Lease-purchase deal analyzer

How the analyzer works

The analyzer runs three numbers from the same contract, because a lease-purchase can look fine on one and fall apart on another.

Weekly take-home. Your share of linehaul is miles times the linehaul rate times your percentage. From that it subtracts fuel (miles divided by fuel economy, times the diesel price) and every weekly deduction: the truck payment, escrow, the maintenance fund and anything else the carrier takes out, like insurance, plates or trailer rent. What's left is what you keep before your own taxes and living costs.

Total paid against value. Weekly payment times the number of weeks, plus the balloon at the end, is what the truck really costs you. The analyzer puts that next to what the same truck sells for today. The bar chart under the result makes the gap visible.

Walk-away cost. Leases are long, and plans change. The analyzer adds up the truck payments and maintenance fund deposits you'd have made by the week you choose. Many contracts keep some or all of that if you leave early, so treat it as money at risk.

The diesel price starts at the U.S. average on-highway price for the last week of September 2026. Change it to what you actually pay.

Source:EIA, U.S. on-highway diesel fuel price, week of Sep 28, 2026: $6.382/gal · checked 2026-10

Worked example

Example

Your share of linehaul

$3,250 / wk

Fuel

$2,454 / wk

Deductions

$1,050 / wk

Take-home

-$254 / wk

Total paid

$111,400

Truck value today

$70,000

At these example numbers the week ends in the red before the driver is paid, and the truck costs about 1.6 times what it's worth today. Change one thing at a time: a carrier paying fuel, a higher percentage, or a lower payment. Watch which input moves take-home the most; that's the term worth negotiating hardest.

What good and bad results look like

A healthy result has three things. Take-home per week covers your living costs with room for slow weeks. Total paid isn't far above the truck's value plus normal financing. And the walk-away figure is something you could lose without being ruined.

Warning signs are just as clear. Negative or thin take-home means the deal only works if everything goes right. A total price well above the truck's value means you're paying a premium for the privilege of leasing. A maintenance fund you can't get back, combined with a clause that makes you pay for major repairs, means one engine failure can wipe out months of payments.

Read the contract for the details the numbers can't show: who chooses your loads, whether you can refuse a load without penalty, what happens to the funds if the carrier ends the lease, and whether you can take the truck elsewhere to work.

Questions worth asking before you sign:

• Who pays for an engine, transmission or aftertreatment failure, and is there a cap?
• What happens to escrow and the maintenance fund if I leave, and if the carrier ends the lease?
• Can I see the truck's maintenance records and get my own inspection?
• Is the balloon fixed, or can it change?
• How are my miles assigned, and what does a slow week cost me?

Get every answer in writing and run the worst-case versions through the analyzer.

Your own authority as the comparison

The fairest comparison is the same truck under your own MC. You'd pay for insurance, plates and compliance yourself, but you'd keep the full rate on each load and choose which loads to run. With a dispatcher, the fee is a percentage of gross on loads you approve; see our dispatch pricing.

To size that up, check typical rates in our flatbed rate per mile guide, plan your counter-offers with the counter-offer target rate calculator, and price empty miles with the deadhead miles cost calculator. If you run open deck, our flatbed owner-operator guide covers the startup side.