Well thanks Prodigy. You brought up something I was trying to say in some of my earlier posts.

The purpose of the trail runs I was making to find the areas where frieght are plentiful and to see what types of freight plentiful and where at. The deading was a side note.. And it turns out in the area I want to run they are very much plentiful least for now in all 3 types, Flats, Dry and reefers. They will be 800 to 1500 miles out and then doing it again back. Mega loads from 100 mile radus of home. That to include Atlanta, Augusta, Ga, Athens, Ga, Anderson SC, Greenville SC, and Spartenburg, SC. That not adding all the small towns inbetween. Last week just in my home town they had listed 7 loads. 1 Reefer, 2 Dry Vans and 4 Flatbeds. Rates maybe a different Story. Some I seen what they pay and would not touch them, and they also have mega short hauls. but most I would have to deadhead as much I hauled loaded miles, so not worth my time and efferts. Example one load abbieville SC to Washington, Ga 40 miles deadhead, 33 mile loaded run. And they want it tarped? If I was bored and just wanted to do it for fun fine, but not as a living.. My goal is not deadhead further than 100 miles to pick up a load that is at or near 1000 miles or more.. Closer if I can.

 

I wasn't trying to call anyone names,though I can bring up a post by the GCD that did. :lol: It doesn't take an accountant to see the numbers and how they don't add up to a reasonable profit for the time you put into your "Business". :lol: Let's run the numbers down on an annual basis,shall we?These are estimates:



truck payment=14k
insurance=3k
maintenance=10k(15k if needing overhaul)
FUEL=55k
Misc road expenses(i.e. meals,supplies)10k

Based on 100k miles a year that comes to 92k if there is no overhaul or transmission work. At 1.20 a mile the profit is around 22-28k before taxes. 37-40k at 120k miles before taxes. Maybe less. To average 120k miles a year you would have to drive 10k miles a month during ALL seasons with no vacation unless your truck never breaks down and you have a dispatcher that loves you. :lol: I doubt the fuel surcharge is .30cpm anyway,so in actuality we are looking at 1.17cpm. To top it off there are no medical or other benefits,which proves 1.17cpm is not worth an O/Os time considering putting up with the headaches of owning and operating a truck. Im not trying to ridicule or talk down to anyone.Just giving a heads up that even though a megacarrier pays for all plates and permits their program is not designed to benefit an O/O and you have to rely on a dispatcher to give you the miles. In other words,YOU are dealing with all the expenses and headaches while THEY control how many miles you get.

 

Prodigy, isn't that the father in the Brady Bunch in your avatar?

 

Anybody care to break down the .90 CPM operating expense??? I think that's ridiculously high.

And no_worries, I'll respond to your flame later, got work to do. I'm not some fat, naked lard-azz sitting at his puter at home waiting for a response on this message board so I can troll him some more, know what I'm saying? As far as credibility, Like I said before, I have nothing to prove to anybody on here, I'll be happy to post my end of year numbers in Feb '08 if anybody cares.

 

That's cool. My truck is pretty dang nice I get compliments on it all the time, drivers can't believe it's an '03.

I may just decide to hold onto it until it dies. There's no EGR crap on it and it runs great for having 611k on it. You guys can have your brand new petes and KW's and I'll be that guy with the ok looking but well maintained truck that's paid off.

 

I don't want to offend, I just want this guy to make it if he can. I'm a newb myself. I just have a very honest question for you, how do you account for all the long time O/Os at Dart. Schneider or whoever, some of these are easy targets as everybody is happy to pick on them. That's why I say Dart because these too are our boys, right? I never went to OOIDA message board so I don't know if they get along over there. Do you think the O/Os at Dart are fools?

I am glad you gave us actual numbers though. When someone else is just giving you your loads and paying your deadhead, 10,000 paid miles a month is not hard. He's paying off his truck, he ought to quit taking so much time off and run that 120,000 paid miles until he owns it.

$55,000 on 100k paid miles, that comes out to 5.2 mpg with $2.86/gal fuel (that's a high average but not if we are talking a 30cpm fsc). They are most likely shorting him 8% on the miles. There will be out of route miles if just to get back to the house. I still wonder if he can lower that fuel cost- extra miles and idling v. higher mpg and fuel discounts

Everybody has to buy food. Can we trim down the 10k in incidentals?

He may not be making more than a company driver but he can have a little more freedom. One of the worst things about being a company driver is the companies pushing you to go, go, go, live to drive so that they can get as much as they can out of their investment in your equipment. Particularly when he gets the truck paid off, this will afford him a better lifestyle. Then too, like me, he can think about repositioning himself for a percentage job or chemical tankers :wink: perhaps even then he could run his own authority. I'll let you and Solo fight it out about what is better.

Going back to Dart, though? All failures? :?

