Calculator

Truck lease calculator: does the fee cover the truck?

For carriers running a lease-purchase program. The loads usually make money; the question is the truck. Put in the weekly fee, the truck payment and what comes back on settlements, and see what one leased truck makes you in a year, the weekly fee that breaks even, and what the weeks it sat parked cost you.

By Djuro Kolundzija, founder of Nerivo. Started his own trucking company in 2012 and grew it past 100 trucks.

One leased truck · one year

The lease

Weekly lease fee ($)Per-mile fee on top ($)Miles per weekWeeks parked / year

What the truck costs you

Truck payment / month ($)Insurance / month ($)Charged back / week ($)Repairs not deducted / year ($)Plates, reg. / month ($)Charged back / week ($)Fuel on card / week ($)Fuel deducted back (%)

The loads

Revenue per mile ($)Lessee's share (%)

On the loads

$65,000

$260,000 revenue, lessee $195,000

On the truck

-$21,000

-$13,080 with no weeks parked

Lease profit

$44,000

$0.44 a mile over 100,000 miles; 12 weeks parked cost you $27,420

Break-even fee

$1,052

the truck side loses even with no weeks parked

On the truck, this year	You
Lease fee collected: 40 of 52 weeks	$32,000
Truck payment, 12 months	-$35,400
Insurance you pay, not charged back	-$3,600
Plates and registration you pay, not charged back	-$2,400
Fuel on your card that was never deducted	-$5,600
Repairs you paid and never deducted	-$6,000
On the truck	-$21,000

A year is 52 weeks. A parked week brings in no lease fee and no loads, but the payment, insurance and plates are still due. The break-even fee is the weekly fee at which the truck side comes to zero with no weeks parked. Nothing you type leaves this page.

How to read it

On the loads is what you keep: your share of what the loads paid. On a lease that is where you should make money.
On the truck is the lease fee and the chargebacks against what the truck still costs you. It is usually thin, close to zero, because the fee is set just above the payment.
Break-even fee is the flat weekly fee at which the truck side comes to zero with no weeks parked.
Weeks parked bring in no lease fee and no loads, while the payment, insurance and plates keep running. The profit card shows what they cost you.

Where the numbers come from

The weekly fee, per-mile fee and insurance chargeback are in the lease agreement and on the settlements. The truck payment and insurance are in your fixed costs. Fuel on your card comes from the fuel card statement, and what came back from the fuel deductions on the lessee’s settlements. The weeks parked are the weeks with no lease-fee line on a settlement, which is the number most carriers don’t know until year end.

For the whole picture, including the Truth-in-Leasing escrow and chargeback rules and what to track every week, read the lease-purchase trucking guide.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate whether a truck lease makes money?

Split it in two. On the loads: what the loads pay minus the lessee's share on his settlements is what you keep. On the truck: the lease fees you actually collected plus everything charged back, minus the truck payment, the insurance and plates you pay, the fuel on your card that was never deducted and the shop bills you paid and never deducted. Add the two for the lease's profit.

What weekly lease fee do I need to break even on the truck?

Add up what the truck costs you for a year (payment, insurance, plates and registration, fuel not charged back, repairs you pay), subtract the chargebacks and any per-mile fee, and divide by 52 weeks. A $2,950 monthly payment with $300 of insurance and $200 of plates a month is $41,400 a year, about $796 a week, before any fuel or repairs that don't come back.

Why do parked weeks matter so much?

Because the weekly fee is usually set just above what the truck costs you. An $800 fee for 52 weeks is $41,600; a $2,950 payment with insurance and plates is $41,400. That is $200 a year to spare, before fuel and repairs. A truck parked 12 weeks a year brings in no fee for those weeks ($9,600) and no loads, while the payment, insurance and plates are still due.

Should the lessee's share be a percent of the load?

Most lease-purchase programs pay the lessee a percentage of the load revenue, often around 70 to 80 percent, sometimes linehaul only with the fuel surcharge passed through. Enter whatever your settlements use; if you pay by the mile, convert it to the share of revenue it comes to.

Does this calculator work for an owner operator leased on?

Partly. An owner operator owns his truck, so there is no truck payment or insurance of yours to cover: leave those at zero and the calculator shows what you keep on his loads and whether the fuel you advanced came back. For a lease-purchase driver, fill in everything.

Nerivo IQ

Every lease, every week: fees due against collected, fuel against charged back.

Nerivo reads your settlements, fuel cards and ELD, splits each truck into its company, leased-out and owner-operator days, and shows the loads and the truck side of every lease, with a warning the week a fee is missed. For fleets of 50+ trucks.

Get a fleet check