act transport

Do not forget that the 5th year of a trucks life is the usually MOST COSTLY ( reason " MOST " fleets unload them before 5 years ) so you end up with a truck that is going to start needing $.

 

352 miles a day 5 days a week, half of those empty miles. 1760 miles x $2.625 = $4620 gross to the truck. At 6mpg that'll net a little over $3400 to the truck At $4 a gallon. Then all the other expenses will come from that. We might not even get the contract,that's ok, there'll be more bids in the future. This is the niche I discovered and I'm only getting started. Don't care if you don't believe it,not going to cut my own throat posting any more about it. Don't care for the ....... contest either. Told you you'll do ok with recruiting and not so without it. You question my business practices and you don't have a clue about your hub miles or even consider all of your expenses. Good luck with that plan.. You'd never make it doing any real trucking on your own with that kind of half ..... approach..

 

I was making about .53 a mike before I had any recruits plus paying off a truck. My running miles is less than 5% different than my paid miles and I have $40,000 in the bank. You are nitpicking for any reason you can say that I am going broke. Sorry but my check every week and my bank account tell a different story than you want told. The only way I will not make it is if the miles drop off by 50% and if it does I just turn the truck in and take my perfect driving record somewhere else or I pay cash for a used truck and put it on somewhere.

 

Really, well my OCC/ACC insurance is REQUIRED to run in the state of Indiana, so that is an operating cost. My cell phone and internet are required for me to book loads and get freight, so that would also be an operating cost. If you are a company driver, then you will be provided medical insurance and retirement, but since you have choosen to be an O/O you are stuck planning and paying for these things. So why would you not include them in your model as for operating costs, unless you do not plan on ever having a retirement or medical bill.

Please remember that I am making this as model for what you will need to OPERATE a truck,, not file your taxes at the end of the year. These are figures for OPERATING COSTS, not expenses'

 

Your choice. But, I only place ACTUAL items to a cost of operation. To do the other things you have listed makes no sense.

 

You are talking Business Planning vs. Taxes.


We all know that we have not used all the life of those tires in the year they replaced. So a smart business person includes that in their cost of operation for planning purposes. NOT A TAX DEDUCTION TILL THE YEAR THE MONEY IS SPENT.

Now we don't have million mile numbers on these newer trucks but if we just look at EGR numbers, an 8MPG truck at todays fuel prices will have a lifetime cost of about $1.15-$1.20. If you run three years at $1.05 actual and don't plan that extra $.10 you are in for a world of hurt in year 4.

 

I have no problem with a budget, but get real.

Cost of insurance on the driver is not a cost of the truck. Same with some other expenses.

No business I have seen charges things to cost of operation.

 

OK, see where you are coming from. And agree 100% and stopped battling this a while ago.

What I came to terms with is we in most parts are talking about a single truck operation and the easiest way to make sure all the expenses they need to cover are covered is to figure out a minimum rate for the business of trucking, not just the truck. Many even want to include house payment, ect.

That is why you will see many scream that my life time expense per mile at $1.15 is low. It has nothing but actual costs that are associated with the truck period. Doesn't even include insurance, permits, plates, etc.

Now with regards to the discussion around costs with BK2. He seems smart enough to get that maybe he needs to have budget cost of $.10-.15/mile more than what he is using. But that would take him down to below company driver wage (even before accounting for self-employment tax).

And of course he does not want people to start questioning why they are working for less money that an ACT employee. Bad for recruiting where he makes his real money.

 

SO then I remove my medical insurance and retirement, everything else I listed IS an actual cost of operating the truck.