Kevin Rutherfrauds $200000 Signature glider truck has complete engine failure!!!

Fuel here is $2.50 per gal for diesel on the average.

1000 miles / 5.5 mpg, 181 gal. @ 2.5 per gal $454.54 or .4545 per mile cost for fuel.

If you are not putting aside between .35 - .40 for maintenance cost then you will have nothing to do maintenance with.

New truck and trailer cost: $175,000 runs 70,000 miles per year per average $2.50 per mile / by 5 years = .50 per mile.

Outside of being off by .04 per mile for fuel, looks like my numbers are pretty well nuts on. We have not even put into account the insurance, taxes, tags, drivers wages and benefits, office expenses to go along with it as well.

 

So lets make sure I've got this right.
Your going to put only 350,000 on a truck over the course of five years and it will be worth nothing after those five years? And, you will be spending an average of $2,000.00 plus a month on maintenance on a truck that is practically new?

 

I think he's a little off, lol.

 

Chrome and Chicken lights can start to add up lol

 

@powerhousescott the lowest nastc price for MO is $2.08 Typical price: $2.13


Everybody has different business models, what's cheap for you may be a good load for me.

I've gone away from the whole "cost per mile" thing -- it can be too #### misleading when you're running 1500 miles one week and 4000 the next.. At today's fuel prices, it costs $2500/week plus $0.55/mile to run my business (including driver wage & benefits).



Now imagine 2 options:

1500 miles/week, only 750 loaded, for $3750. Not spectacular, but you won't hear any RPM fanatics complain... Yet my business profits only $425/week from that model!

Now take 3500 miles/week for $5950 -- $1.70/mile. That's cheap -- you're working way too hard! is what I'll hear. But my business profits $1525!


In both cases the driver makes $1300 plus benefits and is away from home for 7 days.



Edit: I'm not saying everyone should mindlessly grind 3500 miles/week -- I think mixing short/long hauls is probably the way to go. My current strategy is to try and put myself in a position to get lucky & hit a home run doing short BS during the week but, if necessary, take a "cheap" long haul over the weekend...

 

My numbers are far far lower than yours. I've owned this truck since the day it was new. Its lifetime fuel mileage is nearly 2 mpg higher, and that includes the first 7 years or so of ridiculously high idling before my brain kicked in and I got the genius idea of shutting it off when the weather is perfect. the only reason to get a low 5.5 is if you are running heavy haul. maybe you need better drivers?

As for maintenance, again my numbers are far lower than yours. I guess we do something different cause I'm barely over ten cpm and that includes my bone headed decision to tank the engine out last year and replace everything in it, and everything that bolts to it. To borrow a line from Dave Ramsey, that right there was about 15k in stupid tax.

Ok, so truck replacement cost. When I buy a truck, I keep it until it is no longer cost effective vs replacing it. This one will see two million so that's 10 cpm for a 200k truck. That's if I can stay motivated and not give in to the temptation to get that long hood and big bunk. idk, a shower and a stove to cook on is quite a big temptation so maybe not. Especially considering I got the engine ready to set down in her.

Edit to clarify: this long winded post was NOT directed at double yellow. took me so long to type that a few others posted on the mean time.

 

My personal cost to run a truck are far different then when a driver is operating the equipment. If I were to us my numbers as an individual than I could run for far cheaper. That is not the point, it does not matter what my cost to run are, only what it would cost the shipper to run those same miles. Having a few years of numbers to run averages on for drivers running the equipment, is where the numbers arrive from. You may think my cost are too high, put then again, I am accounting for running a business, not a one truck operation, that only cares about that one truck.

A one truck operation tends to forget about a lot of line items that a multi-truck operation has. A one-truck operation forgets to take into account paying somebody to do the office work, and other cost associated with running a business.

tell them it cost the shipper $1.58 - $2.01 to move a truck without a driver or the price of fuel. Then ask them to tell you what the price of a driver and fuel would be per mile. Then tell them to add 20% to that number for the trucking companies profit. Then they can add their 20% on top of that if they can get the shipper to bite. That is how it should be working.

Here is how that works:

$2.01 baseline rate
.50 per mile driver
.50 per mile fuel
$3.01 subtotal
.61 trucking company proit
$3.61 per mile to trucking company
$4.33 per mile to broker (20% markup not cut)

Everybody would be happy except the shipper.

 

At that rate the average joe wouldn't be able to buy groceries. in a few months the cost of living would be so high with the inflation those rates cause that we would not see a single penny in real additional income. the purchasing power of your dollars is worth just as much, if not more, than the number of dollars you hold.

You really shouldn't assume that the rest of us here at ttr don't know the cost of running a multiple truck business. many people here currently do run fleets, and many have in the past. Just because some of us no longer choose to live that life, doesn't mean we failed at it.

Look man, your numbers are so ridiculously high, that I honestly don't believe you own one truck, let alone a fleet large enough to support a modest sized staffed office. So how about we just agree to disagree and basically just ignore each other just like the last time we butted heads over that roomful of attorneys you had ready to fight the epa and carb. Deal?

 

No problem brother, just trying to let you know how I bid. If you think that my cost can't be broken out across a whole truckload of freight without effecting the store shelves, then answer this one for me.

Why did I pay $150 for groceries that cost $55 just 3 years ago. Is it because my prices are so ridiculous? My prices are based upon the shippers cost to run their own equipment. I could care less what your price to run is, as you should care less what my cost to run is. I don't have a room full of attorneys to debate this one, LOL.

 

Simple economics. Groceries are three times what they were because our dollar is worth a third what it was. historically inflation was practically a trickle until fdr confiscated the public's supply of gold and silver and then pushed out worthless paper money. And then we removed the dollar from the gold standard and ever since inflation has sky rocketed. Doesn't help that the last few presidents have decided it was ok to issue new money over and over. Every time they fire up those printers your dollar becomes worth less than the day before.

Now using your example of 4 something a mile freight, a few lads here and there at that rate isn't going to impact the check book of the average John Smith walmart shopper. but if that's the standard rate a trucking company needs to stay in business, it won't be long before manufacturers decide they don't like producing and shipping goods at a loss and raise their prices to compensate. The consumer has always, and will always, bear the full cost of making and delivering a product to the store shelf. this is why every single tax, regulation, and fee on a corporation is just one more hidden tax on john q. Average Joe.