In the Marketplace

Fleet Advantage, a Fort Lauderdale, FL-based company focused on truck fleet business analytics, equipment financing and lifecycle cost management, recently performed an analysis showing the operating and financial benefits of a lease versus ownership structure for private truck fleet operators, as well as for-hire carriers. The analysis compares a seven-year ownership of one truck to a four-year ownership and a four-year lease of two consecutive trucks. It shows that while there is a slightly higher investment level in lease payments over the seven-year period, that investment is overshadowed by much larger financial losses on the four-year and seven-year ownership in areas such as fuel expenditures, maintenance and repair, tires, and financial losses resulting from disposal of the financed trucks. The study found that a four-year lease model would save approximately $27,893 per truck in comparison to the seven-year ownership model. The lease model even proves to be beneficial when compared with the four-year ownership model, showing savings of $12,710.