Hauling with Personal Truck

Stackable292 · Oct 24, 2021

God prefers Diesels said: ↑

If you have your house as your headquarters, you'll get nailed for business tax alongside property tax as well. At least that's how Texas does it. It's not terrible. For example, my property taxes are $7k per year, and the new business tax they tacked on is like $600.

The more miles you run, the smaller your fixed costs are per mile. So if your insurance is $8,400 per year, and you only run 8,400 miles part time, then you need to make at least a dollar per mile just to cover insurance. If you manage 16,800 miles part time, then $0.50 per mile goes straight to insurance. But the rest goes to fuel, maintenance, etc. In the end, is there any money left over?

So due to fixed costs, you have to run a certain number of miles just to break even.

Figure out all your fixed costs. Divide that by how much you think you'll make per mile. The quotient will be the minimum number of miles you need to run to break even on fixed costs.

Now figure out how much fuel will cost to run those miles. That number puts you back in the red, so you'll need to run even more miles to make up fuel cost. But as your running those extra miles, your fuel cost is going up even higher. That's because it's a variable cost.

Fixed costs stay the same. Variable costs scale with mileage. Start by figuring out all your fixed costs. Of you can't puzzle through it, post up your numbers, and we can help nail down the minimum number of miles you'll need to run to break even on everything. Then you can decide if running even more miles for actual profit would be worth it.
Click to expand...

The insurance is the one that kills me. Since my truck is small, I don't need a cdl or dot#. But at like $700 per month for insurance, my "1-2 weekend a month" side gig would just break even, not a great business.
Are there any tricks or campiest that are more affordable?
I rented an RV through rvshare over the summer and was able to get a policy on it for a few days, does this sort of "per trip" policy exist? So then I just buy the coverage for the day(s) when I line up a trip

DRTDEVL · Oct 28, 2021

Stackable292 said: ↑

Since my truck is small, I don't need a cdl or dot#.
Click to expand...

If you cross state lines "for hire" in a truck while pulling a trailer, 99% of the time you *will* need a USDOT number. The only way not to need one is to pull non-hazmat loads in a truck or van and trailer combination where the GVWRs of the vehicle combination do not exceed 10,000 lbs.

For example: My old Sprinter had a GVWR of 8550 lbs. I could pull a trailer within Texas, but could not cross state lines with the trailer. Prior to that, I used an E150 van with a GVWR of 7000 lbs and a 5x14 enclosed trailer with a GVWR of 2500 lbs. In that case, I *could* cross state lines, as the combined GVWR (GCWR) was only 9500 lbs.

In your case, that Colorado would only be allowed to pull a single axle trailer with a maximum rating of 4,000 lbs (likely a single 3500 lb axle), and if over 3,000 lbs GVWR, would require brakes on that axle.

Just food for thought.

Stackable292 · Oct 28, 2021

DRTDEVL said: ↑

If you cross state lines "for hire" in a truck while pulling a trailer, 99% of the time you *will* need a USDOT number. The only way not to need one is to pull non-hazmat loads in a truck or van and trailer combination where the GVWRs of the vehicle combination do not exceed 10,000 lbs.

For example: My old Sprinter had a GVWR of 8550 lbs. I could pull a trailer within Texas, but could not cross state lines with the trailer. Prior to that, I used an E150 van with a GVWR of 7000 lbs and a 5x14 enclosed trailer with a GVWR of 2500 lbs. In that case, I *could* cross state lines, as the combined GVWR (GCWR) was only 9500 lbs.

In your case, that Colorado would only be allowed to pull a single axle trailer with a maximum rating of 4,000 lbs (likely a single 3500 lb axle), and if over 3,000 lbs GVWR, would require brakes on that axle.

Just food for thought.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I had in mind, small single trailers towing bikes or a small car on a dolly, keeping the weight down

Stackable292 · Oct 28, 2021

God prefers Diesels said: ↑

If you have your house as your headquarters, you'll get nailed for business tax alongside property tax as well. At least that's how Texas does it. It's not terrible. For example, my property taxes are $7k per year, and the new business tax they tacked on is like $600.

The more miles you run, the smaller your fixed costs are per mile. So if your insurance is $8,400 per year, and you only run 8,400 miles part time, then you need to make at least a dollar per mile just to cover insurance. If you manage 16,800 miles part time, then $0.50 per mile goes straight to insurance. But the rest goes to fuel, maintenance, etc. In the end, is there any money left over?

So due to fixed costs, you have to run a certain number of miles just to break even.

Figure out all your fixed costs. Divide that by how much you think you'll make per mile. The quotient will be the minimum number of miles you need to run to break even on fixed costs.

Now figure out how much fuel will cost to run those miles. That number puts you back in the red, so you'll need to run even more miles to make up fuel cost. But as your running those extra miles, your fuel cost is going up even higher. That's because it's a variable cost.

Fixed costs stay the same. Variable costs scale with mileage. Start by figuring out all your fixed costs. Of you can't puzzle through it, post up your numbers, and we can help nail down the minimum number of miles you'll need to run to break even on everything. Then you can decide if running even more miles for actual profit would be worth it.
Click to expand...

Fixed insurance cost is what killing me, I'd "have" to run basically every weekend to be worth it and even then, it wouldn't be great. Don't think this is viable

REO6205 · Oct 28, 2021

Stackable292 said: ↑

Fixed insurance cost is what killing me, I'd "have" to run basically every weekend to be worth it and even then, it wouldn't be great. Don't think this is viable
Click to expand...

You're right.

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