Is Owning An 11 Car Stinger Really Profitable?

Maybe i didnt read it close enuf,i didnt see purchase..

 

Guess I am now curious if anyone else has ran the numbers on the upfront expense of another spot(or 2 compared to a 9 car)? Foregoing the sleeper in exchange for hotel costs if you do not make it back home nightly. Obviously every operator will have a different scenario. From different mileage ran daily to different yards that may be a good mix of cars or more so suv/trucks. If one is going the hotel route, they are going to have to research where the trucks can actually fit in. Particularly with ELD's around the corner. An extra hour searching for a hotel at the end of the day on an unknown route could suck.

When pricing the high mounts(7/8/9 car), each spot over 7 was usually $12-$15 grand. Would assume 9/10/11 are similar though the exception of deducting sleeper expense with the day cab 11 spot unit.

Am not in the market to buy any of this. Just the thread got me to thinking about how to make the numbers work in the real world.

 

Most sleeper owner ops would never give up their sleeper. I didn't want one because I wouldn't use it. It was more than a financial decision for me.

 

Oh yeah, I understood that & your set up fits perfect with who & how you are running. Rare to have all 3 elements line up & stay that way.

Was more so thinking in general. Would think Cassens/Cooper would drop the day cabs for sleepers if there was a financial advantage vs production loss for them to do so (on their longer haul operations). Think I have seen a photo of a Cooper truck with a sleeper, but do not remember seeing one in person. Again, just thinking out loud & am always curious how the numbers work in various places.

That aside, remember talking a guy years ago who was a company driver. He was thinking of buying a day cab stinger for the extra deck space. But he was going to sleep in it night one, hotel night 2 & repeat that process. Told him to stick with his job & come up with a better plan.

 

Up here all the cooper trucks that run the highway have sleepers. It was strange to me running in the USA and seeing Day cabs running around on the highway. But with jack cooper we get steep hotel discounts and there's an app on our tablets that show up approved accommodations on our route. So to answer your question I guess it will depend on your freight and on your routes if a day cab 11 car would make sense

 

I am convinced it is personal preference on to sleeper or not. I have also stayed at many a hotel where an owner op with a sleeper was staying as well. Even when I ran the road 5-6 days a week the hotels really weren't a very large percentage of my operating costs vs revenue. One of my trainers at Jack Cooper use to always say "you got to know your hotels"! He was correct, but usually if you call a carhauler or 2 you will find where the carhaulers stay in the part of the country you are in.

 

I ran the numbers a couple years ago and one extra unit per week was enough to pay for 5 nights at a hotel. Don't know if that's the case anymore with these Dry van Stinger rates

 

I've never been a fan of sleepers but they do make sense for some applications. Out west with road shut downs in the mountains you may wish you had one. Peterbilt cabs are so narrow you almost need a sleeper for all your 'stuff', especially if you have the opportunity to occasionally take wife/girlfriend/family member. The convenience factor of taking say a 3 hr nap and then heading home and fudge it on a paper log has been eliminated with EOBR. Spending 10+ hrs a night in a space smaller than a walk in closet just is not good quality of life.