Lets talk - or not - numbers.

Yeah, good points there. I'm similiar to @lester, been a bit too lazy to set and look at #'s. I know when I'm makin money.

I've thought since this post came out about how I could be more effecient, more cost effective, more profitable.

Guaranteed, plenty of folks are doing better than me. Better contacts, brokered freight that ain't hittin load boards, leased on with companies with great contracts.

I'm happy for those folks and hope they all continue doing great. I've tried running closer to home, less miles, more RPM.

I just don't enjoy it, and if I'm not having fun, I just ain't gonna be doing it too long.

The places I like to go are usually the places no one else wants to. And while I usually get paid well enough out, i may have a long deadhead to my next load, or a long wait. I ain't good at settin still, so i deadhead a lot.

All that said. After thinking about it quite a bit, I'm fine where I'm at. I enjoy running where i do and how I do, so i'm just gonna keep on.

I'm sure a guy might struggle to try paying for financed equipment, and large household expenses with my #'s, but it works for me.

 

You are one of the few guys I know that always manages to have a little fun on the road, like stopping and dropping a line in the Clark Fork, or exploring mountain tops. I'm envious! When I was otr I rarely took time to do anything besides trucking.

 

They're mostly people that have retired from here. Most of them I've known personally for many years and I can trust them. They're also a good source for additional drivers because they know everybody. If we're looking for a good driver or operator the guys will almost always know of somebody wanting to work.

 

Blair, I'd like to participate, but my numbers are like comparing apples to cucumbers as the trucks are strictly support equipment in our business. I track my cost per mile pretty closely just so I know what I need to put into a bid and how to price the trucking.



In the spirit of things though I will share the expenses on our lowboy truck. As you can see cost per mile gets pretty high when you only run 20k or so miles per year.

The corresponding income that I billed to our construction jobs is $59,715, so by the time I add wages to the above expense there is not a lot of profit on the trucking side alone, but the convenience of not having to arrange for outside trucks and work with their schedule has a lot of value to the constructions side of things.

 

Where in Cali are you?

 

I 100% get jealous when I see his pics from Idaho or when he’s talking about running all the fun skinny roads out there. I miss living and working out there but I’ll never be able to justify the cost to live there again.

 

That's my problem. I'm spoiled on the low cost of living here in the Southeast. I'm also pretty spoiled on the weather and also because there's enough decent work for me to just make this a regional weekday type job vs. actual OTR trucking.

This is why I take off a lot and keep a capable 4wd camper ready to go in the driveway. We hit the western states multiple times a year OFF work, more than I truck out there anymore.

 

North-western.

 

same power only contract gig I've been on. Numbers aren't exact as this quarter isn't finished out yet, but sitting around $166k Gross on about 70k Miles. I could easily be at double that, but I choose to only work 1-3 days a week for better quality of life. Fuel cost is about 27% of gross because I insist on using a flat top Cat powered W9 with a moose bumper to pull reefers lol. It's paid off though and insurance on it is cheap so that helps to make up for the high fuel cost.

 

Revenue is down 20%. Mileage is down 40% so fuel is down and so are the other expenses associated with running miles. Overall net is on par with last year and I guess that’s what counts. I know these are vague but I really don’t like sharing numbers unless I know who I’m sharing with.