Expense Spreadsheet of 2010

Turn3...I'm less than 50 posts so can't respond to your PM's.
Re my 90,000 miles. I count every miles as a revenue raising mile. If the money isn't there to cover all miles I don't take the load. I use the big picture and keep a rolling tally of revenue/miles ran for the period I go out for. Sure, some loads will pay $1.00 a mile but others will pay $1.80. Averages is what its all about.
My truck is a 05 Volvo 450 ISX and I have a 53 dry van. My average net per every mile in 2009 at Landstar was approx $1.02. At that rate I was able to maintain the truck well enough but it only left me about .19 a mile to the nut behind the wheel. I now have my DOT number and am currently in the 10 day protest period.

I expect your $1.51 a mile average is doable but I am low balling my expectations for 2010 and will be ok with $1.30 as a motor carrier in my own right as a minimum for ALL miles. I doubt I will be in this for the money but want even more "FREEDOM" than Landstar gave me. Yes, a bit more paper work and maybe chasing the checks but at this point I have not looked at factoring. I have plenty of working capital so hopefully I wont need to factor.

Don't get too wrapped up in the FSC BS as an independent. Lots of brokers don't f*** with it. Prices quoted are all in. Does it really matter how you get to a dollar amount for the trip. A penny is a penny no matter how you got it. If the revenue doesn't give you rate you will run for, negoiate or head for the door.........

 

Well... if you can negotiate a surcharge - its all good! Our fsc is a little low, but our fuel net runs about .20 cheaper per gallon on the average than the national. Should be somewhere around 23 - 30 cpm right now.

Really, the game is bottom line. Whoever can run the cheapest until the rates start back up is going to be the last man standing. Don't let the lower fuel prices fool ya - running slow and stingy will put more money in your pocket than going fast. I see the same fools fly by me two or three times a day... that means I get to the same places cheaper than they are, even though they're going faster.

 

I drive a reefer for Prime. Our fuel surcharge this week was set at 23.5 cpm... up a little from last week - the average paid last week was 4 or 5-cpm higher than the official number. The fsc amount is not necessarily as high as other outfits, but our fuel costs are based on a fleet average through our network. It tends to run around $0.20 less per gallon than the national average.

 

I was talking to a leased driver from CR England while in Chicago a couple weeks ago. He told me his fuel was priced at some crazy low number like $2.25 a gallon or even lower. What's up with that?

 

$2.25 sounds like a couple of months ago - price increases affect even the fleets. The larger fleets negotiate volume discounts with the large truckstop chains. Since the fleets can direct their company drivers wherever they please, they can assure a minimum volume to justify the lower prices.

 

Fuel surcharge SHOULD be based on fuel at an average of about $1.20 a gallon, and a truck that gets 6 mpg.

Fuel around here is about $2.70 a gallon, so the surcharge...if offered would be about .25 a mile.

After talking to several drivers...I know a lot of companies that offer surcharge base their surcharge rates on the cheapest place to buy fuel along the route instead of the average. Some even base surcharge on fueling at the companies yard instead of out on the open market. Greatwide does this, according to the last driver I talked to.