Absolutely they can. But at the end of the day, that's all they are - an estimate. A buisiness who runs only off of estimates is a business looking to fail. Eventually, real-world numbers need to come into the mix.


Well, no. First off, repairs are not maintenance. They are repairs. They are a completely separate fund from maintenance. Secondly, they are a fund, and are based off of projections. Thirdly, what's your point?

Nope. Wrong again. You know how much I paid last year for maintenance and repairs? About $2000. That's for the entire year. Wanna base your figures off of that?

Nope - most O/O's go out of business because they have no idea what it costs to keep and operate a vehicle, and haul freight that doesn't compensate enough for that. There was a recent thread right here on CAD of a driver who was going under because he was earning $1.50 per mile. You seem to think that $1.22 per mile is enough to operate. If all O/O's expenses are the same, where is that other $0.28?

No. I'm done with this thread. I don't really care what you do. But I'm tired of going in circles with you. :roll:

 

I group repairs and maintenance in the same catagory. The $1.30 break even figure includes $18,000.00 per year or per 96,000 miles for repairs and maintence.

I didn't say $1.22 was enough to operate on. We did calculate that your break even was $1.22 though. That means that anything you make over $1.22 means you made money.

My dad is averaging at least $1.80/mile which is approximately $.50 over his break even. That is working off load boards and with just 3 months experience. I really don't feel sorry for someone with years of experience who can't do the same. This is not rocket science it is truck driving.

 

No, you showed everyone that you can't even use a simple calculator by claiming I am turning a profit over $1.22/mi.

Riiiiiight....... :roll:

 

If you truly represented your costs then yes they were $1.22/mi. Anything over your costs is money in the bank or money you can use to pay your house payment or whatever you use your money to pay for.

 

The base operating cost does not include salary or wages or food. Why should it? Only what it costs to run the truck not the human. If you know what it costs to run the truck just add up what you need per mile to pay your bills and you know what to charge per mile.

There is no replacement cost because the truck payment is $2000/mo or $2000/8000mi forever. That is already calculated into the $1.30/mi.

Deadhead should be calculated into the miles driven. There is no way to know how many deadhead miles you will run in advance unless you have a route setup. What I do is add the deadhead into the miles paid and make sure it pays enough for my dad to take the job.

$.50/mi is a decent earning for a truck driver. There are not too many places where a kid out of school with a little startup capital can make $1000/2000mi.

 

Like I said, you can't even figure out how to use a calculator. :lol:


Rev; is genuinely amused.

 

Wages or salary is a part of your operating expenses, whether the owner is the driver or you have an outside driver. A lot of owner operators get into trouble when they don't think that they need to pay themselves. If you had a driver in the truck you would need to pay them. It should be part of your operating expenses. Rates should include driver wages along with a reasonable profit. It is the market that determines rates. By not knowing current market prices you are doing two things. First, you are not being as profitable as you should. Second, by taking freight that is priced less than current market prices you are actually lowering rates for everyone. I am not saying that you personally, or your Dad, but those who constantly haul for less than market conditions are actually helping to keep prices lower than they should.






You are correct. $0.50/mile is decent earnings for a truck driver. However, it is not a good wage for an owner. When you own the company you need to change your thinking. Driver wages is what you use to pay your household expenses. Earnings are what you use to run your business. A lot of owners get confused about the difference.

 

The cost to operate a truck is what I call the base cost. Seperating the wages or profit from that cost let's you know how much you want to make. If you know the cost to operate a truck is $1.30/mi then all you do is add together what you need for your wage and what you need for stripper cash or what you want for savings together and divide by how many miles you run/mo. Add that to your base cost and that is the price you charge to run your truck.

i.e. your base cost is $1.30 and you want $10,000.00 in wages $10,000.0 for whores and $6,000 for an IRA and $20,000.00 for a car next month.
Well, that is $46,000.00 and you run 8,000mi/mo. That means you must charge $7.05/mi for those 8000 miles.


According to what the brokers are paying on the load boards $1.80 is a good rate per mile it is the going rate. Now if you want to tell me where to get a better rate for hauling where my dad wants to haul then feel free.