Apr 10, 2016 at 11:45 AM CST
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By DAVID SEGAL
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/your-money/a-truckers-tale-of-a-rent-to-own-runaround.html?_r=0 In this episode, we meet a man who says his life was irrevocably changed, for the worse, by a truck dealership. Some background for trucking neophytes, a group that included the Haggler until last week. Our letter writer, James Bryant, once ran a two-man trucking company with his brother. (There are about 350,000 such “owner-operators” in the United States.) Quite simply, the brothers signed deals with companies that needed stuff hauled. When a truck they owned broke down, Mr. Bryant signed a contract with a dealership that would allow him to rent a truck, which he would own after a certain number of payments over time. That, at least, is how he understood the arrangement. |