Fueling for the load vs. filling up??

I've seen a 30 cent difference in fuel prices in a 1/4 mile. Just this week in Siloam Springs just on the Oklahoma side, there's a little Cenex station I believe it is and a Loves, 2 09 at the Cenex and 2.49 at the Loves.

 

And no line, might have to wait to get the pump turned on, if she is making chicken

 

Usually at the start of the day or before parking, With an ELD it can take an hour at a J or Loves. Fill it up, cheap fuel, freight has been good,

 

My routing is terrain based.

The last time I went over a very steep grade it cost me approximately 30 gallons of the 60 remaining and created it's own problems.

Company routing is not always better. IF they don't like it they can bill me.

 

Well, I must be the only one the fuels for the trip. I must admit, I don’t run like most of you. I run between 5am and 3pm only. The only times I run past 3pm is if I want to get that load there so I can get paid on it sooner, or I’m so close to delivery that it makes no sense to shut down at 3pm.

With that being said, filling up my tanks makes it more challenging to correlate my expenses that come with that load. It’s easier for me to look at a load and factor in the fuel cost to determine if I should take that load or leave it. That may not make sense to some. But it’s easier for my accounting system for me to plug in the miles, figure the cost of fuel to run those miles, deduct that from any FSC, and arrive at what the profit will be. If the profit is below what I need to make per load, I leave it. But if I’m sitting on a full tank, I could be taking a load that’s not profitable for me to take. In addition, I have an APU that requires 1/4 of tank. So, when I’m at 1/4, I’m on empty. So, it’s easier for me to wake up fuel for my trip and go. By the end of my day I’m on 1/4 of tank enough to run my APU for the night.

 

Maybe I'm missing something ( obviously I am) but what does it matter how much fuel is in the tank when you do your figuring? For accounting and you want exact cost of fuel to run that particular load. You would start with a fuel tank, run load then fill tank when done for an exact figure. Anything else is a guess no matter how close you are.

 

It seems like you’re replying to the comment before yours. Frankly I don’t really understand his post, but what I do know is if I am heading to CA, I know that it is cheaper to fill up your tanks before entering CA. So if you’re going to be on I-40, you’ll be fueling in NM and/or AZ. This way you never have to buy fuel in CA, which we all know, the cost is through the roof. If someone buys fuel for the trip/load, you may be forced to buy fuel in CA. This is a problem for me.

 

Seems to me fuel costs should be averaged out. You know what fuel costs are per mile. It doesn't really matter how much is physically in your tank. It matters how much it costs per mile. And if a couple of cents per mile fuel costs makes that big of a difference, you are running too thin of a margin anyway. Start looking for significantly better freight. I understand the old saying "look after the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves" but still.