Leasing on vs. your own authority

Leasing on means you and your truck work under another carrier's authority: they hold the federal permission, their insurance liability cover runs while you haul their freight, they find or approve the loads and pay you — and they keep a cut. One ranked guide puts the carrier's cut at 15 to 25 percent of gross. Your own authority means the permission, the insurance, the customers and the full rate are yours, along with every bill and every slow week. Neither is the right answer for everyone. The lease decides which one leasing on really is, so the lease is what you read.

How leasing on works

• You sign a lease agreement with a carrier that already has operating authority.
• You run under their DOT number and authority, hauling freight they book or approve.
• They pay you on their schedule, minus their percentage and any charges the lease allows — insurance, plates, escrow and the like.
• You still own and maintain your truck and trailer, and you still pay for fuel.

What percentage do leased-on drivers get?

A ranked guide of lease-on arrangements puts the carrier's cut at 15 to 25 percent of the gross — meaning the driver sees roughly 75 to 85 percent before his own costs. Percentages only compare fairly when you know what the carrier supplies for the cut: loads, liability insurance, cargo cover, plates, and how fast they pay. A smaller cut with no freight behind it earns less than a bigger cut on steady, well-paid loads.

Whose insurance is it?

Under a lease, the carrier's liability insurance runs under their authority while you are hauling for them — liability is the cover that pays the other party when your truck causes harm. What the carrier's policy does not settle is your own truck. Physical damage cover — cover for your truck itself — and bobtail cover, which is liability cover for when you are driving the truck without a load and not on a job, are commonly the driver's to carry or to buy through the carrier as a lease charge. Every lease splits this differently. Ask, in these words: which policies are yours, which are mine, and what do you charge me for mine? Get the answer in the lease, not in a conversation.

Can you work for more than one company at a time?

In practice, no — your lease ties you. While you are leased to a carrier, you run under their authority, and a standard lease says their freight and their name are what your truck works under. Having your own bobtail insurance does not free you from that. Bobtail only covers a gap in insurance; it does not grant permission to haul someone else's freight under someone else's authority. Running side loads outside the lease can void the arrangement and leave you uncovered if something goes wrong. If you want to work for several customers freely, that is what your own authority is for.

The new-driver problem

Drivers ask which companies will lease on a man with an F-350 dually, a 40-foot gooseneck and no track record — and the honest answer is that this is the hard door. A carrier putting a new driver under its authority is staking its insurance and its safety record on him, so many carriers want experience a new driver does not yet have. Some do take new drivers; ask what experience means to them before you assume. And if no carrier will take you yet, that is not the end of the road — it is the case for filing your own authority and building the record yourself, slowly, on smaller work.

What is forced dispatch?

Forced dispatch means the carrier can require you to take the load they assign — refuse, and there are consequences under the lease, up to losing the lease. Some leases have it, some let you turn loads down. Neither is automatically wrong, but you must know which one you signed before the first bad load is assigned to you at a rate you would never accept. Read that clause twice. While you are in the lease, also check: the pay percentage, how and when you are paid, every charge they can take out, who pays for what insurance, how either side ends the lease, and what happens to money owed to you at the end.

When the carrier makes up rules that are not in the contract

Drivers report this pattern often: no deadhead pay that was never mentioned, being marked 'not available' for sleeping in a hotel — rules that appear after signing and live nowhere in the lease. Understand what the lease is: it is the whole relationship. A rule that is not in it is not a rule you agreed to, and a change to how you are paid or marked available is a change to the deal. Say so calmly, in writing, and point to the section. If the carrier wants a new term, the answer is the same as theirs would be to you: put it in writing as an amendment both sides sign. A carrier who will only run on spoken rules is telling you how every later dispute will go.

When a carrier keeps a leased driver's money

This happens, and drivers ask whether they can file a claim the way you can against a broker's bond. Plainly: no. There is no bond posted for your pay the way a broker posts one. The broker bond claim exists because brokers post a bond for exactly that purpose. A carrier who owes its own leased driver for delivered loads has posted no such bond for you, and the FMCSA does not settle pay disputes between a carrier and its leased drivers. Here is where the leverage actually is:

• Demand an accounting in writing. Ask for a written statement of every load, what it paid, every deduction, and what is owed. Keep your own copies of rate confirmations, delivery receipts and pay statements — the driver with the paper usually wins the argument.
• The written lease. What it promised about pay timing and deductions is the claim. A carrier outside its own lease is in breach of contract.
• State claims. Unpaid contract money can be pursued through your state's courts, including small claims court for smaller amounts, and state labor or contract rules may add weight depending on how you were classified.
• A lawyer for real money. When the amount kept is large, a trucking or contract lawyer's letter, backed by your paperwork, is often what finally moves it. Bring the lease and the accounting, not just the story.

What about the 'best lease-on companies' lists?

We do not rank companies, and you should be suspicious of any list that does — rankings are usually bought, borrowed or stale. Judge a carrier yourself: the lease in full before you sign, the percentage and every deduction in writing, how fast drivers are actually paid, whether dispatch is forced, what insurance is charged to you, and how the lease ends. Then talk to drivers currently leased there and ask one question: do the settlements match the lease? A good carrier survives those questions easily.

Already have your own authority, but thinking of leasing on part time?

Drivers with an unused authority sometimes ask about running under another carrier's authority and insurance instead of paying for their own cargo cover year-round. It can be done, but while you run under their authority you are under their lease, with their cut and their rules — and your own authority and its insurance filings still have their own upkeep while they sit idle. Price both honestly: the full cost of keeping your own house running, against a cut of every load plus lease charges. For a driver who will only run now and then, leasing on can be the cheaper door. For a driver building his own customers, it builds the carrier's book, not his.