When you have made the decision to go into business for yourself, you have two main options available – buy your truck or lease it.  Which route you go will depend on your own financial situation, but you should always do your homework and explore the possibilities.  This happens to most of us at some point in our careers – working for the company carrier is not the same as being in charge and master of your own destiny.

Truck leasing is one doorway to trucking freedom, but it can easily end up being a way into a financial mess!

The first issue to confront is your credit worthiness.

This is frequently an embarrassing situation, because let’s face it, none of us are credit card angels and if we already had the money to live the lifestyle we want, we wouldn’t be busting our guts on the road.  If you have financial issues and a poor credit rating, this doesn’t mean you won’t get the deal, but it may mean we have to get a little more creative – the trick here is to be practical and to be realistic.  If you can’t find a company which will work with your credit situation then it may simply mean you have to wait a year until your credit rating improves and you make sure you pay your bills on time.

There are also truck sellers around with some exceptional deals, including zero down and easy financing options – working with a truck dealer will usually pay dividends in the financial stakes because they also have a vested interest in seeing you drive off the lot with one of their trucks.

Carriers offer leasing opportunities, and there are even deals where you don’t need to worry about a credit check so your past financial problems have no bearing.  On the upside, carriers arrange the lease for you and you usually have no need to find a down payment, plus there are a bunch of other startup costs you don’t have to worry about. On the downside, there is a lot of bad press about carrier leasing deals which includes high finance charges, penalties, inflated insurance, hidden fees and lack of miles to work which means you still carry the responsibility for the payments even though the carrier has no work for you. Where possible, if you do enter into a carrier lease, ensure there is a valid “walk away” clause which lets you give the keys back and carry no residual financial obligation.

Check out the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) for advice on carrier leasing.

Turning yourself into an owner-operator means you have a lot of responsibility for the paperwork and the taxes. There are some excellent reasons why you should look at taking a lease out, which includes the following:

• Lease rates are historically at all-time lows because of low interest rates;
• You can write off the lease interest charge against your income AND still claim any tax depreciation allowances (in other words you get a bigger deductible by leasing instead of buying but always check as this doesn’t always apply)
• Lower capital costs for your business
• Reduced capital need from you so you have less of your money at risk; and
• Leasing represents the cheapest entry into the owner-operator market.

Mack Museum

Whether you’re looking to learn a little bit about the history of trucking or you just want to feel more confident about buying a Mack, visiting the Mack museum will introduce you to the impressive past of one of the most popular truck manufacturers in the world.

Often called “The Greatest Name in Trucks,” Mack has long been America’s leading truck manufacturer, as well as a name that people trust. At the Mack museum, truckers and their families can see how this manufacturer got so far.

Truckers and their families will be fascinated by this illustrious brand’s start as they visit the museum and view the first vehicle to ever be called a Mack—one of the open air busses that the Mack brothers built for tourists to peruse Chicago and New Orleans in the early 1900s.

In addition to the bus, visitors will also see early Mack trucks made deliveries while other companies were still relying on horse drawn carriages, as well as Mack’s contribution to war—the 1918 AC manufactured for WWI, which earned the company’s vehicles the names of Bull Dog.

But while looking at these early models can be interesting, and speak to the longevity of Mack as a manufacturer, truckers and their families can also view hundreds of photographs at the museum, as well as records indicating when certain trucks were build. The museum even allows truckers to contact them when seeking information about a particular model of truck. Displayed in conjunction with the America on Wheels exhibit, truckers who visit the Mack Museum will not only learn the history of Mack, but also the importance of the transportation industry in America since its early days.

Visitors to the Mack Museum can find the institution in Allentown, PA, a convenient route for truckers and their families who tread the major highways nearby. The museum is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

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