Lease-Purchase
What is lease-purchase? A lease-purchase is a truck-acquisition program where a driver leases a truck from a carrier and credits payments toward eventual ownership.
Full definition
Carrier-run lease-purchase programs let drivers acquire a truck without dealer financing or a down payment, with weekly settlement deductions handling the lease. The program ends with the driver owning the truck or walking away.
The economics vary widely. Some programs are fair-priced and produce real owner-operators; others price aggressively and chain drivers to dispatch quotas to keep up with payments.
Drivers comparing lease-purchase against dealer financing should weigh interest rate, total cost over the term, insurance and maintenance handling, and exit terms.