Monthly Maintenance Escrow Question

You need to put from $0.08-0.15/mile until you get your account built up to about $20,000-25,000. At a minimum you should have enough to pay for an in-frame. With the high mileage I would opt for the higher rate to get your account built up more quickly. If you don't need the money you can always use it to buy your next truck. I never use a maintenance account for pm's and other types of maintenance, but some do. The maintenance account should primarily be used for a major component failure such as a transmission, power divider, or engine. If you can pay for a failure rather than digging into your maintenance fund, all the better.

 

A tractor of that age / mileage can run you close to $0.18 / mile in Maintenance & Repair costs per year.

The 5th / 6th year of a trucks life is the costliest ( not counting an inframe ) , 1 reason many fleets flip their trucks at 4 years

 

Many of the larger fleets turn trucks just before they get out of warranty.

 

500,000 mile warranty on most major components , 120,000 / year gets you pretty darn close to the 4 YEAR MARK .

Also many fleets LEASE their tractors on a 4 year lease with a 480,000 mile cap