What lease on carriers keep: 9 carriers checked against the lease rule (2026)

What does the federal lease rule force into your lease?

The lease must state your pay, fuel costs, chargebacks and any escrow terms. Pay is due 15 days after you turn in delivery papers. Escrow comes back within 45 days of the lease ending (49 CFR 376.12).

The rule binds the carrier. The text says the carrier must follow and perform every required lease provision.

Your pay must be on the face of the lease or an attached addendum. You must have it before your first trip. The rule allows a percentage of gross revenue, a rate per mile or any method you both agree to.

The lease must also say who pays for fuel, fuel taxes, empty miles, permits, tolls and base plates. It must also name who pays for detention and accessorial services. The rule never uses the words fuel surcharge, so ask where the surcharge sits in your pay.

Chargebacks need their own list. The lease must name every item the carrier pays first and deducts later, and how each amount is computed. You are owed copies of the papers behind each charge.

On percentage pay, the lease must promise you a copy of the rated freight bill no later than settlement. The lease must also let you examine the carrier's tariff or the papers its rates come from.

Insurance and cargo claims have their own rules. If the carrier charges you for insurance, the lease must state the amount. A cargo damage deduction needs a written itemization before the carrier takes a dollar.

The pay deadline has teeth. Before it pays, the carrier can ask only for your logbooks and the papers it needs to bill the shipper. It cannot set a time limit for you to turn them in.

It also cannot hold your pay until a bill of lading comes back clean. The rule says payment cannot depend on a bill of lading with no exceptions noted. If a recruiter says otherwise, ask to see that line in the lease.

Ask for the lease itself, not the brochure. Read every page before you commit a truck.

How much of each load do carriers say you keep?

4 of the 9 carriers publish a number: 3Xpress at 82%, ATS at 70% and Schneider at 65%. Landstar's SEC filing gives 62% to 70% for a tractor only and 73% to 77% with a trailer. Prime names no figure.

These numbers are hard to rank. Each one sits on a different base.

3Xpress takes a flat 18% of gross linehaul. That is 13% for lease on, which covers authority, cargo and liability insurance and compliance, plus 5% for dispatch. Fuel, maintenance and your truck payment come out of what is left.

ATS pays 70% of linehaul and accessorial pay. Its June 2026 driver update says contractor pay runs 70% to 72%. The carrier keeps the rest of the linehaul before the fees in section 4.

Schneider runs two programs. In Percent of Revenue, you get 65% of linehaul revenue plus 100% of the fuel surcharge and accessorials. In All-In Revenue, you get one combined rate and no percentage to compare.

Prime says its lease operators are paid a percentage of the load revenue. It also says 80% of its trucks are driven by lease operators. Neither line names a percentage.

Landstar's owner operator page says its BCOs get percentage pay and shows no figure. Its annual report does. BCO pay generally runs 62% to 70% with a tractor only, and 73% to 77% with a trailer too.

That is a company wide range, not an offer.

The Werner and Mercer owner operator pages show no pay figure either. Roehl pays on a sliding mileage scale plus a fuel surcharge and prints no rates.

Four things settle any percentage. Find out which base it comes from: gross, linehaul or linehaul plus accessorials. Find out if the fuel surcharge sits inside it.

Then find out who buys cargo and liability insurance, and who pays plates, permits and the ELD.

3Xpress answers the insurance question. Its page says the lease on share covers cargo and liability insurance. You carry your own occupational accident insurance, plus fuel, maintenance and your truck payment.

Put any offer through your own numbers. Run the split in the owner operator vs company driver calculator and check it against your cost per mile.

A high percentage can pay less than a low one. It depends on what the lease makes you pay for.

Will the carrier pass the fuel surcharge on to you?

It depends on the carrier, and the lease rule does not decide it. Landstar passed 100% of the $229 million it billed on BCO freight in fiscal 2025. J.B. Hunt offers up to 100%, but says a full pass down is not guaranteed at every carrier.

A fuel surcharge is money the shipper pays on top of the rate to cover diesel. Whether it reaches you depends on your lease.

The lease rule says who pays for fuel and fuel taxes. It does not say how much surcharge you get.

Landstar is the clearest case, and it comes from an SEC filing, not a recruiting page. Its annual report says it billed customers $229 million in fuel surcharges on BCO freight in fiscal 2025. It passed 100% of that to its BCO Independent Contractors.

Landstar's owner operator page does not mention the surcharge, so the filing is the proof. The filing says Landstar leaves these surcharges out of its revenue and its purchased transportation cost. It also says the BCO pays nearly all the costs of running the truck, fuel included.

So the surcharge helps with your diesel bill. You still pay for the fuel. Landstar also runs LCAPP, which gives eligible BCOs discounts on fuel, tires and equipment.

J.B. Hunt's truckload page promises 100% pass through of the fuel surcharges. Its April 2026 fuel blog says options run up to 100% of the shipper's surcharge. The same blog says a full pass down is not a guarantee at every carrier, so your contract decides.

ATS lists guaranteed pay on collected fuel surcharge and names no percentage. Schneider's Percent of Revenue program pays 100% of it. Ask for the number in writing.

J.B. Hunt adds pump discounts of up to $0.80 a gallon. It says owner operators saved $7,300 on average.

In September 2026, a poster on r/Truckers asked if owner operators request a surcharge when booking or absorb the cost. If you are leased on, your lease answers that. If you run your own authority, you negotiate it on every load.

