Break even cpm.

Cost per day makes more sense than doing it "per-mile." Almost all of our costs are based on time...

Truck payment is weekly.
Any kind of revolving payment is done monthly.

Knowing what you have to make per day to break even is fairly easy - then you don't quibble about cents per mile - just drive the miles necessary to get the job done.

 

ok my question here is? say your truck and trailer are paid for, and lets say for sheayts and giggles you have $30 grand in the bank for maint,meaning compleat engine replacement/and or trans, tires,this is enough to cover any major down time, this being said you start your yr in jan and run till aug and have a major repair lets say engine rebuild,-$20 grand . At thins point you have lived with in your means and paid cash for you engine, but you have this moneys you have generated from jan-aug, and are able to replace this from income generated, corect????

 

i do understand most truckers have that truck payment /trailer plus .plus plus and most dont have a major maint fund, just something im looking at it would be cost efficiant if the truck was older and paid off to lessen the overhead .seems in my opinon even tho its older and not so shinny it still rolls and dos the job as long as the maint is kept up>????? just my opinion no disrepect ment but a truck is like a women, it needs constance maint, its a daily and weekly thing, its gona break,just how is it treated, trust me there are some days id just as soon deal with the truck than the wife lol

 

Your truck payment can't be considered as a cost item, unless you have a straight lease. It's a cash flow issue. The way to figure your true per mile cost is what you paid for your truck minus what you eventually sell it for, divided by the total miles driven while you owned it. You also have to figure the difference between what you would have earned if you put the down payment and your monthly principle payments in a safe investment (if there is such a thing these days ), minus how much your truck depreciates.

 

^^^^^^^. It cant if your truck payment is say $1500 and you run 100k a year your truck cost per mile is $.18, $1500 times 12 divide by 100k and thats what it cost just to own your truck not including all the other cost. if your truck is paid for then it cost you 0 just to own but it will cost you to run it. My cost per mile is right around $1.25 for my truck and trailer all cost associated with running that 1 truck and trailer not including my pay so i take that number and add what i need for pay and thats my minimum per mile i want for all miles.

 

I keep it simple...I pull every load I can, pay my bills and save the rest. If I need more money I work harder

 

Well couldnt put it and more simple then that. This is kind of what I meant in my comment. I have very low overhead and a decent amount of money saved. So I dont really have to worry about cpm I just need to know how much I need each month to live and still keep saving money.

 

Work smarter not harder.

 

consider this.
milelage is not paid as cut and dry as one would think.
there is percentage,shortest mile,practical miles or hub.
4 differant ways to get paid to roll the same distance.
if they don't specify practical or hub assume they are screwing you with shortest
mile pay. then you'll need more per mile to make the same as practical or hub.
if they pay you on shortest mile rate expect to lose at least 10 percent or more
of revenue and pay outta pocket for miles driven.
if you can keep fuel cost at about 41 percent of gross revenue
that'll leave 59 percent to pay for your salary and truck.
probably 30 percent truck
29 percent you.
fuel 60 mile
you 30-40 per mile you cant drive free
30 per mile truck
3000 miles a week...hopefully.
$1.30 a mile hub.
Good luck

 

When I had my truck running on my own authority from 2002 to 2007 I needed $1.04 cpm # 10,000 miles per month to break even in 2002 and in 2007 I needed $1.16 # 10,000 miles per month to break even. That was with a trailer that was paid for, $1700 per month truck payments, 10% dead head, 15% maintenance (truck and trl), 100k cargo insurance, no hazmat liability, averaging 6.5mpg (including idle time), and .30 cpm towards me.