help with pricing loads

I appreciate the look at your income/expenses sheet.

I have a couple of questions on how you have laid out your income/expenses. You have a group of expenses on the far left that I would have included under the Fixed expenses, is there a reason you separate them?

I also am wondering on the Vehicle/load Insurance and Authority Escrow expenses. I have been trying to make sense of how OOIDA brakes down the insurance needed at http://www.ooidatruckinsurance.com/. They break it down as…….

Primary Liability
General Liability
Motor Truck Cargo
Physical Damage
Passenger Accident

Is your Vehicle/load Insurance the equivalent to their Motor Truck Cargo and Physical Damage and the Authority Escrow handing the liability or is it hard to equate them?

It seems like everyone labels those things differently, how do they relate to the commonly mentioned 100,000/1,000,000 Cargo and Liability insurance that is the basic requirements for the authority and what covers the vehicle itself?

Insurance seems to be the hardest expense to pin down as there are a lot of variances in rates due to experience and a lot of optional add-on's to policies.

 

So if someone finds out what you are getting per mile they will cut the rate, but if you are geting paid by the hour they won't? Please........

 

The groups on the left directly fit into the table on the proforma. The Authority table is in the pro forma table as "authority. It's separated because it just makes the other table that much cleaner. Different bills are due at different times of the year too. IRP plates are due Jan 1. 2290 is due in Aug. IFTA is quarterly.


The maintenance tables are actually part of the variable costs. Same thing there. Just neater to split it to the side and plug a single number into the Pro-forma.

I have cargo insurance through the company I am leased to. That is part of the amount shown for "vehicle/ Load insurance". I called it that because to me, that's what it is. I have an additional table in another location that figures that number out for me. It's dependent on other variables as well. If I am lease, independent etc. Essentially though, yes, they are all the same.

The easiest way I know of to track physical damage / liability is to estimate it at 3.4% of your DECLARED insured value. As to cargo. Not really sure. It seems to be a crap shoot on the company and your experience. I haven't gotten that one figured out yet and my agent hasn't given me any guess as to how it would work. As a general rule to start, plan high for your first year at $8500 and hope you don't have a lot of claims. Keep your nose clean and your rates will drop after 12 months. You'll just be paying your dues till you get a track record.


My spreadsheet it much larger than that which I just showed. It's got my business growth planned into it as well and I can run different scenarios as well with just changing minimal numbers. And because of that, I won't share the rest of it. I can set it up and protect cells so they can't be changed, but I've spent the better part of a year putting it together. It also fits into other sheets that I use for tracking loads and such and what my revenue earnings and actual expenses are.

so I KNOW if I can take that cheap freight and if I am making money, breaking even or loosing money. I am not afraid to tell a broker "no, I am not going to pay you to move your freight." and I mean just that.

 

Thanks for clarifying the layout; I do see how they relate now.

I have been working on my own spread sheet and seeing how others do it is invaluable to me.

Thanks for your insights on projecting costs for damage / liability and all the other information

 

If your total fuel cost for the load is less than 25% of the gross you will be alright. Any more than that and you are leaving money on the table.