Ask what share you get, how it is calculated and whether the carrier takes a cut first. Then price your diesel in the fuel cost calculator.

A surcharge is not a free raise. When diesel rises, it pays you back part of the cost. A carrier that keeps part of it takes that money out of your pocket.

Rates matter just as much, so read how to find loads and get better rates.

What do escrow, plates and device fees cost?

Only ATS of the 9 carriers prints these: a $75 escrow, a $50 plate charge and a $50 trailer fee. It also lists $15 a month for a transponder and $110 a month for a communication device. 3Xpress answers escrow terms by phone.

ATS gives the fullest list. Its June 2026 driver update puts the plate and trailer charges at $50 a week each. The transponder and device charges are monthly.

The page does not say how the $75 escrow works, so ask before you assume.

3Xpress is open about what it leaves out. It names the terms it will not publish: trailer, plates, permits, ELD, insurance limits, settlement schedule, dispatch policy and escrow. It also says its settlement shows no admin fee and no per load charge (3Xpress Logistics, 2026).

The rule gives you rights on escrow, if the carrier requires it. The lease must state the amount and what it can be used for.

The carrier must show every escrow transaction on your settlement sheets or in a monthly accounting. You can demand an accounting at any time.

The carrier must also pay you interest at least quarterly. The rate must be at least the 91 day Treasury bill yield. When the lease ends, the money comes back within 45 days.

Ask three things about escrow. Find out if the amount is a one time deposit, a weekly charge or a cut of each settlement. Find out what the carrier can deduct and how many days it takes to get the money back.

Count the escrow and the first weeks of fees in your startup cash. Add them up in the Startup Cost calculator.

Roehl's page shows a truck lease as low as $625 a week. That is a lease purchase offer, not a lease on. The Buying a Truck guide covers the lease purchase traps.

Roehl's lease purchase agreement takes the tractor payment and other business costs out of your settlement automatically. Do not compare it with a lease on split.

Factoring is another cut. 3Xpress lists optional factoring at 3% of gross linehaul. Run any quote through the factoring fee calculator.

Your days away from home change your taxes too. Estimate that in the Truck Driver Per Diem calculator.

What does one $2,400 load pay at 3Xpress?

3Xpress prints a worked load: Phoenix to Dallas, 1,065 miles, dry van. Gross linehaul is $2,400 and the carrier keeps $432, which is 18%. You get $1,968, or $1.85 a mile, before fuel, maintenance and your truck payment.

Of the 9 carriers, only 3Xpress prints a worked load. The other 8 leave you to work it out yourself. That makes it a good model for your own check.

Run the same $2,400 load at the other published splits. At ATS's 70% you get $1,680. At Schneider's 65% you get $1,560.

That is RigDigest's own arithmetic on one base, not an offer from either carrier.

Then subtract your costs. Your cost per mile decides whether $1.85 a mile is a profit. Put your numbers in the load profit calculator.

Here is what that $1.85 has to cover. Diesel averaged $6.199 a gallon in the week of October 5, 2026, EIA reported. At 6.5 MPG, for example, fuel alone costs about $0.95 per mile.

Tires, maintenance, insurance and your truck payment come on top of that.

I would not sign a lease I could not turn into a sum like this one. Get the percentage, the fuel surcharge share, the escrow terms and every chargeback in writing first.

If you do not have your own authority yet, start with how to become an owner operator.

What should you ask before you sign a lease?

Get these 8 answers in writing before you put your truck on any carrier.

1. Ask which base the percentage sits on: gross, linehaul or linehaul plus accessorials.
2. Ask if the fuel surcharge sits inside the percentage or on top of it, and what share you get.
3. Ask who buys cargo and liability insurance. If the carrier charges you back for any insurance, the lease must state the amount.
4. Ask if there is escrow. The lease must state the amount, what it can pay for, the interest you earn and the return deadline of 45 days.
5. Ask for the full chargeback list and how each amount is computed.
6. If you are paid a percentage, ask for a copy of the rated freight bill at settlement.
7. Ask how many days it takes to get paid after you turn in delivery papers. The rule says 15.
8. Get every answer in the lease itself, not in a recruiter's email.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. 49 CFR 376.12 Lease requirements. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the Code of Federal Regulations). Accessed October 7, 2026.
2. Drive With Us: Keep 82% Of Gross. 3Xpress Logistics. Accessed October 7, 2026.
3. Owner-Operator Trucking Opportunities With ATS. Anderson Trucking Service. Accessed October 7, 2026.
4. How much does an owner-operator make? Average revenue and more. Schneider. Accessed October 7, 2026.
5. How owner operators can reduce fuel costs. J.B. Hunt Transport. Accessed October 7, 2026.
6. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 27, 2025. Landstar System, filed with the SEC. Accessed October 7, 2026.
7. Landstar owner operators. Landstar System. Accessed October 7, 2026.
8. Leasing 101. Prime, Inc.. Accessed October 7, 2026.
9. Owner operator compensation and benefits. Roehl Transport. Accessed October 7, 2026.
10. Dry van owner operator contracting jobs. Schneider. Accessed October 7, 2026.
11. Truckload owner operator opportunities. J.B. Hunt Transport. Accessed October 7, 2026.
12. ATS Drivers' Mid-Year Update: Training, Pay, and Tech. Anderson Trucking Service. Accessed October 7, 2026.
13. Weekly retail gasoline and diesel prices. U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed October 8, 2026.