Question:
For those who want to be an Owner Operator (instead of a "company driver"), "lease to own" is one way to purchase a truck with no money down. It's attractive to folks with bad credit who can't get conventional loan approval to purchase a truck outright.
Your treated as if you own the truck, when in fact, you're only renting it from the company. Once the contract period is completed, those rental payments are converted into a cash purchase and ONLY THEN do you take the title. In the meantime, the truck does NOT belong to you.
The whole concept of leasing your truck with the same company you're exclusively contracted to haul for, is full of dangerous minefields, Many, many drivers lose their truck and the equity they've put into it before the contract is completed. Here's why:
The company lets you pick out a truck.
You sign a lease purchase contract that gives you the title when the lease payments are completed.
So they've got you paying for the truck.
Then things go good for a while, as you build equity.
You get loads and have some money let over after all your expenses and everything looks like it's going to work out.
This is where things can fall apart.
Now that you're paid down a significent part of the truck's value, the company would come out ahead if they could re-possess it from you. Trucking companys are in business to make money. And they'd like nothing more than to make 50k keeping the equity you've put into the truck if you default on the contract.
The contract is riddled with loopholes and contingencies:
Miss a payment? They take the truck back.
Miss a scheduled maintenance? They take the truck back.
Have a few "late loads" and aren't meeting the company's service standards? They fire you and...guess what?....take the truck back.
See the problem?
You're leasing from the same company controlling your income, schedule and ability to satisfy the lease to own contract.
Will they resist this temptation, and help make sure you have the revenue (etc) to complete the contract so they can finally sign-over the truck's title and hand you a $60,000 piece of equipment?

Trucking is litttered with folks who've been scammed this way. That's not to say everyone defaults on their contract, or that some of those defaults aren't entirely the operator's fault.
But when you lease to own, you're at the mercy of that companie's business ethics, honesty and good will. Once you're into the process, you have no options. You can't just take your truck somewhere else like a regular owner/operator can, since the truck belongs to the company.
In fact, lease to own has such a bad reputation and is generally considered so sleazy, many large carriers don't even offer it. It's not that they're too ethical or pure to jerk folks around. They just don't want their name associated with one of the biggest scams in the trucking industry.
If you're thinking of going lease to own, hire a lawyer for an hour and let them review the contract with you. Clauses and contingencies that sound reasonable to to an average person may in fact be carefully worded loopholes written to favor the company in any future litigation.
Never never let a company talk you into believing they have your best interest at heart. They're a for-profit business in an extremely competative industry suffering perpetual economic distress. Their best interest is making money. The way they make money on lease to own contracts is by letting/forcing some of the participants to default on their contracts.
They just take the truck back, pocket the escrow account you've created, and lease the same truck to their next victim, which eventually generates more rental revenue than the truck's worth. THAT is how lease to own makes money for the company, and THAT is why they offer it.

Answer:
Wow shuffler, you speak the truth!
I have seen a few and I stress few, lease purchasers make it to completion and receive the title. But, I have seen more not make it and lose alot more than equity in a lease purchase vehicle.
In fact, in the last 2 years I have personally seen 2, yep 2, people complete a lease purchase and receive title. (this was at a company I worked for several years)
Read and re-read those contracts, if everything is NOT 100% crystal clear have an attorney look it over, as Shuffler said, have an attorney look it over anyway. Better to spend a little bit now than lose a lot later!
If you don't LOVE what you do for a living, then why are you doing it? Life is too short to not chase your dreams and eat dessert first!

Answer:
"Lease purchase" is the preferred term. But since it implies you're "purchasing" the truck, I used "lease to own" since the ownership is conditional to contract completion.
You're not really "purchasing" anything at all until the completion of the contract.
"Lease purchase." Even the program's title is intended to deceive.
You do NOT purchase the truck until the END of the contract.

Answer:
Originally posted by Shuffler:
"Lease purchase" is the preferred term...
"Lease purchase." Even the program's title is intended to deceive.
_You do NOT purchase the truck until the END of the contract._
good to review all the terms associated with this type of program.
I know in some instances, being a lease purchaser does NOT afford you the same benefits as an independent contractor with the company in reguards to dispatch. I.E. some companies say an o/o or independent contractor is NOT under forced dispatch, but this can or can/not apply to a lease purchase / lease to own driver, read the fine print and ask questions.
If you don't LOVE what you do for a living, then why are you doing it? Life is too short to not chase your dreams and eat dessert first!

Answer:
but I want to add one or two things here. Most of the so called lease purchases are not purchases at all of any kind. In truth they are leases only. Yes once the lease contract has been fullfilled you can usually purchase the truck for "fair market value", meaning you are going to have to comeup with another $15,000 to $50,000 depending on the age of the truck and how many miles, etc.
Another thing too. Even if it is a true purchase program where you actually own the truck at the end of the contract the "intrest" rates you are paying during that lease are extremely high. Nothing like buying one truck for the price of two.
I will always be a mutter trucker at heart.
Answer:
Some of these deals are known as the NEVER , NEVER PLAN.
Never going to own it and never going to be $ ahead.

Answer:
.....means you're dreaming if you seriously think there's a good chane you'll ever own it. (England, Prime)