What is the average mileage rate for a owner operator?

Yes, it's realistic. Only it's before taxes, all kind of time loss due to break downs , unprecedented laziness and periods when you are fed up with low ballers so you just deadhead home for a week or so.
Also I'll just assume that you will run a dry van, especially being on your own, not leased to a reputable company your best shot is to pick up odd loads that a big carrier can't cover, this is where you can dictate your higher rate, when you can stick it to them once in a while. They ll pay if it's a crucial load and they don't want to lose a customer.So when a broker calls you at midnight you pick up and hustle.

Other than that I never thought of Virginia as a hot freight area, so an option to bank dough might be when you go to Northeast for 3.5$ per mile and maybe get out for 1.5 if you are lucky or do shorter runs which will coast you time. So if you can't negotiate that kind of rate coming out of a bad area you are already behind the ball . That's just an example, does not have to be Northeast, could be South Florida or North Dakota.
All in all the chances are you ll try to average 2.5 but end up somewhere closer to two, so that mediocre fuel economy will have a say regardless. The big secret is to find a direct customer in a bad freight area, hard but not impossible.
At least you realize what your costs are , if you don't have a dollar per mile of profit left, then it's time to reconsider the goals or the path to get to them.

 

What the guys are telling you is that as an independent: where you are, and what trailer you pull, aren't the only factors in your success. Knowing how to price your services and treating your business as a business will serve you better than trying to get .01mpg better on your ifta quarterly, or buying a specialized piece of equipment because you heard rates are higher for that type of equipment.

 

I'm not a trucker just a guy with 30+ years in aviation management trying to get a grasp of the business side of trucking. Having said that I noticed you said you'll be buying the rig outright so no payment. That's great but unless somebody gave you a bag of free cash to buy your truck and trailer you should expect a return on your capital investment. At a minimum you should treat the cash you lay out as an interest free loan from yourself and a monthly expense and pay yourself back. Your goal should be to make what you feel is an acceptable profit margin and get all the cash you invested back into the bank.

 

Are taxes in your numbers somewhere? I suspect if you were to post a break down of your estimated expenses you'd get a good reality check on this site. I've seen truckers on this forum do a better job of capturing costs per mile than many aviation companies do capturing flight hour cost on Multi million dollar aircraft. Keep digging you have to know and feel comfortable with what your costs are going to be. Don't let that cash burn a hole in your pocket. Ask yourself this. Would you go to the bank and borrow $130,000 and buy a truck with the information you have now? In my mind if the answer is no then your not ready to invest your own money in a truck just yet.

 

No, where is the profit in breaking even?

 

I agree w Oscar.That line of thinking will get you in trouble really quick.

 

Here's my ballpark numbers for a dry van doing 100,000-120,000 miles/year:

50cpm fuel
45cpm driver
30cpm maintenance & eventual equipment replacement (tractor & trailer)
7cpm insurance
7cpm registration, fees, plates, permits, & compliance costs
5cpm ifta & weight-distance taxes
4cpm misc expenses (showers, hotels, tolls, parking)
2cpm office & communications
---------
$1.50 minimum (includes cost of new truck & trailer every ~7 years)

I'm aiming to have at least $1.60/mile revenue for all miles -- & so far I've done a bit better ($1.70), but the pool of brokers is pretty slim when starting out...