Lease or buy the next van: a cost calculator for NEMT fleets

How to use the lease vs buy calculator

Enter one quote for buying and one for leasing the same van, then the months you plan to keep it and the miles you drive each year. The calculator returns what each option costs over those months, the cost per mile of each, and the yearly mileage where the lease stops being the cheaper one. For how the two structures differ, including TRAC leases, taxes, and what brokers accept, read the lease or buy guide. Type your own quotes over the example numbers.

1. Fill in the buying side from a price quote and a loan offer.
2. Fill in the leasing side from a lease quote.
3. Enter the months you will keep the van, the same length for the loan and the lease.
4. Enter the miles per year the van will drive.
5. Read the cost of each option, the cost per mile, and the break-even miles.

Where each number comes from

The first three come from written quotes. The last three come from your own plans and records.

• Van price. The price on the quote with the conversion, taxes, and fees you would pay or finance.
• Down payment and loan interest rate. From the lender’s written offer. The Federal Reserve’s consumer credit release of September 8, 2026 puts the rate on 60-month new car loans at commercial banks at 7.14 percent for the second quarter of 2026. That is a consumer car loan, and a company financing a conversion van is quoted its own rate. One dealer’s offer for new NEMT businesses buying a new van conversion, valid October 1 to December 31, 2026, lists rates as low as 8.49 percent for well-qualified commercial customers. The example below uses 8.5 percent.
• Monthly lease payment, due at signing, mileage allowance, and charge per extra mile. All four come from the lease quote. A lease signed by your company is a business lease, and the federal consumer leasing rule excludes leases for business or commercial purposes (12 CFR 1013.2), so the quote may not spell out every one. Ask for each in writing. Enter 0 for the allowance if the lease has no mileage limit.
• Resale value at the end. What a van like yours sells for after the months you keep it, with the miles it will have. High miles lower it, and the calculator does not adjust it when you change the miles, so lower it yourself.
• Months. The same for the loan and the lease, so the two totals cover the same period.
• Miles per year. From last year’s odometer readings or a month of trip records multiplied by 12.

Reading the result

The headline names the option that costs less over the months you entered and by how much. Underneath:

• Cost per mile for each option is its total divided by the miles driven over the term.
• The break-even note gives the yearly miles at which leasing and buying cost the same. Below that mileage the lease costs less. Above it, buying costs less, and every further mile widens the gap.
• The extra-mile warning appears whenever you drive past the allowance and shows the dollars it adds to the lease.

Worked example

The default inputs are examples, not quotes. The lease side follows the shape of a dealer’s published commercial offer: starting at $1,099 a month for 48 months with $0 down, 20,000 miles a year, and $0.40 for each mile over. The price, down payment, loan rate, resale value, and 28,000 miles a year are round numbers chosen for the example.

Both run for 48 months at 28,000 miles a year, which is 112,000 miles. The results:

Buying costs $2,016 less. The break-even note reads about 26,700 miles a year, so the lease only wins below that. Change the miles per year to 24,000 and the extra-mile charges fall to $6,400, which makes leasing cost $4,384 less than buying.

Miles bought at signing can cost less than miles charged at the end

Ask for a quote at the mileage you will drive, because an allowance bought up front can cost far less per mile than extra miles charged at the end. The same dealer’s published offers for one 2026 Chrysler Voyager with a rear-entry conversion, valid May 20 to October 31, 2026, show it. A 48-month lease with $0 down and 10,000 miles a year starts at $999 a month, and the same lease with 20,000 miles a year starts at $1,099. The extra 10,000 miles a year cost $100 a month, or $4,800 over 48 months for 40,000 miles, which is $0.12 a mile. Both offers charge $0.40 for each mile over the allowance, more than three times as much.

Run each quote through the calculator at your real mileage. A lease with a bigger allowance and a higher payment can come out below a cheap payment with extra-mile charges at the end.

What the calculator leaves out

Insurance, fuel, maintenance, and registration are left out, and so are the tax effects of each choice, which the lease or buy guide explains. Ending a lease early also costs money: the dealer offers above carry the line “Early termination fees may apply.” If a broker contract could end before your term does, ask the lessor for the early-termination formula before you sign. The funding guide covers loan sources, and the wheelchair van cost guide lists what new and used vans sell for.

Measuring your miles first

The miles per year number can swing this comparison, so measure it. Every trip finished in HealthRide carries its GPS-verified miles, and the trip log, which downloads as a spreadsheet or a PDF, lists the vehicle on every trip. Add up one van’s miles for a month and multiply by 12. That is a better input than an estimate. See reports.