 

I am sorry if I came on a bit strong on this post. I purchased my trailer while leased to a carrier. I didn't consider that in my numbers since it is not part of running my own authority. I only posted those numbers that were in addition to what I paid while leasing to a carrier. I paid my own base plates and permits, equipment, maintenance, etc., The only other expenses I incurred running my own authority were for insurance and telephone. You are correct about your insurance running higher if you have limited experience. The more experience you have the lower your rates are likely to run. If you consider the cost of a trailer, you are probably correct with your numbers for the first year, providing you pay cash for your trailer.

 

No_worriers, you are probably correct if you consider the cost of buying a trailer. I was basing my statements on already having a trailer since I bought my own trailer while leased to a carrier. Some carrier's require owner operators to furnish their own trailers. Some do not. An owner operator can usually make more money if they have their own trailer. I think when you mentioned "mega-carrier" you are probably talking about some who pay mileage and furnish a trailer for the owner operator to pull.

I got my cell phone and Internet service while I was still leased to a carrier. I also subscribed to load boards while still leased since I brokered some of my own loads while leased. The carrier I was leased to at the time would allow owner operators to get their own loads if they didn't have anything in the area. At the time, I mostly ran the West coast and they only had one agent in California. If they didn't have something either they brokered a load or I did.

Other than equipment, insurance is the largest single expense most of us have when we run our own authority. If we consider the cost of purchasing a trailer with the initial start up costs, then DD60's costs are much closer to actual numbers, depending on the type and age of your trailer.

No_worries, I am curious as to where you buy your base plates and permits. They seem unusually high. With single state (which we no longer use) and base plates, etc., I pay about $1,700 for 48 states. My base plates, by themselves, run just over $1,400 per truck.

 

CA :evil: Actually, that does include a first-year charge to register in CA since I was plated in a different state prior. But since we were talking about the costs associated with making the switch, I thought it was relevant. Also, that doesn't include SSR, that's my total for this year. And you're right, I was considering "megacarrier" to mean the SNI's, Dart's, Werner's, of the world. I know a bit about your background GMAN, and your lease history is not what I would consider the norm. Though it is much better. I too had my cell service and internet while I was leased, but I didn't need it to do the job, therefore I don't classify it as a business expense at that time. Those are must-haves with your own authority so I reclassified.

Cam, what I was driving at was a personal balance sheet, or net worth statement. If you have one from the end of one year to the end of the next and compare the two, that will give you the best evaluation of your performance. After all, the goal is to better your lot in life. However, that's only half the picture. You also need to compare it to how you would have done as a company driver. Remember, any up-front money you spend could be invested earning a decent return. You have to evaluate the opportunity costs to get a clear picture. You may very well increase your net worth by $50,000 and that may sound good to you. But what if you would have done the same as a company driver? Does that change your analysis? And that brings us to the O/O's at Schneider, et al. Most lease-ops there are making right around the same money they'd be making as company drivers. They're in no danger of going under. But, if after paying a market salary a business makes no profit, how successful is it? For many people having the sense of freedom or the sense of ownership they get from their truck more than outweighs the fact that all they're doing is buying a job. That's perfectly alright...but it's not good business.

 

Ok, so you did mean 'balance sheet'. No quarrels. I just don't want to make things sound more complicated than they are. It's good to work all that out with an accountant and he seems to be doing that. But, this is no big conglomeration, a lot of it he'll be able to keep in his head until such time as he has done enough to have some real numbers he can work with.

This was my experience as a company driver. You start the new job and away you go, money, money, money. Man, that gets old. The time away from the house, the go, go, go. You haven't delivered and the next load is waiting and when things don't work out you are driving like a madman to make the pickup. Then you hit that streak of shorties: Unload in the morning, deadhead, load, drive over night, unload, deadhead, load, drive over night... I could do it just so long.

He's making money. He is learning the game, and don't discount that, that's huge. He's building up a little equity and if he'll run hard at first maybe a lot of equity. There is something to look forward to more than just the money he is making. And he posts to CAD and lurks a lot and he gets all this priceless info from you fine gentleman and when he's ready, he makes the jump to something more profitable.

I appreciate your integrity and your sticking to your guns and calling out the O/O mega companies along with the ones that also have company trucks. No sacred cows, you are calling it straight. Let's look at two different types of guys 1) a guy just getting into the game leased onto a megacarrier getting his feet wet and paying the bills 2) a guy leased onto a mega carrier for many years with no intention of doing anything different. I'm not touching this last one, I don't know enough to say, I do better just listening. But the first guy, using his megacarrier lease as a stepping stone to whatever lofty heights of owner operatordom that are out there, I want to encourage that guy and look for the best. Not to get beat up about lease purchase, but my 4 months of lease purchase were both profitable and invaluable in opening up the game to me so that now I have a truck that's paid for and I'm on to other horizons.

BTW, nobody's increasing their net worth $50,000/yr in a company job. Best case scenario, that's after tax earnings, best case. From that comes all his household expenses throughout the year and if there is any increase in net worth it's only the portion of that $50k he is able to save.