which way to go?

If your name ain't on the title, it ain't your truck. As long as you are "leasing", you have to obey their rules pertaining to maintaining, repairing, modifying, etc. the truck. There might be restrictions on where you can work or what you can do. Buy it and you can use whatever shop you choose or do the work yourself, mount whatever auxiliary equipment you choose without having to seek anybody's permission. You can sign on with whatever company will have you, or run your own numbers and do whatever you want to do.

That being said, leasing offers the possibility to walk away if the spit hits the fan IF the contract allows it. If you buy it, it's your baby whether it runs flawlessly or blows up next week.

 

Actually . . . in all honesty . . . EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID . . . PERIOD.

 

with 0-1 year behind the wheel my advice to you would be to stay a company driver for a few more years. do not let your company talk you into a lease purchase deal. you will in a way be paying for your job,why pay for something that is not yours. when you are ready buy your truck from a bank or lending company not thru your company. just stop and think why a company wants to lease you one of there trucks,its not because they are nice people and want to see you get ahead in life,thats for sure. lots of luck on your choice

 

Well the first thing is do you have a business plan in place. This is first and foremost! Do you understand how to run a trucking business. Maybe you were a good driver....however....now you are talking about running your own business. This is a totally different animal! The truck is the last thing on the list!! Kevin Rutherfords at Letstruck.com has good resource for you.

You will find that finding financing for a truck (Commercial loan) is very hard despite your credit. Commercial loans are an entirely different animal. Credit unions usually will not give commercial loans. Lease Purchasing is not that bad as long as you are not doing it through the carrier. I dont care what carrier it is. I am not going to pick on any specific carrier in this post. All I will tell you is DO NOT DO A LEASE PURCHASE WHERE YOU MUST STAY AT THE CARRIER!! There are many companies that will lease purchase you a truck and allow you to take it where you want! There are benefits to leasing a truck....or buying one. There are many other companies out there besides selec trucks. It is all about the contract...and the truck you buy. ALso, do you have enough money/credit to deal with the other issues with your truck (breakdowns maint etc etc) You need to have enough capital on you to be able to start up. Would be bad if you had an issue in the first 90-days and you didnt have anything already set aside to pay.

I suggest you join OOIDA and lean on them for their expertise in this area. I applaud your tenacity to run your own business. DO it right. Do not rush. It will pay off in the end.

 

Well said. And its all true!!!

 

To answer the question you asked, not the ones others wanted to answer, the lease SelectTruck offers thru Freightliner dealers is just like going to a bank and getting financing, it is just termed a lease for tax purposes, you will own the truck at the end of the term. That being said, you may get a better finance rate going thru your local bank or credit union, assuming you have a good relationship with them. Also, you will have a wider selection of trucks instead of just the ones in the Freightliner dealer network. Going either route, SelectTruck or a local bank is much better than a lease purchase thru a carrier or even a company like Schneider Finance as you will not have any restrictions on what you can do to or with the truck.