Owner Operators: What was your net this year?

Why would I lease purchase forever when I own the truck at the end of it and when it pays off it will have about 550,000 miles on it. Will be a lot of miles left in the truck.

 

No you didn't.

 

Uh yes I did. Not all of us run around at 70 mph all the time wasting our profit away in excess fuel. I get about 8 mpg. I have been paid $60,000 after expenses on 100,000 miles in 10 months.

 

I will be in Effingham on Sunday morning if you would like to look at my numbers.

 

Figure 7% DH and assuming you get no fuel surcharge for empty miles, you made....

100k x 0.93 x ($0.98 + $0.42) + 100k x 0.07 x $0.90 = $136,500.

Note: fuel surcharge isn't constant. You weren't getting $0.42/mile when fuel was $3 a gallon. But I'll use $0.42 as the average.

My average fuel price last year was around $3.65, with some discount through the carrier I'm leased to. Let's say you paid $3.40 a gallon with super-duper discount.

$136,500 - ($602.16 x 52 wks) - (100k miles / 8mpg average x $3.40/gal) = $62,687.68.

$62,687.68 - $60,000 "profit" = $2,687.68 left for maintenance and other expenses.

I can believe $60k after you paid for fuel, 2290, etc. But most people don't call that "profit".

 

BK2;
Using fuzzy math to get "bragging numbers" is just what most leasing companies hope you'll do as it will attack more lease operators. I'd bet your tax papers show a differant figure for "net" income.

 

I personally love seeing low net on my tax return. Less money I have to pay for the Prez to spread around

 

I don't have to use funny math. I will show my numbers to anyone who wants to see them. I will even show them the company payroll site to prove they are not fudged or made up. Just because you could not make any money doesn't mean I can't.

 

BK2;
That was FUZZY math, not funny. The figures I stated includes not only the truck payment and fuel, but all of the other fixed costs.

Do you have a Qualcomm and is it provided free of charge? Do you have a pre-pass transponder and is it provided free of charge? Do you pay tolls? Are you charged for fuel tax? How about insurance? Do you set aside anything for maintenance?

If none of these costs affect your bottom line, perhaps I should switch to the company you pull for.. Just sayin..

 

You started 10 months ago and have spent zero on food to feed yourself, you run over a nail and get your tire patched for free, you don't have to worry about replacing a clutch, brakes, or tires - ACT is paying for all that or does your warranty cover it? Truth is you might own that truck by the time it has 500,000 miles on it if ACT allows you to complete the lease. By design you really have no control over that though. And you might squeak by without knowing your true costs, slowly going broke in the process without even realising before it's too late, but it's not likely. If you do luck through their lease purchase plan consider the minimal truck maintinence performed on your truck - these mega carriers have that down to a science http://www.truckline.com/Federation/Councils/TMC/Pages/default.aspx that's why they lease them 3 yrs/500K miles then get rid of them - which means your truck is going to have some expensive major components in need of replacement after you get the title. You could mitigate this by climbing under there with a greasegun weekly. But since you apparently never eat, or breakdown etc, and are stashing "$60K of profits" a year in a bank account somewhere you won't have to worry about any of that right? "Profit" is what's left after every possible forseen and unforseen disaster has money in the bank to cover it. You did not profit $60K in 10 months. Not anywhere close to that.