Picked out my truck!

They usually are, Keep on Truckin

 

They only thing I can say is if you are going into a fleece purchase....go into it with your eyes wide open. Dont be swayed by the shiny new truck. Donth think that the heavens will open up and rain cash down on you.

First and foremost.......take a copy of the lease to an attorney who specializes in trucking. I would also recommend joining the OOIDA. They can tell you the good, the bad and the ugly about lease purchases. Have the truck inspected and dyno if possible. Have oil sample checked to see about possible engine issues. Get all maint records on truck. If the company refuses to allow you to do any of the above.....walk away. Just walk.

 

The Cheif Peanut speaks...

 

Glad to hear it.

Will be eagerly awaiting some stats around 6mos. to year down the line for comparisons.

Keep on..........keeping on.

 

The chief peanut is %100 correct I have to agree with Fullmetaljacket....i would love to see the stats. In addition, I would head my advise above. Going into a serious business venture like a giddy little school boy looking at a shiny truck is serious. Do not look at a fleece purchase through rosy glasses. Get all the facts from the carrier.....have them double checked by an attorney and have the truck checked from stem to stern.

 

There are no guarantees in any of this including your slavish adherence to buying a junk truck and pretending you know everything about owning a truck. I asked you in another thread what makes you an expert on any of this since you only seem to have experience as a company driver... no answer. I assume that means you're just another know-it-all with no experience.

 

Wow i mean wow . I've been reading and researching about an industry i was raised around . Smh now trying to figure out wtf happened to the camaraderie of the yesteryears . Are we resolved around the tech age that we can predict failure of one man's fate because the stats say its set for you to fail !! He posted the truck , color , and company he signed with . Then all hell broke loose . Judge, jury , and to death row he went .

Hey op and to all ops trying to get a step up from having the corporate chains around your necks , thumbs up !! Corporate has deflated a lot of tires out there and created even more haters . Sometimes we all do things different to run a race . But if we cross the finish line and set certain goals so be it ! We f###### finished !!
If it is a walk away lease seems to me the only thing that can happen is hurt pride . If a man's got it in him he will pick his self up , dust off and learn from it .

Don't hate the player , hate the game , if you don't want to help your team sit your ### on the bench and watch from the sideline ...............................................roll on !!

 

Question to IP, when calculating MPG, you are (I assume) not including DEF Fluid and or Reefer Fuel correct.? If you pay for BOTH out of your pocket, shouldn't that be factored into your expense per mile and not just fuel? Seems like these never get mentioned but are REAL expenses. Are you reimbursed for these? just curious. If not, how much on average per week does DEF and refer fuel run? thanks.

 

Good points... fuel economy for your tractor just looks at what your tractor burns, however since an APU also draws from your tractors fuel tank its effect is inevitably included in your figure for "truck mpgs."

You bring up a good point though... there are more costs associated with running a truck than just fuel. Your fuel bill dominates the list of expenses though. We usually compare those costs expressed in "cents per mile" although in some discussions "dollars per week" is appropriate because many of our expenses are billed weekly.

Reefer fuel isn't a big thing. At Prime, we are reimbursed for the first fill on the reefer tank after we hook a trailer, and then its on our bill. Some carriers pay that expense for their ICs. Prime found that we pay much closer attention to how the reefer is operated if we have a stake in that cost. Most times you can turn it off when you're backed into a dock with the doors open... that doesn't work with ice cream on a hot day. I spend about $0.033 CPM on reefer fuel over the course of a year. In comparison tractor fuel cost when converted to CPM is something in the neighborhood of $0.50 CPM for most folks. That's a huge difference in the magnitude of the cost for tractor fuel vs most anything else, and why it dominates our conversations.

I don't really have a handle on what DEF costs would be. My tractor is an '09 model so I have the DPF filter, but I don't have Selective Catalytic Reduction... no need for DEF fluid.

From 2013...

Tolls- $0.033 per mile (I run a lot of northeast.)
Qualcomm- $0.008 per mile
Scanning trips- $0.003 per mile
Tractor washing- $0.024 per mile (Gotta look good!)
Insurance- $0.022 per mile
License and permits- $0.026 per mile
Accounting- $0.011 per mile
Occupational Accident Insurance- $0.023 per mile
Federal Highway Tax- $0.010 per mile
State Fuel Tax- 0.010 per mile

This is not an exhaustive list, but representative... they are all in the range of a couple of pennies per mile. Some of that is included in the "fixed cost per day" number below. For 2013 my variable cost per mile was $0.786 per mile, which covers everything. The last full year that I leased this tractor I spent $154.25 per day in fixed costs... truck payment, APU rental... everything that is charged per week.

 

Noobs however whom lease a new truck will have to add this to their variable costs (including Jar-Head) who sold his old pre emission rig and is jumping into a new Cascadia. Question, would it be possible to lease on a glider (new) to circumvent the whole emissions web, because im thinking all these variables, you gotta cut just to stay in business. APU, DEF, yada yada. those are crippling folks. Fuel - everyones got.