[GMAN]

Good points, Mike. Fuel these days is likely the most expensive aspect of running a truck other than perhaps wages. Fuel is close to $3/gallon in many parts of the country. I have heard that is is slightly above in a few places. If your truck gets 5 mpg then your fuel costs will be about $0.60/mile. At 6 mpg your fuel costs will be around $0.50/mile. That is using $3/mile as a base. Some major carriers may offer fuel discounts if you use their fuel card and fuel stops. I would not count on getting those since savings can run as little as $0.02/mile. Those who have an agreement with TA can sometimes get much better discounts on fuel. Your fuel costs can vary considerably when fuel is on the upswing. I remember several years ago I took a load to the left coast out of the southeast. Fuel rose $0.25/gallon while in transit. That essentially raised my costs by nearly $0.05/mile. If you have large fuel tanks you can drop a lot of money when you fill the tanks.

As a rule of thumb I usually add about 20-30% of my estimates for things that I may have overlooked.

[rank]

5000 miles a week on 50 weeks? 52 weeks? Using 50 = 250,000 miles/year. So lets break it down using my numbers for comparison. I run 100,000 miles/truck on average and my cost is ~$1.35.

$.34 is driver and $.60 is fuel, which leaves $.41 for everything else x 100,000 miles = $41,000 per truck in expenses. So the average truck costs me ~40 grand a year.

IF and this is a big IF, you can keep your costs to 40,000 divided by 250,000 miles you are at $.17/mile. Add in $.60 for fuel and your $.38/driver and you are now at $1.15/mile. Take $1.15 away from the $1.24 in revenue = $.09/mile profit.....now how many of those 250,000 miles are paid miles????????

If you can get 200,000 paid miles your pre-tax & pre-disaster profit is ~18,000/year. Old hands on this board might recall that my rule of thumb for being a carrier and having all the headaches is ~ 5 trucks.

Personally, I wonder if you can keep your expenses down to $40,000 a year + fuel and + driver when the truck is running 250,000 miles a year. Methinks the risk may be bigger than the reward.

[GMAN]

Owning trucks is an expensive business. It seems that every time that I take one of my trucks in to a garage for a repair the final bill is inevitably more than the estimate.

[skrissel]

I recently signed up with Apex Capital's factoring service. They offer a discount fuel card through EFS. I averaged $2.66/gal ($0.20 off cash pump price) for the past 2 weeks with 1266 gallons purchased. B2Btruckers also has an attractive discount program as well.

Good Luck!

-scott

[Dejanh]

My cost for owning only one truck was right at 90K last year on 120K miles, 48K was for fuel alone. This cost included everything truck related including phone..

You have tires figured out at 6K, WHY so much?
I have paid 3500 for 10 new tires last year !

[kotflb]

Rank said it right. If your getting paid mileage, you need to factor in about 15% to 20% of your actual miles won't be on your settlement check. Unless you've got a carrier that is willing to pay HUB miles. Most won't even consider hub miles unless they are charging a company driver for running out of route.

So even at the stated $1.24/mile, at the low 15% ripoff mileage, your actually only making $1.054 a mile. If you want to stay on the realistic side you need to figure it at the $1.05/mile rate. And if you can make it at that rate, write and sell a book. I'd buy one. :thumbsup:

[danske]

Originally Posted by GMAN

Unless I missed something, I didn't see anything for wages for either you or your driver. I would expect somewhere between $0.12-0.20/mile for each team driver.

Where can you find a TEAM driver for as little as 12cpm?!? Does he/she speak English?!? Yes, I know this is all miles, but 24cpm is low. 40cpm is low if you include the employer's share of FICA, Medicare, workman's comp, and benefits(eg. vacation, medical, dental, safety bonus). Maybe, that would work for a little/no experience driver(and no track record for safety and care of the equipment), but anyone w/ a couple years experience labor costs are going to be more than 40cpm.

And if this driver is a sub-contractor with a 1099, I would hope he is smart enough to figure that his wage includes him paying self-employment taxes. 40cpm and a W-2 does not equal 40cpm and a 1099.

I know it is a bit off the subject as he is collecting all the variables for determining cost to operate a truck.

I must be an overpaid company driver! And I drive SOLO.

[GMAN]

Originally Posted by danske

Where can you find a TEAM driver for as little as 12cpm?!? Does he/she speak English?!? Yes, I know this is all miles, but 24cpm is low. 40cpm is low if you include the employer's share of FICA, Medicare, workman's comp, and benefits(eg. vacation, medical, dental, safety bonus). Maybe, that would work for a little/no experience driver(and no track record for safety and care of the equipment), but anyone w/ a couple years experience labor costs are going to be more than 40cpm.

And if this driver is a sub-contractor with a 1099, I would hope he is smart enough to figure that his wage includes him paying self-employment taxes. 40cpm and a W-2 does not equal 40cpm and a 1099.

I know it is a bit off the subject as he is collecting all the variables for determining cost to operate a truck.

I must be an overpaid company driver! And I drive SOLO.

He stated that he planned to treat his driver as an employee. As such he will need to withhold taxes from his checks and should include his contribution to his employee's taxes as part of his operational costs. The employers contribution is approximately 7 1/2% of his wages. If he plan on furnishing any benefits to his driver then those costs should also be included in his cost projections.