Am I Right On My Cost To Operate

Congrats on running numbers -- you're already ahead of the game. As for the numbers, here are my thoughts:

I ran 130,000-150,000 miles/year as a company driver. As an o/o I ran ~80,000 my first year and will probably do 100,000 year 2. If you're running dedicated or are leased to a carrier who dispatches you, 130,000+ may be realistic, but if you're doing all your own paperwork, dispatching, maintenance, etc -- you probably won't do nearly as many miles. At the least, run the numbers with 70,000 and again with 130,000 so you'll have an idea of the range of cpm you could be looking at for fixed costs...

Fixed costs

$17,000/year as a truck payment/replacement cost is reasonable. I'm extra conservative so I'd probably plan around $20k/year (either as additional maintenance if keeping a truck, or if replacing a truck every ~5years).

$10,000/year is unreasonably high for a trailer payment/replacement. Unless you have something specialized, you could buy a new trailer every 3 years and give away your old one for that. If you are renting/leasing a trailer your costs may indeed be that high, but a new van can be had for ~$26k and a new flat for $30k -- both should last 10 years before replacement (and still have a little value left then) -- so buying could save you a ton of money...

Insurance: $5700/year is very low unless you are leased to a company and they're paying cargo & liability.

Health insurance: Within the range of reasonableness... Seems a little low for a family plan unless you're leased on to someone and getting a deal through them. Seems a little high for an individual buying obamacare.

Worker's comp?

Accounting: If you can make that spreadsheet, you probably don't need to pay $100/month for accounting, but it is a reasonable cost if you outsource some of the work...

Office supplies: Cell phone (replacement cost every 3 years?) Cell & data plan? Laptop replacement every 5 years? Printer/scanner every 5 years? Stamps, envelopes, e-fax, pens, paper, turbotax, etc... It all adds up surprisingly fast!

Truck supplies: broom, tire chains, load securement items, cleaning supplies, bedding, truck washes every month? etc

Plates, permits, hvut, etc?


Variable

Fuel: run numbers at $2/gal and again at $4 -- both are likely to be seen again and you'll need to be flexible when your fuel cost goes from 30cpm to 60...

Tires: reasonable if you don't have many blowouts/road calls. I figure ~3cpm for tires ($1,000 steers every 150k, $4,000 drives every 300k, $2,500 trailer tires every 300k) and 1cpm for road calls ($1,000 every 100k).

Maintenance: in the reasonable range

Repairs: On the low end of the range -- is your truck under warranty? Are you including hotel costs in repairs?

Tolls: reasonable if OTR, low if NE regional...

Taxes: what are you including here? On the extreme low end if income/self-employment taxes, high if ifta, low if plates, etc...

Licensing: low if plates & permits -- also these aren't variable costs.

Driver pay: I think of this as a fixed weekly expense, but lots of folks disagree with me. My argument is that a driver away from home expects to make ~$1000/week whether they are sitting all week waiting for a good load or whether they are running beaucoup miles. If you think of driver expense as variable, you're more apt to underestimate the cost of sitting...


Overall I think you did a good job and a ~$1.30/mile breakeven is probably reasonable if you can run a high-volume (130,000 mile/year) business plan... Just know that as your annual miles decrease, it gets very easy to have costs exceed $1.50/mile...

 

@double yellow just gave you about all you need to finish that plan.

And congratulations on having a plan!

 

@double yellow is a genius.

 

Your numbers seem close to average. Everyone's numbers vary, especially insurance. 1 guy might pay $15k/yr and another might pay $6k for the same coverage. The one thing I would say seems a little high is your estimated annual mileage but that's just me.

 

These are my numbers from my 1st year (once running -- it took a couple months to get underway) and do not include driver wages:



I ran 89,000 odometer miles so if I add in $52,000 for driver wages, my cost per mile was $1.76

But I had an inframe and front-loaded a number of other expenses (adding apu, super singles) in that sample, so my longterm costs should be lower.

 

As mentioned, your miles are way too high. But the big thing that jumped out at me was there is no allowance for unpaid miles. You might travel 100,000 miles and only have 80,000 miles worth of revenue.

Also don't see plan for fines and legal expenses. I suggest budgeting $5k a year at least.

I don't think you can maintain an emissions truck that cheaply. Better get an old one and perhaps adjust mileage accordingly