Class starting 25 Oct 11

Someone been sniffin the glue...

 

It's been a month since I have posted. My last TnT student took my recommendation and teamed up with another driver for the winter. He is doing well so far. It is good to keep in touch with your students (that make it and don't get fired for stealing a cell phone) and even mentor them. Everyone should have a mentor.

The month of October was not as productive as I would have liked, but it was profitable. I sometimes am reminded that I expect too much and should probably hope for too much but expect less. I did have the good fortune to be able to outfit my wife and two sons with nice hunting rifles for deer season and take two weeks off for the deer season. The deer were more lucky at that point, as I only got one small deer and the rest of the family did not get to even see a deer. While at home I got to rest and unwind my body from 1 year of driving hard. I have come a long way and have accomplished quite a bit.

As of 23 November, my truck is now an asset of Power Logistics LLC. I have started my first company, pushing into business ownership with a very steep learning curve, mostly due to IRS requirements. It definitely keeps me from being bored, and I can't wait to see how it changes our lives. (Yes, IP, I do have an exit strategy) If you all have noticed, my logo is posted next to my name. Hope you like it?!?!

During turkey day week I have also achieved my next goal, becoming a PSD instructor. (for those of you who have not read my backstory, I have been training people on construction equipment, leadership, and vehicle recovery operations in my past and enjoy teaching people) It was an interesting class, with two of us students with Stan the PSD instructor. Of course it went well with such a small class. The Pre-trip class was a great refresher, giving me a chance to establish my notes for teaching the PSD students the art of passing the CDL hands on evaluations. I am now out with my first PSD student, a young man with some good instincts about driving and willing to listen and communicate (very important for a student and instructor) If I planned it right, we will be back in Springfield just in time to test before taking a christmas break. There is plenty of time out here to spend an hour a day on practice, whether it is the pre-trip or backing. If and when I hit the wall of 70hrs, we will have 34hrs to really spend some time backing and maneuvering. (never could figure out why instructors are willing to pass up 34hrs of training time to ensure a tri-fecta) I am also giving him the steering wheel as much as he will take it. It's boring as h e l l sitting in the right seat, but there is alot to talk about, and there's always you-tube, facebook, TTR and games to keep me occupied and from falling into that drooling on the window stupor that you see so often. I keep in mind that this is just the start of the second week, and that things can go Kattiewhompus in a heartbeat. We just have to keep on truckin'

 

gotcha.....

 

It's been two weeks since I left SpriMo with my first PSD student. TJ is a young man starting his career at the ripe age of 21. Starting with the 2 hours on the shifting range, I could see an exceptional quality in him that lends to driving the truck. He has really caught on with the shifting, including downshifting. We are right on schedule with 50 hours in the seat, some backing here and there, and he only missed one thing on the truck Pre-trip. Today he will be evaluated on the whole truck and trailer, minus the brake tests. If we keep working on the test requirements, he should do well when we get back to SpriMo.

 

I'll be covering that in the other thread. Give me a bit.....

 

Well, Ironpony has posted a great post on his http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/prime/182163-leasing-at-prime-21.html post. Let me go into some detail about my accounting practices.

I developed a spreadsheet that keeps each week on a tab on the spreadsheet. Every quarter I create a new spreadsheet and copy the framework into the new quarter. This keeps the file from becoming too large, as well as keeping it backed up. On this spreadsheeet I input the information about each load. The spreadsheet automatically calculates how much fuel will be used on the truck as well as how much time will be spent on the load. This gives me an estimate (yes, just the estimate) of how much I will spend on the load and how much I can make. This gives me an instant snapshot to make a business decision: whether to take the load or not....

Once I have the load information into the sheet, I record my expenses daily. I can see in the tally column what my bottom line is. I have my fixed costs all calculated at the beginning, so I know when I reach my break even point. As the week progresses my sheet shows me my bottom line. It usually comes within 5% of my settlements, which I reconcile every week. At the bottom of the sheet for each week are cells with formulas that calculate my tax liabilities as well as those numbers that you use to analyze your business (net fuel cost, gross $per mile, real MPG, ETC) Without this I would not be comfortable running a truck from the business aspect. In the end all I do is input the job and income, the expenses and miles empty/loaded, and let the computer do the rest. My pet peave is time standing still, so i have also created a way to calculate how much wasted time I have each week, for those uncomfortable conversations with my business partners at the company....

One other spreadsheet that I have developed is a quarterly analysis. I input the weekly information into the spreadsheet and it automatically calculates the following:
Income
Income goal
+/- income goal (this tells me if I am achieving my gross revenue goals)
Expenses
Miles Dispatched
Fuel Surcharge total
Fuel Purchases
Gallons Purchased
Admin expenses

The spreadsheet automatically calculates:
Net income
Net fuel CPM
Admin CPM
Cash flow CPM
Gross Revenue CPM
Fixed costs
MPG
FICA tax
SSI Tax
Medicare tax
Weekly tax total

My quarterly analysis gives me monthly averages for all of the business numbers and rolling totals for all of the taxes. This is the big picture and I wouldn't be able to confidently say I am successful so far without it. Any questions I will try to address......