Lease or Buy a Truck? A Simple Break Even Worksheet for Owner Operators

By Emeka Ogbonna, owner operator with 11+ years over the road. Last updated: November 2026.

Should you lease or buy a truck for your business? Buy if the truck will sell for more at the end than your break even resale value. Lease if cash is tight or you will swap trucks soon.

I have driven over the road for 11+ years. I drove for Averitt, National Carriers and J.B. Hunt, then leased on with Landstar Ranger as a BCO (business capacity owner, so I owned the truck). Now I run as an owner operator on my own authority.

I made my own mistake on my first truck. I bought it in Houston, Texas, and financed it. I paid a mechanic $500 to look it over first, and I thought that covered me.

Eight months later the engine blew up, and I was still paying the note on a truck that could not run. I paid for a short engine rebuild. Three months after that, the turbo and the radiator went out. I let the truck go. I lost money, and I was frustrated.

That is why I tell drivers to plan for repairs before they plan for the payment.

The pitch you will hear is simple. Lease for the lower payment, or buy to build equity. Neither line tells you which costs less for your miles and your cash. A worksheet does.

What does it mean to lease or buy a truck?

Buying means you pay cash or take a loan, and the truck is yours. Leasing means you pay to use the truck for a set term, then return it or buy it.

Trucking uses the word lease in several ways. Sort them out before you compare quotes.

This guide covers the first four rows. For lease on, read what lease on carriers keep.

What do you need before you start the worksheet?

Gather five things. Without them the worksheet is a guess.

• A written quote for each option with every fee listed.
• Your miles per year. Use last year's real miles, not your best year.
• The number of months you will keep the truck.
• A resale value for the end of that term. Check recent sold prices for trucks with the age and miles yours will have then.
• Your cost per mile. If you do not know it yet, learn how to calculate rate per mile first, because a truck payment is a fixed cost that does not shrink in a slow week.

How does the lease or buy break even worksheet work?

The worksheet adds up what each option costs over the same number of months, then subtracts what you get back. Fill in one column for buying and one for leasing.

Line 11 is the key. It is the lowest price you can sell the truck for and still come out even with the lease. If you expect to sell for more, buying costs less. If you doubt you will get that much, lease.

Insurance can differ by option. Compare quotes against the semi truck insurance cost averages before you enter line 5.

What does the worksheet look like with real numbers?

Here is a used Class 8 tractor priced at $70,000, run for 60 months at 100,000 miles a year. These are example numbers for the math, not quotes. Replace them with yours.

Repairs and tires are the same in both columns here, so they cancel out and stay at 0. If a full service lease covers repairs, put your expected repair bill in the buy column on line 5.

What to notice: the example truck must sell for more than $17,760 at month 60 for buying to win. The assumed $30,000 clears it by $12,240.

Now stress test the example with four what if cases.

Resale value moved the answer far more than the rate. A 2 point rate jump added $3,420 to the buy cost. A $20,000 drop in resale added $20,000. Spend your research time on resale value.

How do taxes change the answer when you lease or buy a truck?

This is general information, not tax advice. Rules change, so confirm your contract and your numbers with a qualified tax professional. See the RigDigest disclaimer.

Lease or purchase comes first. The IRS looks at the facts when you sign to decide whether an agreement is a lease or a conditional sales contract. A true lease lets you deduct payments as rent. Under a conditional sale you are treated as the buyer, so you generally recover the cost through depreciation instead, as the IRS explains.

The IRS lists signs of a sale. Part of each payment may build ownership. You may get title after a set number of payments. You may be able to buy the truck for a nominal price compared with its value, or for a small amount compared with all your payments. A $1 buyout lease fails that test. No single sign decides it, so read your contract with a tax professional.

Truck leases with a terminal rental adjustment clause have their own rule. The clause adjusts the rent up or down based on what the truck brings when it is sold. Under 26 U.S.C. 7701(h), a qualified motor vehicle agreement with that clause is treated as a lease if it would be a lease without the clause. You also sign a statement that you plan to use the truck more than 50 percent for business and that you are not the owner for tax purposes.

If you buy, depreciation is the main deduction. For 2025, IRS Publication 946 lists a Section 179 limit of $2,500,000 and says the 100 percent special depreciation allowance was reinstated for qualified property acquired after January 19, 2025. The Section 179 limit changes each year, so check the current Form 4562 instructions. Section 179 is also limited by your business income, so a new authority with a small profit may not be able to use all of it in year 1.

When you sell, the other side shows up. Depreciation you took can be recaptured, which means some of the gain can be taxed as ordinary income. The same IRS publication explains when you recapture the deduction, and Form 4797 is the form for sales of business property. Ask your tax professional how much of your gain would count.

A new tractor also carries a 12 percent federal excise tax at the first retail sale. The weight thresholds in 26 U.S.C. 4051 exempt only light tractors, so most Class 8 tractors owe it. Because it applies to the first retail sale, a used tractor does not owe it again. For a new tractor, put it on line 1 of the buy column. The RigDigest truck price guide works through that math.

My read: taxes change the timing more than the total. A lease spreads deductions over the term. A purchase can pull much of the deduction into year 1, then hand some back when you sell. Run the worksheet with line 8 at 0 first. If the answer is close, tax timing may break the tie. For quarterly planning, see how much to set aside in owner operator estimated taxes.

Which numbers swing the lease or buy result the most?

Four numbers do most of the work. Here is the order I would check them.

1. Resale value at the end. It moved the example answer by $20,000.
2. Cash at signing. Cash you do not spend on a down payment can sit in your repair reserve.
3. Repairs and miles. The industry average for repairs was $0.22 per mile in 2025, according to FleetOwner's report on the ATRI data. That is about $22,000 a year at 100,000 miles. It is a fleet average, so use your own shop bills.
4. The payment and the rate. They matter, but less than resale value in the example.

The $0.40 combines truck and trailer purchase costs, with trucks at $0.28 and trailers at $0.12 per mile. A single truck with no trailer payment compares best with the $0.28 truck figure. Use these as a sanity check, not a target. Then compare your result with the pay math in owner operator salary after expenses.

What goes wrong when you lease a truck?

• Mileage fees. Some leases cap miles per year and charge for each extra mile. Get the cap and the fee in writing and put the expected fees on line 5.
• End of term surprises. Wear charges, return conditions and a buyout priced at fair market value can all show up at the end. Ask for the end terms before you sign.
• A TRAC shortfall. If the truck sells for less than the set end value, the contract may make you pay the gap. Find out who carries that risk.
• Leaving early. Ask what you owe if you end the lease early or the truck is totaled.
• Carrier lease purchase. It is a different deal with its own rules. The buying guide covers what goes wrong with lease purchase deals.

Whichever path you pick, you still need loads and authority behind the payment. See how to get your own trucking authority and the 9 steps to become an owner operator. Run your startup cash through the startup cost calculator before you sign.

Should you lease or buy a truck? My verdict by driver type

Buying is not always the better deal, and leasing is not always a trap. Here is where I land.

All of this depends on your lane, your truck's age and your lender's terms. Rerun the worksheet when any quote changes. [EMEKA: add what you would do differently on your own truck deal today]

New to the terms? Start with what an owner operator is.

Lease or buy a truck: common questions