Crude Oil Owner Operator- Profit & Loss Statement (Full Disclosure)

SkyPilot is right on, LK is a good source. I even use Amazon Prime to get some of their items.

A few months back I saw someone selling whole test sets on Craigslist for prices that led me to believe the items were stolen, LOL!

As far as what you need, this package is a good outline of the items used to buy the oil...

Hauler’s Package (Basic equipment) - Package Deals & Service Plans

Also the carrier you are leasing on to should provide you with a checklist. You can see it is quite an upfront investment.

 

October and November were rough months due to me transitioning to a new company! Good thing I had a nice cushion in the bank because in September I had to give the IRS a huge quarterly payment.

I did not have much revenue coming in OCT because the company I was leased to was slow. On top of that, a field supervisor at said company decided he was going to give the work to his buddies who had just come over from a competitor even though I had been with this company for over 4 years. That was what pushed me over the edge so decided to try my luck elsewhere.

Made 1 call to a carrier I had been researching and got an offer that day to come aboard with them. Unfortunately the transition took a couple of weeks. I had to drive to another state, pick up one of their trailers, sign a contract, get drug tested, and go out in the field locally to prove I knew how to work oil. All of that took 8 days to accomplish. I knew it would not be an instant transition but now I see why O/O get 'stuck' at some carriers because you will need a money cushion to make the move.

November was bad because of the transition time but also I had to put the truck in the shop for a repair. Shop said 6 days well it took 10 so there goes that 1/3 of the month. On top of that issue, the new carrier I leased onto only pay every 2 weeks so I got one partial settlement from my old company and one partial settlement from the new company in November.

For OCT I did $8,386 in revenue and had a $10,109 loss

For NOV I did $12,980 in revenue and had a $10,979 loss

These are the first losses I have taken since I started as an O/O. December will be better. I will post those numbers and my final numbers for the year once I close the books on Dec.

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback, good and bad! I appreciated those who posted comments on the thread and also to all the people who wrote me directly. I even met a driver who had seen this post before he knew me so it is truly a small world. I'm going to post a little commentary and detail, but for those who just want to see the numbers, you can skip to the section at the very bottom.

I closed the books on 2018. As you know, I struggled thru OCT and NOV as I transitioned over to a new carrier. I still had some revenue come in for both of those months but took over $20,000 in losses. SO, lesson is, if you are going to swap carriers you better have some cash in the bank!

WHAT COULD I DO BETTER? Lots!

- I'm reconditioning an old truck. I've had to dump a lot of money into it on fixes that should last me a long time.

- I'm paying less for bobtail and health insurance in 2019

- I'm paying less in 2019 for supplies as I didn't have when I started but I will continue to use into the future

BUT WAIT, IT'S NOT ALL GOOD NEWS!

- I signed onto a new carrier. They are charging me $3000 per month to lease the trailer and all of the supplies I need to work and load oil. I'm not happy about this one. I looked for some good used 200B 407 tankers and there is a lot of junk on the market. If I continue down this path I will introduce a new expense I barely had in 2018 at a cost of $36,000 for the year. Ouch...

- My fuel bill is going up drastically. I was once doing short local work sometimes only driving 100 miles per shift but now I have signed on to run a dedicated long haul of oil from West TX to South TX. I'm now driving over 730 miles per day and spending roughly $350 per run on fuel with no fuel surcharge. If diesel prices pick up in the year as I suspect they will, the high fuel bill will surely damage my earnings.

- I can no longer split shift this truck. In 2018 I had a day driver who ran the truck 12 hours in the day and I ran it 12 hours at night. Now with this dedicated run taking between 13.5-15 HRS (running under Texas oilfield hours), it is not working out split shifting the truck and the truck is sitting daily for roughly 9 hours earning zero income.

CONSIDERING ALL OPTIONS...

At this point I'm pleased with my revenue but I do not think I will do as well in 2019 if I continue down the current path.

Option 1: Buy another truck, lease it onto the same long haul and pay $6000 per month in trailer fees plus the added expenses of owning another truck but double the revenue before expenses

Option 2: Buy a 407 tanker, return the leased tanker saving myself $36,000 per year in fees but taking on the insurance and maintenance responsibilities of owning a tanker and revenue for 2019 will fall because the truck will not be split shifted

Option 3: Change carriers once again, lose money in the transition but find an operation which will allow me to slip seat the truck I have

SO, what is your opinion? What could I do better??

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REVENUE $377,087.23, $31,423.94 per month average
1479 loads of crude oil hauled

EXPENSES
Accounting $1,302.69 (payroll and accountant, tax software)
Communication $4,130.00 (cell phone, wifi, cable TV service, eFax, sat radio)
Fees $1,421.89 (Safety training, overweight bond & permit)
Fuel $60,044.92 (90 day average 6.8 MPG, 6.1 MPG all miles)
Insurance $19,055.31 (workers comp, bobtail, employee health)
Maintenance $48,221.30 (oil changes, tires, repairs)
Office $942.38 (postage, supplies, research, business PO Box)
Rent/Lease $1,500.00 (storage unit for business)
Supplies $4,054.59 (safety items, tools & items to perform work)
Tax/License $1,063.25 (base plate, 2290 tax)
Truck Lease (none- truck purchased with cash in late 2017)
Trailer Lease $3,800.00 ($3000 per month with new carrier)
Scales $70.13
Tolls/Parking $96.00
Travel $12,215.32 (business trip expenses)
Uniforms $960.00
Wages $75,710.84 (one employee, not the O/O)

TOTAL EXPENSES $234,588.62, $19,549.05 per month average 62.21%

TOTAL TAKE HOME BEFORE TAXES $142,498.61, $11,874.88 per month average, 37.79%

 

I didn't have a trailer payment except for part of NOV and all of DEC so didn't matter much in 2018 but I am worried about 2019.

Yes I purchased the truck with cash. It's a used Coronado glider with a Series 60 and 500K miles on it.

Wages are for the day driver take home was for the night driver (me).