Carb truck maintenance costs & downtime

I like 211 steel reserve

Dirt cheap like a $1.99 for a six pack and it gets you hammered pretty darn quick

 

Would it have mattered?

 

I think with a carb truck there is no way to know. Some seem to do ok and others can be a nightmare. Some mechanics are not very good troubleshooters, and the new trucks are very complicated.

You may be able to find some information somewhere on fleet averages.

You might consider leasing a truck from Ryder. I was leased to a company that leased Ryder trucks. That way, you might be able to switch trucks if yours developed major issues. I don't know if this would make sense for you.

OK. Here is my guess. Maintenance for a used carb truck: $ .16/mile.

I don't have personal experience with new emission trucks, but I try to keep up with things. Maybe they are not so terrible. But I would expect to have some trouble.

Good luck.

 

Voondabahh!! YA? ( my german is rusty )

 

I would say lone ranger is darn close. Most folks I talk to are spending an extra 2-3 grand a year on maint. issues with an egr truck depending on what goes out when......what kills you is when you lose 2 or 3 componenets in the same month or two.


I say you need an extra 5k a year put aside for downtime as well so you might want to add that to your calculations. Given that I think the 16-18 cpm range is accurate. At least you will have money set aside that you can build on and hopefully not get a truck that was somebody elses nightmare!! Problem is this is all money that can never be recovered once it is spent having to deal with this garbage.

 

Ok while on the subject...... help me out......

I run low annual miles with an old truck. The short hops and the enviroment dictate a severe duty schedule...I get that.... but if I used an OTR formula to calculate cpm the number would be ridicules because of the low miles operated. I don't get the miles to dilute the cpm.

And I have stranded costs...like my 5th wheel. Just put a new plate and slide on ( had to, for safety ) but all of that will out live the truck so i'll never recover the cost through longevity. ( got a sweet deal too )

IMO the hour meter is my only choice........whatcha think??

 

Do you idle the truck a lot? About the only time I'd switch to an hour meter schedule.


ETA:
By idle, I mean do you run a PTO of sorts.

 

I'm guessing you are doing either drayage, highway or oilfield work , none of which I am familiar with
but if you were to figure out your cost per running hour then you can come with a number. If you figure OTR 100,000 miles a year X .16 = 16,000 a year to maint. costs, so how many running hours for you would equal $16,000.

 

Uhm no Mn...but thanks.. Ok Bob, Your saying I need to have a standard formula so I can compare my costs vs industry standards......well I've spent 35k over the last 27 months in all maint. , Some elective, some redoo's from previous owner and some from new part failure and some mandatory like the 5th wheel. I just couldn't rebuild it......call me old school plus I read in the latest trucker that a family is dead because of a disconnect.

Rehashing the numbers to OTR formula my cpm in maint is .4375 because there is no hub to dilute with. ( very litttle ) ...all of this with fuel puts me at .6895 a hub mile operated before I get anything. There is no truck payment, salary or taxes in that number.

How does that stack up to OTR? Looks high to me.