How much per mile to make a l/p work?

It costs over a dollar a mile to operate a truck.

 

My costs are $1.09 a mile without paying myself

 

If your drive 1,000 miles per week at $1.25 that's $1,250 per week. You have $100 in maintenance and $800 in fuel and $250 in fixed costs for a total of $1,150 per week. That boils down to $1.08 per mile to run your truck

If you drive 3,000 miles per week at $1.25 that's $3,750 per week. You have $300 in maintenance and $2,400 in fuel and $250 in fixed costs for a total of $2,950 per week. That boils down to $1.01 per mile to run your truck. A gain of $.07 cents per mile.

There are a lot more figures you can throw in there but the basic principle is the same.

 

There's no set answer to that, same as no set answer to how much you need to make if you have your own authority, or lease a truck you own onto a company. rodknocker is correct, it costs over $1 a mile to operate a truck and most of that is fuel. You have to account for future maint costs, fixed costs like tags/insur/etc, and build up a reserve for breakdowns.

Which L/P you get into will determine what you need to make. Some companies cover some things on top of what your base pay rate+fcs, others cover other things. Before making any decisions on buying or leasing a truck you need to understand exactly what goes into operating one and get experience driving like you're paying for every dime of its operating costs. IMO the best way to do both is with someone else's truck. Let them pay you to learn. You can fail no matter who you buy/lease from but you can give yourself a much better chance of succeeding if you learn the business side before you ever take that last step.

 

Get some time behind the wheel first brochacho. Taking on a lease or a truck payment is not as easy as you'd think. Best thing you can do is run a company truck like it was your own. Just keep track of fuel amounts, tolls, all expenses. Figure out what your truck payment would be as well. Then take the mileage you're running and then do the math. Most of the time you'll see that you'd make more money as a company driver rather than a lease op. Put $100 a week away for that year and you'll have your down payment on a cheap truck that you can start off in. Just my .02

 

How about you learn how to keep the truck between the lines before you try to run a business. It well help you in the long run.