I have an opportunity to drive for a new company. I must however purchase a truck so that I can become an owner operator. Since this is my first truck I am totally unaware of the process. Can someone please tell me the best way to go about financing a truck. My credit is good but not great. All advice is appreciated!

 

To cut to the bottom line, operating a truck is going to cost you .75 to .90 a mile including fuel, insurance, taxes, repairs, depreciation, etc. That is before paying yourself ANY MONEY.

If you can make the money you want knowing the truck will cost you that much per mile, try OOIDA. They arent the cheapest financing in the world, but they are completely honest and ethical. Many people in the truck financing business are something less than honest and ethical.

http://www.ooida.com/

Who are you going to lease on with?

 

yep.

 

Most lenders will want a credit score of at least 650 with some driving experience. You should be prepared to pay from 20-30% of the purchase price down. In addition you really need some operating capital. It is always best to have your own financing before you start shopping around. Most dealers can find financing for you, but any time you go through a dealer you will usually pay a higher interest rate since the dealer often gets a commission or kick back from the lender for any contracts that the dealer sends them. Your bank is your best source of financing. Most will not finance class 8 trucks because of the high failure rate. Lenders don't want to repo trucks. It would be good if you can get pre-qualified for a load. Once you do that you know how much money you can get and about what the payment will run. Paccar, Navistar, Mercedes Credit and GE are three of the larger lenders who finance class 8 trucks.

Before most lenders will finance a class 8 truck, especially for a new owner operator, they will usually want a copy of your lease agreement. You didn't mention the carrier or whether you will be paid mileage or percentage, but keep in mind that your actual operating costs will likely be more than $1/mile. You need to include driver pay in your calculations. Whether you hire a driver or do the driving yourself, you still need to calculate a cost for someone to drive the truck.

 

Thanks for all of the info thus far. I believe that I will get a percentage initially and then if it is over a certain amount of miles then mileage pay kicks in. I am presently hauling gasoline at the new company I will hauling hazardous material but not gasoline.

 

Paul Mcgraw said,
To cut to the bottom line, operating a truck is going to cost you .75 to .90 a mile including fuel, insurance, taxes, repairs, depreciation, etc. That is before paying yourself ANY MONEY

Question: Since I am looking at an 03 at about $50,000 and the depreciation will be less do I then add on a higher repair cost, which in effect leaves your numbers the same.

 

The easiest way to do the repair cost factor is to set aside a certain amount of money in a maintenance account. Some use from $0.08-0.15/mile. All repairs can be taken out of that account including oil changes and tires. If you prefer, you could pay the oil changes and tires out of operating expenses and continue to put money in the maintenance account until you get a substantial amount built up to take care of major repairs such as an engine overhaul. 8)

 

90 cpm is very reasonable I have no idea why you`d think otherwise, it cost me about 69 cpm to run my truck and thats before driver pay (me) truck payment (dont have one) and maintenance account (I dont take anymore because I have well over 25k in my maintenance account)