How to read a lease-purchase settlement, line by line

Every lease-purchase pitch starts with what the truck can gross. The number that matters is on the settlement: the weekly statement that shows what the loads paid, what came out, and what actually landed in the driver's account. Once you can read one, you can check most lease offers in ten minutes.

Below is a real weekly settlement from a lease-purchase driver at Zenith Logistics, a carrier we recruit for, from October 2026. Names and load numbers are removed. These are the numbers the carrier reported; we did not round or change them.

The settlement

Step 1: Find the gross and your share

Gross is what the loads paid. A percentage lease pays you a share of it, here 87%. A mileage lease pays you a rate per mile instead. Check the math first: $9,000 × 87% = $7,830. If the percentage on the settlement does not match the contract, stop right there and ask why.

Also ask what counts as gross. Is the fuel surcharge inside it or kept separately? Are detention and extra stops added in? Two leases that both say "87%" can pay very differently.

Step 2: Sort the costs into two piles

Fixed weekly costs. You pay these whether you run 1,000 miles or 3,000:

• Truck payment $900
• Trailer rent $310
• Cargo and liability insurance $280
• Physical damage insurance $165
• Registration $210
• ELD, camera and PrePass $30

That is $1,895 a week, about $270 for every day of the week, including the days you are parked.

Running costs. These grow with every mile:

• Fuel $2,258.53
• Maintenance $405.00
• Tolls $28.00

That is $2,691.53, about $1.06 a mile.

Step 3: Turn everything into cents per mile

Divide each number by the 2,537 miles:

Here is why this matters. Your share minus running costs leaves about $2.03 a mile. The fixed $1,895 has to come out of that first. At this week's rate and fuel cost, the first roughly 940 miles of every week only pay the fixed costs. Every mile after that is where the money is made. A slow week does not just cut your pay a little; it cuts it a lot, because the fixed costs do not shrink.

Step 4: Look for what is not on this week

The carrier's full cost list for this lease includes items that do not show up on this settlement:

• Occupational insurance, $165 a month
• Escrow, $2,500, paid as $250 a week for 10 weeks
• 2290 highway tax, $600 spread over 5 weeks

And one line will go away: registration ($210 a week) is paid off after 10 weeks. So the same driver can have a very different net in month one and in month six. Ask for a settlement from a driver's first month and one from later on.

Two more lines are worth a question:

• Maintenance. 18 cents × 2,537 miles would be $456.66, but the line says $405.00. Ask which miles maintenance is charged on (all miles, loaded miles or dispatched miles) and who pays for a big repair that the maintenance money does not cover.
• Fuel rebate. Ask how fuel discounts are shared and whether all of the discount comes back to you.

Step 5: Never judge a lease by one week

Here are three settlements from the same carrier in October 2026:

Week 3 had almost the same miles as Week 1, but about $600 less net. Lower gross explains part of it; tolls alone ate another $326. Routing and toll habits matter when the tolls are your money.

Ask for several weeks from several drivers, and ask for a slow week on purpose. Then ask: what gets charged in a week when I am home, or when the truck is in the shop?

Step 6: Compare it to a company job honestly

At the same carrier, company drivers start at $0.75 a mile. On the same 2,537 miles that is $1,902.75 before taxes. The lease net of $3,282.30 is clearly higher, but the two numbers are not the same kind of money:

• Taxes. A W-2 employee's employer pays half of Social Security and Medicare. A 1099 lease driver pays both halves as self-employment tax, on top of income tax. Put money aside every week and talk to a tax professional.
• Risk. On a company job, a breakdown, a slow freight week or a fuel spike is the company's problem. On a lease, it comes out of your settlement.
• Benefits. Health insurance and paid time off may be part of a company job. On a lease you usually pay for your own.
• The end of the lease. Ask what you own when the payments stop, whether there is a final payment, and what happens if you leave early.

A good lease can pay more than a company job for a driver who runs steady miles and controls costs. A bad week on a lease can pay less than a company job. The settlement is how you see which one you are looking at.

Before you sign, ask for

1. Real settlements from at least three drivers, several weeks each, including a slow week.
2. A settlement from a driver's first month and one from later on.
3. The full list of deductions and when each one is charged.
4. What is charged when you are home or the truck is down.
5. Which miles maintenance is counted on, and who pays for major repairs.
6. Whether fuel surcharge is part of the gross.
7. When and how the escrow comes back.
8. What you own at the end, any final payment, and what leaving early costs.

If a carrier will not show you a real settlement, that is your answer. You can see the full Zenith lease numbers, including all three settlements and every deduction, on the Zenith Logistics lease purchase page. Before any lease, also read Lease-purchase programs: read this before you sign.

Settlements shown are real examples reported by the carrier, not a promise of what any driver will make. Better Today LLC is a recruiting company, not a tax or legal advisor.