Sign of the times: Among the options on the home page of LeaseTrading.com is a cartoon icon of a drowning man. The icon is labeled "exit your lease."

If you lease trucks and find yourself unable to meet payments, the cartoon might not be funny.
But then, LeaseTrading.com could be just what you’re looking for. The new business helps people with leased vehicles find people to take over existing leases – for a price, of course.
Michael Penfield, President and CEO of LeaseTrading.com of Norwalk, Conn., got the idea for the new web-based service when he found himself trapped in a car lease with no practical way out.
"It occurred to me that this is a marketplace that’s waiting to happen," he said.
So Penfield made it happen. LeaseTrading.com is the first and only company of its kind, he said.
Penfield explained how LeaseTrading.com works:
"Let's say you're a small fleet and you've got a truck you're leasing and you're paying $2,000 a month on it. You did a 48-month lease originally. Let's say two years have gone past and you're looking at some change, which is causing you to want to get out of that lease. Maybe you're going down the tubes and just can't afford the truck any longer.
"You go to the leasing company and say, 'I want to get out of my lease.' The leasing company says, 'Fine, give us your remaining payments and give us the equipment. There may be some penalties as well and some other fees and then you can walk away.'
"You do the math and you say, 'Wait a minute, I've got 24 months remaining. So you want me to pay you $48,000 plus give you the equipment and go away happy?'
"You say, 'no, I'm not going to do that.'
"You could buy out the remaining lease, pay the residual value for the truck, own the truck and then go and sell it in a used equipment space. But that's not going to be economical, especially now. It may not be any better than paying the $48,000 and going away.
"What you can do with lease trading is identify somebody who will assume the lease on the truck, assure that $2,000 payment and use LeaseTrading.com to manage the entire lease transfer process."
Why would another fleet take over a lease you’re trying to get out of?
"The (person) assuming your lease is obviously not going to take a truck that's depreciated over two years and pay a full $2,000 a month for it. You're going to have to pay him something to induce him to assume that lease," Penfield explained.
"Let's assume that something is three months' payments. What we've seen on the site is people typically think about it in terms of months."
Penfield said the actual calculation is a bit more complicated, involving the fair market value of the asset relative to the depreciated value and then the termination provision.
"But it will all boil down to a number of months that the original lessee would pay to exit the lease, and three months is kind of a fair assumption.
"So you would pay three months times your $2,000, or $6,000, for the benefit of the party that's assuming the lease. Then you would have one other payment, which would be our transaction fee, which is equal to 5 percent of the lease, in this case 5 percent of the $48,000. That would be $2,400.
"So your total cost to exit this liability is $8,400, and that compares with $48,000 as the termination cost," said Penfield. "Take your pick."
LeaseTrading.com, Penfield noted, makes it possible to complete the entire transaction online.
There are obvious advantages to taking over an existing lease, he pointed out.
"You get relatively new equipment that in theory is better maintained at very attractive lease rates. Plus when you assume a lease you don't have to reach into your pocket an put as much cash into a deal," said Penfield.
Penfield said typically one of two things happen to someone who wants to get out of a lease.
"Going back to our example. There's 24 months remaining and the leasing company says you've got to pay $48,000. Chances are after your done cursing at them, you're going to say, fine, I'm going to keep the truck. I'll figure out a way to deploy it and try and make my lease payments on it.
"That's probably the best case.
"The worst case is you really can't afford that $2,000 a month, your business starts to go down the tubes and you end up in bankruptcy. But the do nothing scenario is the most likely -- prior to lease trading," he said.