A lease-purchase lets you drive toward owning a truck without a bank loan. The carrier owns the tractor, takes a weekly payment out of your settlement, and hands you the title at the end, if you make it to the end. Lease purchase trucking can be a start for a driver with no credit. It can also be the most expensive way to get a truck. This analyzer separates the two.
How it is calculated
Every number comes from three formulas, all weekly:
- Your share of revenue = paid miles × load revenue per mile (linehaul plus fuel surcharge) × your percentage
- Weekly take-home = your share − fuel − (truck payment + escrow + maintenance fund + other deductions)
- Fuel = paid miles ÷ miles per gallon × diesel price (set MPG to 0 if the carrier pays fuel)
Then two totals that show the deal over its whole life:
- Total paid = weekly payment × weeks in the term + balloon
- Walk-away cost = payments made by the week you leave, plus the maintenance fund if it isn't refunded
Escrow is left out of the total paid because it is supposed to come back to you. If your contract keeps it, add it to the other deductions instead.
A worked example
- 2,500 mi × $3.10 × 70%
- $5,425
- Fuel at 6.5 mpg, $6.38
- - $2,454
- Payment, escrow, maintenance, other
- - $1,000
- Take-home per mile
- $0.79
- Total paid: $600 × 156 + $5,000
- $98,600
- Truck value today
- $60,000
Diesel is priced at the U.S. average of $6.382 a gallon for the week of September 28, 2026, from the EIA. The weekly number looks fine. The total doesn't: $98,600 for a $60,000 truck is 1.64 times its value. And walking away after a year, with a maintenance fund that isn't refunded, would leave $36,400 behind with nothing to show for it.
What a good or bad result looks like
| Result | Healthier deal | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly take-home | Covers your bills with room for a bad week | Close to zero in a normal week |
| Total paid ÷ truck value | Close to the truck's value plus normal interest | 1.5 times or more |
| Walk-away cost | Small, or funds refunded | Tens of thousands with no equity |
| Miles | Contract promises a minimum, in writing | "Plenty of miles", nothing written |
The biggest risk is the slow week. Payments come out whether the carrier gives you 2,500 miles or 1,200. Try cutting the miles in the analyzer by a third and see what's left.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What is the truck's price, and what are similar trucks selling for?
- What happens to escrow and the maintenance fund if I leave or get let go?
- Can I turn down loads without penalty?
- Who pays for major repairs, and how long is the truck down without pay?
- Is there a minimum number of miles in the contract?
The other route: your own authority
Some drivers decide the safer path is buying a used truck outright or with a normal loan and running their own authority. You carry more responsibility, but the full rate is yours, and you choose which loads to take. Trailer options are covered in dry van trailer leasing, and the risks of hauling high-value freight in cargo theft statistics.
To price loads on your own, use the counter-offer target rate calculator, and know what waiting at docks is worth with the detention pay calculator. What a dispatcher costs is on dispatch cost.
Results are estimates from the numbers you enter, not financial or legal advice. Read the contract, and have someone you trust read it too.
SOURCES