what is your break even

You realize there are multimillionaire business owners in this country who pay themselves an annual wage of $1.00 ? It's just a number. Now granted, if you only profit a nickel above that 30 cents then you obviously didn't hit one out of the park. The flip side of that is theres plenty of UPS and Conway freight drivers out there making $90,000 a year who couldn't meet all their financial obligations if their wives didn't work 40 hours a week as well. So who is better off in those two scenarios?

 

very true
i live off 1600 a month no bills own everything but house

 

These are my 2011 pre tax numbers. I am a L/O leased to Swift. My truck is paid for and I am on a dedicated run that has very light loads. My mpg avg for the year was 9.0 mpg. I hope this helps.

 

And, this is all relative anyway. That $80,000 - $90,000 a supposed driver for UPS could make is chump change in New York City or San Francisco. Whereas, $30,000 - $40,000 is not doing bad in Iowa. And you have more to show for it in the end.

For instance, I pay myself a salary (not a per mile rate) of roughly $2800 a month. Sounds like chump change to some, but with no credit card debt, truck paid for, 2006 Jeep Liberty Diesel paid for, and only a mortgage payment, we are living just fine. Especially since I am home every weekend and holiday and take a couple of weeks off a year. Of course, health insurance and such is paid out of the trucking accounts since they are a business deduction anyway, unlike the company driver having that cut taken out of his pay. And I live on 40 acres in Iowa with a nice ranch home and a shop to work on the truck and other things, as well as a paid off 2005 New Holland ag tractor and other equipment.

If a person is pulling down a reasonable pay, yet they are not able to make it. Then they need to look at their lifestyle spending and maybe even the location in the country they are living. Because, if anyone is expecting to make $100,000 clear in trucking anytime soon as a company driver or even as an O/O doing the general freight thing, then they are seriously deluded. You have to compete with others that don't have lavish lifestyles or live in areas of the country that a 3 bedroom home costs $250,000 or more with property taxes of several thousands of dollars. If you want to live in those areas, you had better look into another profession if you want to live well.

 

To the OP. My cost is more than 1.03 BEFORE I pay my self anything or withhold any money for taxes. If I don't have ANY tire problems or repairs it might be slightly lower but you can't count on that every month so you better have set aside money for that in the good months. Just a ball park for you - if your not getting $1.50 average PLUS a fuel surcharge (a real on - not .25 or .30 per mile) you will not make any money. As to fuel - if you have a decent discount you can come close to $3.60 per gallon average right now (at least where we run). You can count on that $3.60 figure for now only - could be $4.00+ if something happens and there is always a lag on fuel surcharge (fuel goes up fast - surcharge adjust once a week usually) so you might be paying 3.90 and collecting surcharge on alot less national average. Your also going to want to be "like the squirrel", save some of the cash you make in the strong freight times so in the winter doldrums you can either take time off or afford to sit rather than break even. Just some things to consider that I have experienced. Good luck to you. (Oh, don't depend on luck either - plan on being unlucky, stuff happens)

 

Well I have authority and my current cost every mile my truck runs is $1.70. That is every expense you can think of. Including about 50k salary and employment taxes on about 2000 miles a week Monday thru Friday. I also support three trailers. My current income per mile is way above this number.