New O/O Is this deal OK??

My math has him at .22 per mile:smt085

From my research/ math 1.50/ mile w/o a truck payment is good.

What do you guys think about Dart America' (they are the other DART) O/O Hazardous Waste Division. They claim that their O/O's average over $4000 gross. Dart America doesn't have an age restriction for trucks, they only require that your truck can pass a D.O.T. inspection. BOL.

My new plan is to go ahead and work for a company over the next 2 years, save every penny (not hard for a zero debt single guy) and buy a cheap used, but quality truck. This will have me going O/O when my insurance will be cheaper, and when I will have the option to lease on to better companies like Panther, which require a min of 2 years OTR. I've found companies that take as little as 6 months, but I desire a bigger emergency cash flow, which grinding over the next 2 years will give me.

I would like to eventually own a small fleet, paying my drivers percentage. All in time and work.

That's my goal. Foolish or not? I'm willing to take a well calculated risk. To the chagrin of all the naysayers; I will make it! I will make it!

I am somebody!

 

The main thing to remember is that if the truck isn't rolling, it's costing you money. What you need to know is what your fixed expences are per wk.(trk. payment, insurance, permits-baseplates, x-amount for maintance fund, ect.) Once you have this amount in hand, you can est. how many miles you will need to run @ .??cpm to take care of your fixed exp. Another thing to think hard about is the fuel sercharge. You stated that they give you 100% of the fuel surcharge. It's beter if you can get them to give you a max. price per gallon(for example, $1.45 per gallon would be the most you would pay), regardless of what they collect from the shipper. Also it would be better if you can get them to give you % of the load with a min. cpm rate. This makes it alot easer to figure what your expenses are. If you can do this than you will know how many miles per day and at what cpm you will need to make to be home every 7-10 days. I will tell you this, it's going to be hard to make very much money @ a flat .87cpm, and only be out 7-10/home 1-2. I wish you all the luck in the world.

 

I have to agree with RoadRocket on this. You didn't mention any payments besides the truck that you have to make. I just don't see .87 cents being enough. You could net more than that as a company driver and have none of the headaches. I hope you have a sound, well thought out business plan and enough cash to hold you over as cover the truck expenses/ repairs/ home expenses until the checks are coming in regular.
Good Luck and Happy Trails
NightWind

 

What IS the most lucrative deal out there. I'm a company driver lookin' to do my own thing....am just starting my research on leases. Any suggestions?

 

$0.87 isn't even half enough money. You would be better off working as a greeter in Walmart. 87 cents is going backwards. Really you are going to be running at a loss. How the heck are you going to pay for fuel, repairs, registration, and tires. I hope you don't have a truck payment, if you do you will be going backwards in high gear. Why do you want to do this?? Why do you feel the need to make some scumbag freight outfit rich at your own expense????

 

I assume for that rate they are paying your base plate and taking care of road and fuel taxes etc but it's still a low rate. They are right at $.50 a mile for fuel even if you had NO other costs it's still a miserable driver rate. And you will have a good bit of repairs on a truck that old, and a payment.

As a guy who has lost bussinesses and also has a family I'd say go look for another comapny. I know there is companies out there advertising $1.24 at least.

And here is somehting that will slow you down a bit in the speed catagory. You can loose 1mpg or more) running 75 instead of 65. Do the math at $3 per gallon and 800 miles a day and se how much money you will loose per day/month/year

 

You would be better off taking that 95 IHC and leasing it to some local sea container outfit or somebody running freight off of the railhead. They use older trucks all the time. You might have to touch some freight now and again but, at least you will be making some kind of profit.

 

Hey guys, he said 100% fuel... so 87 cents a mile is for everything else. If his truck gets 5 MPG that's $1.37 per mile... his truck payment should be around $550 a month. So if he does 10k per month that's around $2175 AFTER fuel expenses. Truck payment should be around $137.50 per week. That's gross of about 178k... 113k after fuel expenses... 105k after truck payment...

If he averaged 2500 miles per week, he should be able to pocket $1250 per week after all expenses right? That's pretty conservative... however, this is based on everything i have read... not from my own experience.

One thing that made me wonder was the milage bonus over 9k and 10k. It makes me wonder if going over that amount is rare... so maybe 8k is the norm? That's around $1740 per week... livable, but not as good.

Maybe I am missing something?

 

The 100% fuel surcharge means you get all of the fuel surcharge that they bill the customer for. Without knowing how they figure their fuel surcharge you really don't know how much he is getting. I would guess at best it might be 25 cents a mile.

 

Oh.. ok Joe. I didn't know that. If his truck gets 5 MPG, he is compensated $1.25 for that 5 miles, with an actual cost of $3.00, so the actual out of pocket is $1.75 when figured per mile is .35 cents per mile OOP... so the actual per mile pay is .52 cents... not as good as I originally thought...