Yearly Profit After Expenses...

I'm kind of mystified at how the direction got to air conditioning when I thought I was reading a compressed air system problem (brakes).

I think you should have been able to remove that fitting with your teeth and fix it up with a big hammer LOL. Sorry to hear of the trouble and glad it eventually got worked out.

 

Yeah I guess I should've just beat on it a bit and then just walked to the closest Walmart and baught a small electric compressor and hooked it to my Inverter then duct taped it to the frame. That would've worked right lol.

As far as the air conditioner I obviously did not do a road call on that one lol.

 

I had an oversize load on last year going through Texas. I had just gone through this town when I started losing air, very quickly. I pulled over and there was a garage that worked on big trucks. The unfortunate part is that they were closed. It was still daylight. I managed to build enough air to back up so that I could get into their parking lot. I had a bit of difficulty finding an air governor. A guy from a parts store brought me one and would not take anything for bringing it out. He worked for O'Reilly's. It was dark, but I managed to get it on the truck with my flashlight. When daylight arrived I was on my way. I think that was around Tyler. I got really lucky on that one.

You can't carry everything. I do make a point of keeping some tools with me. I can usually manage to get the truck to where I can get parts or a garage if I can't do it myself. A socket set, open end and/or box end wrenches, adjustable wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, electrical tape, fittings, and the most important thing you can keep on the truck is 100 mph DUCT TAPE!!!

 

I had an 07 Freightliner with a 515 egr Deroit and it was great until it hit 400,000 mi then all hell broke loose.

I was replacing egr components on a weekly basis and the last month i owned it i put $13,000.00 under the hood(thank the lord for warranty).

I dealt it on a 2011 Coronado with a DD15 and so far so good but the poor soul that bought the 07 is having a pile of egr related issues/downtime even after the money i put into it.

Anyway im going to say that compared to any pre emission truck i ever owned the egr engines are considerably more expensive to maintain/operate and dont seem to do the numbers mileage wise the the older engines did.

 

And check for specialty tools that are needed for common issues. My air hoses connect at the cab in a way that you need an angled open end wrench or a lot of patience. Had to replace one with wrong tool in 10 degree weather and the replacement was shorter than needed (but worked) and wrong color. It took me 45-mins to get it off and an hour to get it installed. With correct wrench it still took me of 30-mins to put new lines on.

But these are things you learn "on the job". Because I never would have looked at that line and said "Oh, I need an agled open end wrench on board if that goes out".

 

Yeah I bought a 200+ piece tool set and just figured anything that needs the really big tools I wouldn't be able to fix any way. How wrong I was lol.

 

I have a truck that has strange cab marker lights. You can't pop them off with a regular screwdriver. I had to buy one that was angled at the end and had a strange fork on the tip. It gets in there with no problem.

 

Well it has been a while but we have alot of good information to share with potential newbies. First off our big issues where I had a power steering high pressure line go out, while backing into a dock no less, and spent about $90 in parts and fluid and changed the hose myself. Saved about $200 on labor the guy wanted to charge me.

Then we were lucky enough for the A/C to leak out all the freon and the truck to start overheating really bad. Discovering that it was my radiator was pretty much rotted out I looked into fixing that. A new radiator from freightliner was $3000 and some change after T/A markup it was just under $4000 plus around $4000 in labor. After making some phone calls I found a guy that replaced the radiator, air to air cooler, and A/C condenser for about $2150. Bad thing was we were shutdown for a week for him to find the radiator then over the weekend to fix it. During the week we just parked at the T/A for the bathroom and whatnot and waited. We got the phone call that he had it used from a layed over truck for $1500. Looked at the part and other than some very minor damage it was in really good shape. Rented a hotel and a car for the weekend and dropped the truck off. Total cost after cosnidering cost to sit on the truck and the hotel and car was about $3300 after counting in loast potential income closer to $7000.

After getting those fixed the truck has started holding up just fine and things are starting to lookup again. We ended up with right at $15 in the bank the other day and then a couple of paychecks came in so we are up to $1k with $2500 on the way within the next 3 days.

