Opinions on hiring for a 6 month tradeshow circuit haul

Frankly I have known a few people in the bike biz over the years--IMHO--you would be better off with your own driver--there a many many--older drivers--who ride--and have a great deal of experience--depending on who is to do set up strike--this is an easy gig--no hard running--can run easy and legal--actually perfect for a solid older(possibly retired driver)--Do not know where you are based)but it really doesn't matter)just pay a halfway decent--weekly wage with expenses--and offer it up to someone with lot's of experience that ride's--and make sure you factor in their personal bike as part of the load--so they can enjoy some down time--and ride at some of the rally's events you will be showing at--Hell what am I saying --I should do it LOL
Wish I could--good luck
Just my $.02

 

$4500 per week for a $50,000 to $100,000 piece of equipment that still needs fuel seems quite resonable to me......

 

Not a lot of miles to drive but a lot of downtime and the manual labor aspect added in as well accounts for the quotes you're receiving. It may sound high but regardless of the fact that the truck won't be rolling a lot the O/O still has payments to make on the truck insurance etc. and a standard of living to maintain, pair that with the fact that he probably will not get home for the 6 month duration and you can understand wherethe higher price comes from.

I think from a financial standpoint you would probably be better off finding a clean older truck to purchase and then hire on a company driver. The paperwork can seem a bit daunting but it really is not tough at all. If it scares you enough there are plenty of companies out there that will charge you a fee to do most or all of it for you. At the end of the circuit you can then resell the truck with very minimal depreciation (provided you put someone responsible in the truck) and get a large chunk of that investment back.

Keep fishing for quotes and I'm guessing you'll find some lower than the $20k though.

 

The IFTA is way out of line as well.

 

Unless you're going to be doing this every year (ah heck, even if you are), I would be disinclined to purchase a truck. Owning a truck and all the various legalilities, regulations and operationnal issues associated with it is not your primary business... selling a@@less pants is.

So, I would look into a lease or rental from something like Penske (they have a worksheet on their site) or Paclease, or somewhere similar. That way you're not tying up capital in a truck that is hardly going to get used, you can have a full-service (maintenance) lease, you can have back-up power virtually anywhere in the country, etc. They can even take care of plates, permits, IFTA and so on.

As has been suggested, hire a competant driver/manager (perhaps a former O/O... like me ) and let them take care of all the hassles.

Alternatively, you could just hire power-only when needed. You'll have a different driver every time and you won't have the additional labour, but you could hire local labour if needed.

EDIT: I went and re-read your OP... Ryder won't give you a longer term/better deal? There are full-time trucking companies that rent/lease from Ryder, Penske, Paclease, et al. I was looking at a quote from Penske the other day for about $2,700/m. That's the way I would do it.
(make sure you're talking to the commercial guys, not the homeowner/retail guys)

2nd EDIT: Just did a quick work-up on Penske (rental). I don't know where you're from, so I picked SLC, UT.:

• $17,030.02 - 6 months for a tandem axle tractor with sleeper
• $2,550 - excess mileage (500 mi/wk allowance)
• + fuel
• + supplemental insurance?
• + driver's wage
• etc.

A six-month lease should be able to knock that down a bit. From a pure dollars-and-cents perspective, the O/O quote is better, but that isn't your only consideration.