Waiting on New Trucks thread.

I'd rather drive a 1983 cabover than pay 3600 a month for a shiny truck.

I draw the line at 2k a month. Isn't anything special that a $200,000 truck does that a 10 year old truck doesn't do, aside from break down more.

 

After 6 years with own authority, I am more than ever convinced that there's no justification for it on the spot market. I don't care how much someone can handle brokers, there is no room for those payments.
You do DAT freight and service over $200 000 debt, you don't have life.

Those 12-18 month boom periods every 2 - 3 years don't justify it either. The average outcome is too small for such a burden.
I mean you could do it by sacrifice in the name of the truck but I have better passions to pursue.

Maybe, if bought outright with cash, so the financing costs are avoided but still, who has it, or even so, who wants to spend all that cash with one shove?

 

At a dealership, yesterday. A couple drivers are getting beautiful, new rides.

 

I'll offer a little perspective.
Assuming that the maintenance on the brand new trucks is minimal and the thing is not a lemon and fully operational, with todays rates, you need to have a good week of hauling a dry van for 2500- 3000 miles consisting in 3 loads - that's about 6-7 days, to be left with about $3500-4000 after fuel and tolls. So one full week you work to make one of the 72 payments. In order to sustain the tempo, you'd hardly ever have time to do other things in life.
But if it were only that easy...even though it is so hard. Some weeks are better than others. Some weeks there's hardly any reason to turn the ignition key at all. At today's spot market if you are left with $10k - $12k a month after fuel and tools it means that you did some running. Now pay that $4k loan installment - keeping in mind it is one of the 72, then pay the insurance from $700 to $1500. You left with 5k-6k from which you pay yourself for living life and still need to put aside on the emergency/maintenance/truck replacement fund or simply the new set of tires evey 3 years.
It doesn't add up, if you ask me.

 

If I had 200k I would buy another rental house, not a truck. In 6 years the house is worth 300k, and has generated 100k in rental profit. The truck will generate more income but will be worth 50k, if you are lucky, in 6 years.

 

I'd think that would cause a lot of crunched fairings from the distorted sense of cab to trailer angle. I tried that on the first truck I had with power mirrors... and quit doing it when I came within a quarter inch of crushing my passenger side fairing.

 

Problem is these cameras have issues with sunlight and dirt. Mirrors are simple and work, easy to clean and easy to recognize when they are dirty. Sometime technology isn't the answer. Look at all the issues that Boeing and the Air Force are having with the KC-46 because they thought a camera could replace someone actually seeing what was going on.

 

Great to know. I’ll relay that to the shop, since all our new trucks have them.

This truck only has 130K on it and the whole dash has got to come out, to get the heater box out. They said it’s a regular deal, but, usually not this soon. Why is it a regular deal? Because it’s PACCAR junk! I was telling the shop how KW and Peterbilt used to mean quality. Not anymore.

 

You guys need to get into different freight.


I had a 24 hour truck on a job and grossed a hair over 200k in September.
- wages, insurance & maintenance