Hello,

My name is Dana and I'm working on a study of Texas truck operating costs. We are doing this research under contract with the Texas Department of Transportation, so that they take trucking needs in to account when designing roads, highways, toll prices, and other factors.

We have been interviewing major truck companies with owned fleets, but we are not adequately representing the owner/operators. Mostly O/o companies like Landstar has been very helpful, but they just don't have the maintenance/accounting records of their operators, or information on their rigs. If you could provide me with some general information, and ballpark estimates of costs, that would be helpful.

• What make/year is your rig?
• What engine does it have?
• Do you operate in Texas? If so, what % of the time?

• About how many miles do you drive a year?
• Do you know about how much it cost per mile to operate your rig?
• How much does insurance cost you a year? Do you pay it, or does your company?
• How much does scheduled maintenance cost you, yearly or per mile?
• What is a ballpark figure of the cost of unexpected repair/breakdown?

• Do you use super singles?
• Do you use retreads? If so, how many, and on which axles?

• Do you have any concerns/suggestions on the design of the transportation infrastructure in Texas?
• Is there any other information you think is relevant?

Thank you for any information you can provide. We should be preparing a more exhaustive survey eventually, which will be distributed to Texan owner operators, but before we did that I wanted to get a feel for the territory.

Dana Ivey

Half of that has nothing to do with operating costs. And how does our operating costs relate to TX infrastructure?

Fishy if you ask me. Especially in this day of states like CA trying to get our older trucks off the road.

There are some important local factors. Shell aggregate in the road composition in the Houston/Coastal East area causes greatly increases tire wear (as much as 30%.) Super singles are not used in Houston dray freight as the 90degree turns common to intersections there lead to more sidewall damage.

They are also trying to find out what operating costs are for trucks to try to get them on the local tollways. If a quicker run over a longer distance + toll fare is cheaper than a low-speed, high cycle run through a congested area, more truckers will use toll roads.

Operating costs are used for policies like lane rental, which tries to keep construction to off-hours when there will be minimum impact. Generally, TxDOT needs operational costs for various planning purposes. We are also working on light vehicle costs, but those are much easier to determine in many ways.

Dana, check your UserCP for a comment.

__________________
If you don't like the rate, don't haul the freight.

[quote=Ivey;426537]Super singles are not used in Houston dray freight as the 90degree turns common to intersections there lead to more sidewall damage.[quote]


I don't know where you got that information. We ran super singles on our trailers out in Las Vegas NV and never had sidewall problems. I can tell you that driving a super tanker weighing in over 105,000lbs in the heat, in the city, and maneuering in the gas stations takes more stress than making a 90° turn.

Sorry for the double post.

Right now my cost per mile is $1.03, which does not include fuel, profit, or drivers pay. This is averaged over 110k miles per year and does take into account that the tractor and trailer will need to be replaced with newer, higher priced equipment one day. I do 70% of my own maintenance. Total cost for maintenance w/ parts/ labor averages .23 cent per mile, so far. For unexpected breakdowns w/ towing the cost is thru the roof, $1000+.

Approx. 65% of my miles are on Texas roads. I pay my own insurance and for full coverage cost is $11,200 per year. I don't use super singles or recaps, but am considering recaps for future use.

I like Texas roads, but I believe toll roads are a bad idea. I avoid them whenever possible. We pay enough fuel, road, parts, and new equipment taxes to more then pay for new roads and upkeep of existing roads. Our taxes on fuel shouldn't be paying for mass transit, bike trails, excessive truck inspections or any other pork. Toll roads are just another form of double taxation.

The best thing TXDOT can do is widen all major highways an extra lane in each direction and build wide interstate loops around major cities with limited access to encourage thur traffic to use without the am/pm bottlenecks.
And Thank You for asking!

Ivey-

How are you collecting your data? Are you talking with smaller OO's and company drivers or just large fleet owners? How many folks are you going to talk with?

Just curious.

Cheers.

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So far most of the communication has been with the large fleets- HEB, Greatwide, and others. We have met with Landstar too, but of course they don't keep records on their individual operators' equipment or costs.

Currently I am concerned that we aren't correctly representing the owner/operators. Since they typically operate older vehicles on average, and have different driving/business practices, the operating costs will be significantly different. We don't want the Texas Department of Transportation to only plan for the operation of large corporate fleets, and not for your typical owner/operator.

We are planning to put together a survey for owner-operators which will likely be distributed through one of the owner-operator interest groups. Before that happens, I am trying to get a few ballpark ideas.

Thanks for the input given so far.