How to Know how much to charge when taking a load?

Maybe I should have elaborated. I don't bother calculating my cost per mile, because I'm making way more per mile than my cost. My biggest expense is far and away diesel fuel. Everything else is a pittance. My spreadsheet is ten tabs long and I keep track of every cent. I've even logged a bolt I bought at Tractor Supply for $0.63. Every single receipt is numbered according to what it is - F1 (fuel), C1 (corrective maint), P1 (preventative maint), PD1 (food), S1 (scale), T1 (toll) and so on, and it's annotated in the spreadsheet which folder the physical receipt is in. I track fuel, fuel discount, cost saved, percentage saved, fuel mileage for every fill up. Then everything goes back to a master tab that calculates all expenses against revenue. One thing I am is organized. But this truck was wore out when I bought it. The parts I'm throwing at it will last for years. So my cost per mile could look a lot higher than it actually is. Or you could say that it actually is high, but next month it will be low, etc.

So yeah, the end goal is still to make more than you spend. And if my net profit were 4-6%, I couldn't even make my regular household bills. My net profit is well over 50%.

 

After you pay yourself?

 

Good grief, man. If a person is going to go bankrupt or if he's going to make it - it's down to putting in the work and making more than you spend. Drive the truck, move freight from A to B, and get paid. A fancy "business plan" isn't going to change any of that. You keep your paperwork organized for tax time. But in the end, you're either making money or you aren't. And as an LLC with one member, I don't have to "pay myself". I draw what I need from the business account to cover household bills. No need for W2, and all that. And those are words from the accountant. The bottom line is profit and loss. Loss is money you don't have to pay taxes on, and make sure it's less than profit, and you're good.

So like I said - make more than you spend.

 

I dont think thats bad, you clearly have a better handle than most on your buisness, but i think dockbumpers point is also quite important, while on one level its mental accounting and therefore somewhat pedantic, take a look at your area and try and estimate a yearly salary you think is fair for your driver (you)

What if you know a guy that would be a great driver but poor o/o or self dispatcher, if a truck falls in your lap, or you hurt yourself bit still jave your truck what do you pay them.

Because as it stands, your largest single cost isnt fuel, its you.

This is the fight i have with my older brother, as a high quality fine woodworker, he will bid jobs at 20$/hr labor, then find he underbid hours by half. (His previous method was to bid all the labor as profit and he would do the math finding he made 5$/hr)Sorry but when a mcdonalds manager makes significantly more than you, thats not great

 

Take all your costs. Add them all together into what you spend in a month. Including what you need to pay yourself for wages.
Insurance
Registration
HUT fee as well as any other fees required per state
Fuel tax
Phone + internet fees
Pet food (if you have a pet).
financing fee (or lease fee if you went that route)
Average cost of fuel. Presuming you are an owner operator. You will need to get all the fees compiled. This is called your "overhead", truck owners call this the "cost to operate". Some of the fees paid are for a year so the over head of the item needs to be divided by how many months per year you operate. No one (not even I) can tell you what to expect to pay.

Figure out how many miles are an average of what you do per month. You will take your cost and divide it with the miles driven. The number you get is what will decide if your going to take the next load that pays $2.25 a mile. If your operating cost is higher you may need to decide what you dont need for cost and find something cheaper.

Case in point. I used to have US Cellular for my cell phone. It was $53 per month for service. I can get the same coverage with Tracfone for $17 per month. The only thing different is that (other than cost) Us cellular wanted payments with in 2 weeks of them issuing a bill and then charging me $5 per month because they are having difficulty with their post office. Yet when I changed service, what took them a month to get in the mail, they processed in 3 days. So shop around, some companies are not giving you a fair deal.

 

Unfortunately the parts you're putting on your truck are made in China, they will ,not last for years you'll be lucky you get a year or two years out of them. Sounds like you know what you're doing keep the truck loaded you'll make money ,other than that if you're not loaded you're not making any money

 

Everybodies business is different. Thats why its important to understand YOUR costs. Just because something works for 1 guy doesnt mean it will work for you.

Figure out your fixed costs vs variable costs and come up with a good realistic number it takes to break even and how much profit you want to make on top of that .

how much revenue is that going to be per day, week, month, year. And book loads based around those numbers you want to hit.

Lets say you have to make 2000 dollars a week just to break even and u want to make 3000 dollars of profit. You will have to book loads that are equal or better to 5000 dollars a week to hit that number. Dont get caught up in the mileage pay. As sometimes 10 dollars a mile could be bad and 2 dollars a mile could be good.

You have to start somewhere, but its very important to understand what your costs are to run your equipment , you will fail and go broke if you dont understand that.