I am taking the plunge

Looks pretty comprehensive. I can't help comment as I don't have first hand experience, but I appreciate you sharing this!

 

I wish you luck. However, you are not going to get much of a truck for 25k. Your maintenance should be a dime. What about fuel taxes and tolls?

 

Looks reasonable. You'd be better off having some green by now instead of loaning but I know everybodys situation is different .

 

Just a thought. Pay yourself a set cpm and also pay yourself back for the truck and trailer so you have $ to upgrade your equipment in a year or two. Looks like you have done some research and it looks good. Best of luck to you.

 

1.07 seems a little low to me, 1.15-1.20 is a little more realistic but if you are going to run only 1 state that may make your operating cost a little lower seems how you do not need the higher priced plate and all the property taxes some of the states are now charging and what not.

I also agree with the above statement that in the 25k range you will be getting an older truck but if you plan to only run 1923 miles per week you may be able to get away with it for a while and save up for a newer truck.

Best of luck to you

 

Hi Good Luck. You can go to the link below and order a 2013 cost analysis for free from American Transportation Research Institute. It will be sent to you through email and you can compare your list with theirs.

http://atri-online.org/2013/09/04/an-analysis-of-the-operational-costs-of-trucking-2013-update/

 

Numbers look accurate, but a different way of thinking about some of the fixed costs (per month) would change your equation a bit, because your monthly miles will differ each month. I break it down into 2 categories, expenses that are directly related to moving the truck, for me that is only fuel(0.75), oil changes(0.03), and tires(0.05). Everything else, including maintenance and my pay, is a set monthly amount I set aside.

Let's say my monthly expenses, as in equipment payments, insurance, repairs, taxes and licencing, comes out to 6,000 per month. I also take a salary of 6,000 per month rather than a per mile rate. You could include your driver pay as a per mile rate, either way works.

So we have a monthly gross expected income of (based on # of miles):
gross = 12,000 + 0.83x (x=number of miles)

So if I do 8,000 miles, gross per mile must be at least 2.33
10,000 would be 2.03
12,000 would be 1.83

Anything higher than that is all profit. These are not my exact numbers as I do not have equipment payments. But these numbers are in the neighborhood if I did have equipment payments.

I do it this way because about half the year I do long hauls, 2000-2500 mile runs each way, which it is tough to get the same high rate per mile, and the other half I easily do 2.50 or better, but the loads are only 500-700 miles each way.

 

That's a good analysis, easy to understand as well.