I'm new and quoting this run, looking for helpful input.

I did 6.45 average on my Freightliner Century in 2001 over 9 plus months. we put 221 thousand on it as a team. Fuel in those days was around 2.80 all the way to post 9-11 5.50 plus.

I always build in a certain amount of Fuel price and consider the average fuel mileage plus a little cushion for idling and so on. Today's United States Fuel average stands at 2.51 I don't know who is selling the most expensive fuel for how much. But 3.50 should be enough to cover any and all potential fueling places for a while.

I always am padding a little bit on whatever the situation might be. That way it's covered if something comes up. If not? Driver gets a nice per mile pay of .70 and I have a little something in my pocket.

Consider my qoute of 10,000 dollars. That's not bad. Compared to a broker qoute of say 2.50 a mile which makes it a 12500 total billable amount for a round trip loaded both ways on 5000 miles.

You and I both know that 5000 miles is not the full potential when considering the amount of maximum potential weekly loaded miles as a single driver. For a team set, say a husband wife team for that 5000 miles paid 1.00 to the truck and finished in one week instead of two, I can give this special source service of 4 loads a month which stands at 40,000 total. But I wont bill him that much on more than one load. I'll cut it down some. Keep him happy as a ongoing customer. If customer and I find a nice price I might dedicate truck to him. If he has more loads than trucks, I'll add trucks and drivers. If not? I'll park em and fire em.

Business is just that. Numbers. In my time when I bought that tractor I was taught that 1.25 was break even with 1.80 a mile a nice gain in a time of 1.80 fuel and so on. You cannot run a going business and stay in existance as such on 1.25 today. Its no way.

There has been recent threads crying about cheap freight killing the industry. I believe it's a parasite that needs to be killed off. Enough of this 1.50 freight. Let's get to 2.00 and towards 3.00 a mile. Get with it. Otherwise you are not a trucking company making a profit.

If someone can charge 8000 dollars, he will get the load. not me. Best of luck eh? No hard feelings. It's business.

 

You need to account for fuel price fluctuations. I would have a base rate plus fuel surcharge. Fuel surcharge can be calculated using fuel rates from dept of energy website updated weekly. That way the shipper can also see how the fuel surcharge is calculated. Say 1.75 base rate and fuel base of 1.5 subtracted from current fuel rate of 2.5. That would leave 1 divided by 5.5 avg fuel mileage leaving .18 cent fuel surcharge added to 1.75 equaling 1.93 for that week. This way you are covered if fuel rates spike.

 

You're going to do what, two turns a month? At 7500 to 8500 a turn. Is 15 to 17 grand a month. Chump change. There is no way you'll make a profit at 1.50 per mile. 9 to10 grand is probably what you need to shoot for. Don't sell yourself cheap just to say you got a nice little run.

 

Trade show? I had a customer that wanted me to do one of those. It would have taken 3 trucks from Phoenix to Vegas-sit there for 4-6 days and then return. They flipped with the quote cause I would charge them for the days of sitting and they didn't understand that.

Didn't get that job. lol

 

Personally, $9k would be my minimum just for driving, and with a 34 getting done in the middle somewhere, I'm charging at least 2 days of down time at minimum $250. I personally wouldn't move that load for under $9500, going up for everyday I have to sit in between the 2 legs above the 2 days already accounted for. I'm figuring I'll be under the load for 12 days at least. 4 days for the first leg, 2 for a 34, 4 days back, another 34 when I get back. That's under $800/day. If it's a longtime customer that I like and have a great relationship with, I might cut them a break for $9k. Anything less isn't worth it in my opinion. I'd try to get them to name a price first to get a feel for what they are willing to pay, but id start out asking $10.5/11k and let them talk me down from there.

 

He says it's a one shot deal, trade show at that. Plan on being there at least 4 days, maybe longer depending on the show and all the other trucks there trying to load.

 

Ok, so then my minimum for good customer is $9500, $10k for new customer, start asking $11 or $12k

 

What are you giving away the use of your truck for nothing?

This is a $2.5 per mile load, nothing less than that.

Trade show work?

Then you of course put in the detent time and the hotel expenses into the quote?

YOU are tying that truck up for two weeks, with possibly longer than those 14 days tying it up so in that time period, some of my trucks gross an average close to $12k/$14k, I could not even think to do this load for $7500, but $10k is the bottom really the least i would take and that would be only for an established customer.