mpg VS cost of repairs?

That's the problem, drivers are answering something fleet owners already figured out.

To the op, he needs to talk to his accountant and plan things for piece work deductions for maintaince,

 

The truth is, and not saying they're any better, but if it were a 5EK, which is a pre 99 engine, that truck probably wouldn't be worthless.

Still, compare that with a 2000 W9 with a 6NZ, and you see how a plastic truck keeps its value compared to a "plastic" truck.

 

I'm not following what you're saying

 

The numbers aren't the same for the fleet of 1000 trucks vs the 100 fleet vs 10 vs 1. Was the point I was trying to make. If it was all the same there would only be 1 truck on the road. Even the big fleets don't always have it figured to lowest cost. Some of them run a mix of Volvo freightliner international with a mix of Detroit or cummins or international engine. So it really is not cut and dry at all which way is the cheapest way in terms of truck ownership, maintenance, and trade cycle.

 

Kenworth introduced the plastic truck in 1959, with the introduction of the unitglass hood. By the 70s, the panels of both the W9 and K100 were fiberglass.

The roof of both the cab and the sleeper of Peterbilt 389 are fiberglass.

Those are plastic trucks, but nobody calls them plastic. So I put one in quotes to show that the ones that are called plastic and the ones without quotes those trucks that are plastic, but people don't call them plastic.

 

Yeah I get that, my fleet numbers are in between the first two numbers in your statement on the lower end.

I have to do three different ways to figure this out because i have trucks that get less than 1000 miles a month and others getting around 70k annually. One method is "piece meal" method, a fix rate that gets subtracted from the revenue from every load for those trucks and only those trucks. This way it maintains a repair account for that truck. It is higher for those low mileage trucks and it is offset by the other policies I have. Example most don't seem to understand they bank that money to a specific level - in my case it is ~$20k per truck and the overflow goes back into the "general" funds.

Outside of that, it doesn't matter what the truck is, the costs of repair and running are all the same.

I looked the other day, I have a spread sheet with the makes and models (and other details) of every truck I owned, I had almost every one made at one time through this fleet and nothing is different between all of them.

I digress ...

Depreciation and service metrics determine where the truck sits in the life cycle within the fleet, if the truck is depreciate fully, the service metrics are shifted to higher tolerances, and so on.

 

About that, when I had it quoted, but it is variable with the length of the lease, the length of the purchase financing, and what you put in the lease contract. When I put in my standards for maintenance (virgin Michelins, for example), it jumped up to about 74%. It would have been closer to even if I had not bought extended warranties on the purchase. I could have gotten the lease down if I agreed to do all maintenance at the local dealer. Even with a full maintenance lease, there's repairs you pay for, flat tires, operator error, dings and scrapes, deer strikes, etc.

Can't comment on the timeliness of service. My local Kenworth dealer has not ever been a problem getting in for service or repair.

 

Fiberglass is not plastic.