Truck Leasing Task Force shines light on maintenance requirements

In predatory lease-purchase arrangements, required maintenance can be another avenue for motor carriers to make money off the truck driver.

During the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Truck Leasing Task Force meeting on Thursday, Jan. 18, task force member Paul Cullen Jr. said that some lease-purchase agreements force the trucker to have the maintenance performed at the carrier’s shop.

“Some carriers make them use preferred maintenance places,” said Cullen Jr., an attorney with the Cullen Law Firm. “It means the driver isn’t able to shop around for a better price. Some even go as far as using their own maintenance shop, and the driver is locked into a price.”

The Truck Leasing Task Force was created to prevent predatory lease-purchase agreements in the trucking industry. In these agreements, a carrier leases a truck to a driver but still possesses control for the majority of the operation. At worst, truckers have claimed that they owed the carrier money at the end of the pay period.

Thursday’s meeting focused on how these agreements can affect the maintenance of a truck.

Truck drivers working under these arrangements are completely reliant on the motor carrier to make money while making payments on the truck back to the same carrier. Often, maintenance can be another category of deductions for the driver.

Cullen noted that when the lease agreement reaches its end, it is common for the carrier to include multiple maintenance fees without proof of completion.

“Many carriers concoct deduction at the end to zero out the balance,” he said. “The end of the relationship is often the last insult.”

Jim Jefferson, a task force member representing the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told a story of a truck driver whose lease-purchase agreement ended poorly.

“We have a member who made all of the payments only to find out that he owed $30,000 in maintenance fees and never ended up completing the lease-purchase,” Jefferson said.

Steve Viscelli, a task force member who is an economic sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said it is rare for drivers operating under these agreements to end up owning the truck.

Because of that, truckers are pouring money into preventive maintenance for a vehicle they likely will never own.

“Drivers are making that investment because they believe they are getting equity in the truck and are eventually going to walk away with the truck,” Viscelli said. “But the success rates are really low.”

Even worse, repairs can place the driver in a hole they’re never able to get out of.

“No revenue is coming in when the truck is down, but that lease payment is still going, and then there are the repair costs,” he said.

The Truck Leasing Task Force, which was created through a provision in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, now has held three meetings. Once the task force completes its assigned duties, it will make recommendations to FMCSA. LL