Now for the fun part we ran our numbers for our first month operation.

True income was $9,700
Total milage including DH was 5,722
Loaded miles est. 4,300
Budgeted expense was est $9,000
True expense was $15,500
Net profit when considering budget about 6%
True net profit about -65%

Now from a glass half empty look this buisness has managed to cost us about $6,500 and is going under fast. A glass half full look at this is that if we had not have had close to $8,000 in unexpected maintenence we would have made double our projected net profit (projected net profit was 3%). Right now we are very fortunate in having the extra resources to handle the horrible month. A overall look says that we are on track with a small profit after all expenses and making $10,000 over a course of two weeks (after accounting for all the downtime we had) (we estimated an income of $20,000 over a month). We were fortunate in the fact that we got a load that covers us sitting for a couple days so we get a couple days off around family which means we don't have to run the truck. Our est. Fuel milage right now is 5.3MPG counting idle time and est. 6.8 without idle time. If I come up with any more info I will post later.

As a side note for all those newbies out there this is exactly why they say to start out with at least a month of operation in the bank. Always account for maintenence, and keep some money put back. Also when running your numbers be sure to account for the worst situation, make it worse, run the numbers again, run them one more time and make it even worse, then add $5,000 to your startup costs. With that you might keep your head above water long enough to make a buck. Also do NOT expect to get rich.

 

I know things are looking sparse right about now, but there's an upside that you have to look forward to. You seem to have the whole "reconditioning old equipment" down about like I do LOL. It may not seem like much, but every one of those unexpected surprises becomes a known quantity on your rig, enabling better planning for future maintenance and repairs.

Every month you are able to stay running, you will also see two upsides that may not be much comfort while you're peering into your empty wallet today LOL:

1. You will slowly develop better customer relationships, provided you stay on point with on-time, claim-free deliveries. You'll find a few smaller ones that will know who you are when you call and you won't have quite the amount of BS to deal with when negotiating, and you have more leverage on your rates with proven performance. Later on, with more time with authority, you'll be able to load with customers that are more picky about carrier experience, and may pay better rates as a result.

2. You will get better at scheduling yourself for profit. That is, making better decisions on sitting, DH, and rate. Or being able to quickly tell the difference between two loads that look nearly identical where one is way better than the other. Or, picking up a load that looks like crap on first glance and turns out to be a winner.

Example: we just finished a run last night that sat on the load boards for a half a day that I noticed. Nobody was taking it because it was a 6 stopper. What I had to read between the lines was $1000/day revenue to the truck and not much lag time on route. It also terminated in a hot market, with great reloads predicted. I also had a gut feeling he needed to move it. I gave the broker a quote $300 higher than his offer and he nibbled but didn't bite at first. He called me back 2 hours later and I booked it. And all that unfolded while the truck was still under the previous load, so the turn-around was hours on the pickup. Yesterday I was able to be picky on the reload and got to spend most of the day with my phone blowing up and telling brokers "sorry no trucks there." My son got a good nights rest last night and sleep in a little this morning before starting a slow ride to Texas that will have him able to run one day of the long weekend and spend the holidays with an old friend and some extended family in the area.

You struck me as both smart enough to figure it out and motivated enough to do the hard work to make it happen. If your reserves hold out I think you'll do ok. Hang in there.

 

It can be difficult when you start out and have to begin to dig deep into your pocket to keep your truck moving. This is a constant learning experience. If you continue to proper pre trips and keep up your maintenance, you are much less likely to have an expensive surprise. Things will always happen, but often you can spot things before they become major issues. You can get caught with your pants down and there is little you can do about it but pay the piper, pick yourself up and begin a new day. You could go for months without anything happening and then out of the blue it seems like one thing right after another happens. You just need to take it in stride. We are dealing with mechanical things that will break or fail to operate properly. You just need to think about it as just being part of this business. We put a lot of stress on our equipment. It won't last forever. Being prepared as best as possible will happen when the inevitable happens.