on top of the lease payment. I’d make sure the actual lease payment is enough that your replacement costs are covered in it. But it needs to be up to you to do the maintenance because most people don’t treat something they don’t own as well as the person would who owns it.

Honestly, why not just finance him yourself on the truck he would be leasing from you? Why give him a chance to wear out your asset as a stepping stone to getting his own truck? You could pay him a decent fair wage and after the truck expense are paid the rest goes towards the truck. Grossing $9k a week on 30 hours he would easily be throwing $4-5k a week towards the truck and would own it in no time.