How can people make it # $.91 a mile?

See, I like the facts BigBadBill is presenting in this debate. Now if only I could afford to get a truck and do it myself... Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to, that won't happen with my credit.

 

thanks all for the insight and input. i had another good week in my eyes.2524 all miles. $3820 to the truck 1.51 a mile. spent 1512 in fuel. so not too bad !

 

Get the wife to do that free of charge!!! Why do you think I go home each weekend?

 

I don't look at it as more miles = more money company driver mentality. I guess I view it like the farm boy I was raised as.... make hay while the sun is shining. The loads are there, I still get home every weekend, holidays, and take time off for hunting season and such. Since the loads are running, I take advantage of it. I don't sit around at truck stops waiting for loads. I have most of the week already preplanned out so that I only stop for breaks and then get back in the seat. High productivity then go home.

I would'nt want to run a store like you stated either. Let's see..... "well I only need 100 customers to make things work, so I'll close the doors at 1pm and not have to work so hard". Boy, that will get you places real fast.

I don't need to run more miles to make more money. I operate the truck to minimize costs and maximize net. But, I am going to take advantage of the numerous loads available to me and maximize my productivity while I am out. Things will slow down. They always do. Then I won't be crying in my beer like some do because they didn't take advantage of better times to take up the slack for the slow times.

You say you make more running about 2000 miles a week compared to others running 3000 miles a week. Maybe true. But the comparison is not how much you make, but how much you keep. Some, like me, may not be getting those bigger rates per mile, but my costs per mile are extremely low compared to some also. In the end, you may be making more, but your net may not be any better or even less.

Just like the slogan.. "he who dies with the most toys, wins", He who has the most net profit wins, not he who has the most revenue wins.

 

But what if someone said they had a way to make more money, work less and keep more? Would you stop and listen or would your senses say "if the wheels aren't turning I'm not earning".

I am not running a store. I am running a trucking business. But if this was a store this would be more that I learned that if I wait till Thursday afternoon to place my beer order, 9 times out of 10 I would get a 50% discount. And that 1 time I would pay the same price as if I ordered it the week before.

Define productivity. You start down the right path then move to "more miles=more money". Look at the BUT you put into this statement. "I want to do this BUT I end up doing this instead BECAUSE this is how I am conditioned".

Now if you stop and read what you are saying you will see how silly it sounds. If I GROSS the same or more than you at 2,000 miles compared to your 3,000. You would have to have no fixed expenses compared to mine to KEEP the same. My cost per mile at $4 fuel and 2,000 per week is $1.12. At my $2.25 per mile rate compared to a $1.50 rate at 3,000 miles per week. You would need to have a combined per mile expense rate of $.75/mile to KEEP what I keep (taxes not accounted for).

So you clearly took what I was saying as GROSS. I was talking NET. Just wondering how you jump to my less miles is more expensive than your higher miles?

 

Ohio,
Not sure to the areas that your run but if you start to get towards Michigan and into Indiana you can get $2+ rates with light loads. My last week was $4,200 with under $1000 in fuel and that was a bad week because got slowed for a day in MN with the storm. Under 1,900 miles. Not saying this to slam you. Just so you know the higher rates are available.

 

See my model is work less for more. I run between 1,500 hundred and 2000 miles a week and my gross ranges from a low of $2800.00 to as high as $4500.00 a week.To many have the mentaility that as long as the wheels are turning there makeing money, so not true. My freind is leased to a big company gone all week runs his butt off about 3,000 miles a week and brings in way less than i do for way more work.

 

Yeah, less revenue, more expenses and more work. But it is hard for people to break the cycle that get's started from day one in this business. Look at the ads. "We have better pay and the miles you need."