JCT

Wrong, people should know who's running ILLEGAL, that way they can do their best to stay clear of them on the road. Besides, those guys with the shiny metal things on their chests aren't stupid, they know how JCT runs.

 

Personally, I enjoyed the higher fuel prices. Here's why. Let's say the average national fuel price is 2.28 per gallon. The fuel surcharge for that would be .13 per mile. The fuel surcharge (for us) is based on 6 MPG at 1.50 per gallon. That puts our fuel cost at .25 per mile. Therefore, a national average of 2.28 and 6 mpg SHOULD make the average .38, provided we're staying at that 6 MPG and buying fuel at 2.28. Now, if I get 5.6 MPG and buy fuel for 2.05 (which is possible) my fuel cost is .36 per mile. Which means I'm PROFITING .02 on the fuel surcharge! When the national average was over 4.00 per gallon, I was shopping my fuel pretty hard. I found I could drop .30-.40 below the national average for fuel! That was a profit to me of .04-.05+ per mile. Just because the price for fuel was higher. Currently, the average price is pretty even from state to state. Which means I'm actually making LESS with the lower fuel prices. If you keep your fuel economy over 6 mpg, you can consistently make a profit on the fuel surcharge.

BTW, the easy way to calculate the fuel surcharge is this. Take the national average (say 2.28), subtract the base charge (1.50) and divide the remainder by fuel economy (6 MPG) That formula keeps your fuel at the same price no matter how high it goes. Let's go insane, and say fuel prices are 9.00 per gallon, and see how the fuel surcharge works.

9.00-1.50=7.50, 7.50/6=1.25 My fuel surcharge is 1.25 per mile

Now, let's take a 1000 mile trip as an example.

Average fuel cost of 1.5 and 6 MPG for 1000 miles is going to cost me roughly $250 in fuel.

Now, at the 9.00 per gallon rate at 6 MPG for 1000 miles, fuel is going to cost me $1500 in fuel. But, the fuel surcharge is going to pay me $1250, leaving what I'm paying for fuel STILL at $250.

But, what if I get 6.2 MPG, and only pay 8.75 per gallon on the same trip? I'm going to pay $1411 for fuel, but the surcharge is still $1250. That means instead of paying $250 for fuel, I only paid $161 for fuel. I made $89 on the higher fuel prices. Make sense?

 

That makes perfect sense, Grizzlyman. That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for taking the time to explain that in such an easy to understand way. I'm sure a lot of folks will find it helpful.

 

When a load is dispatched to you do they give the routing that is used for calculating the miles they are paying for or is it to you to make your own route? Do they also suggest fuel stops along the way or have any assistance in tracking fuel prices or is that also left to you?

 

That is actually a good question. Running a co truck, I have to say I never really paid much attention to the fuel prices, but as a L/O or O/O that would obviously be important, and if the co had insight on fuel stops and prices, it would help.

I'd imagine the routing is left up to the driver though, or am I assuming too much Grizz?

 

Thanks for the laugh, that one had me rollin. Reminds me of the good ol' days when I had to remember which of the three stashed logbooks to hand over when requested. This was often complicated by the sleep deprived haze cluttering up my mind. Running legally definitely has it's advantages, but I do miss the outlaw days when I could knock out a 1000+ miles at will.

But then I'm always reminded of a driver I used to work with at a company that would let us get away with that. He was in one of those comatose driving modes when he came across some stopped traffic at a construction zone in Cali. The only problem was that he didn't stop and ended up parking his truck on top of a Mini van with 6 people in it who never knew what hit them. He is currently serving a 20 yr sentence. That little incident was also the catalyst that destroyed that company. It is no longer in existence and 400 people lost their job as a result. But oddly enough, the owner and management (who condoned such practices) of the company never saw a day of prison.

Drive safe.

 

The routing is left entirely up to you. There is a message on the qualcomm you can send that will give you Flying J prices along the route that the computer uses. Usually that's the route I wind up on anyhow. Though I have had it come up with some that don't make sense. The biggest example I can think of was a load from Oklahoma to Ontario, CA. On the list of fuel prices it gave, it included Bakersfield. For the life of me I can't figure out HOW it came up with adding that one, but it did. I've had it do things like that a couple other times. For the most part, it's very useful.

 

Per my math if you get get .34 a mile for fsc, then 5 miles would yield 1.70 almost half the cost. For 7 miles its 2.38. I am using these number as most trucks will get between 5-7 mpg. If you average 5500 milkes a week you will get $1870 for fuel.

KH

 

Thanks for the response. I have been reading all I can find about this company. I sent in an app lastnight. So, provided you have a light foot which of the trucks available offer the best fuel milage?