FMCSA to collect lease-purchase agreements for study, review

As part of a congressional directive to take a deep dive into lease-purchase agreements and their impact on owner-operators and trucking businesses, the feds are turning to truckers.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will open a 30-day information collection request comment period to collect lease-purchase agreements starting Friday, Feb. 16.

“The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, requires the Secretary of Transportation, in consultation with the Secretary of Labor, to establish (the Truck Leasing Task Force) to examine the terms, conditions and equitability of common truck leasing arrangements, particularly as they impact owner-operators and trucking businesses subject to such agreements,” the information collection request states.

In order to take that closer look at leasing agreements, FMCSA is requesting truckers submit lease-purchase agreements for the task force to review in advance of its next meeting.

“FMCSA requests information from the public, including commercial motor vehicle drivers, to assist the Agency’s Truck Leasing Task Force in reviewing such leases to identify terms and conditions that may be unfair to drivers,” the notice states.

Share your lease-purchase experiences

FMCSA is fishing for information on leasing arrangements that truckers either have knowledge about or have personally experienced.

The agency has a list of specific questions developed by the task force. It is seeking input from individuals who have leased trucks via a lease-purchase agreement and in particular is requesting:

• Copies of lease-purchase agreements and all other financial documents associated with your lease agreement
• Terms of the lease, whether it was weekly or monthly, payment structures, start date and completion date, truck information, maintenance responsibilities, etc.
• What organization the lease-purchase agreement was with (for example, a motor carrier or third-party)
• How the arrangement was “marketed” to you; what truck values, earnings and work conditions were explained to you; whether you underwent a credit check; and whether you know of other drivers entering similar arrangements

FMCSA also noted it wants drivers to share how well they understood the terms of the agreement and whether they had any real negotiating ability during the signing process.

Three of the questions outlined in the notice focus on the most common problem with lease-purchase agreements – the ability to successfully complete them. The agency wants to hear whether drivers were or were not successful in completing the terms of the agreement and taking ownership of the truck. The notice also seeks information on back payment collection attempts and strategies leasing companies and motor carriers use.

The final item on FMCSA’s list asks about the impact of the lease-purchase agreement on your personal finances, livelihood and “family’s wellbeing.”

A complete list of the documents sought and questions asked can be found here.

Who sees the information?

In addition to the Truck Leasing Task Force, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – a U.S. government agency dedicated to making sure consumers are treated fairly by banks, lenders and other financial institutions – also will receive the comments shared with FMCSA.

In addition, the task force will provide advice and recommendations to the Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Labor based on the comments.

It’s important to note that the comment period is a public process, and documents submitted are publicly viewable. However, because many of these lease-purchase agreements contain confidential business and financial information, there are additional steps you need to take to keep that information private.

If your comments contain commercial or financial information that customarily is treated as private, it is important that you clearly designate the submission as confidential business information. Commenters should mark each page that’s confidential as “PROPIN” to indicate it contains proprietary information.

FMCSA will treat such marked submissions as confidential under the Freedom of Information Act, and they will not be placed in the public docket for this comment period.

Submissions containing confidential business information should be sent to Brian Dahlin, Chief, Regulatory Analysis Division, Office of Policy, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Ave. S.E., Washington, DC 20590-0001.

The docket for all other comments will go live on Regulations.gov. To participate in the data collection, search for docket number FMCSA-2023-0143. The comment period will be open for 30 days beginning Friday, Feb. 16. LL