Purchasing a truck and hiring a driver??

Do you know what Hours of Service are?

 

If I knew your location I would maybe interested in being a dedicated carrier for you. Skip the broker b.s. Find a reliable carrier in the area and work with. Sit down discuss rates,demurrage,fsc, everything good and bad.

 

Can you offer upto 130 truck capacity? Cause I know someone else who can

 

Insurance is a big one too. I’m almost $300 a week just for that. Every week! Weather I turn a mile or not.

What about the capital costs of purchasing the truck? So on a $60k truck your looking at $400 a week?

plates don’t seem like much but almost .03 a mile for me for the year? $3000 a year.

What ever you pay the driver your looking at another %21 on top for worker’s compensation and taxes.

 

Good lord. You're leased on IIRC, right? Is your insurance through your carrier or do you have your own?

 

Cargo and GL Through the carrier are $220 a week. Then my truck and trailer insurance along with bobtail insurance I pay separate myself.

 

You are missing a few important items. Your driver is going to cost you much more than $900, if you want a good driver. Remember, whatever you pay them you also have to pay taxes, workers comp, benefits and more on. Also, a good driver to do this work is going to be a $1,500 or more a week bring home guy so it will cost you about $2k including the sunk costs. And, this cost will be every week, a good driver expects to make consistent money regardless of how much or little work you have available. So, you better have a full week of loads every week year round!

Also, side note, what will you do when your driver quits, as this industry isn't known for loyality among drivers and carriers. How many weeks will that truck sit empty while you pay for it and pay a contract hauler?

Licensing and other incidentals for the truck (besides OS/OW permits), repairs, breakdowns, hotels (if you don't have a sleeper) plus cost of fines and other enforcement issues if you don't have an expert driver and permit person to handle the intricacies of oversize loads.

Lastly, and this is the biggest one of all that you are missing is the cost of RISK. Right now, if a power only guy breaks down or has truck issues it is on him to get that load to your customer on time or pay the demurge charges or other contract failure fees. Not to mention the risk of a crash, injury or damage to your rental equipment would all be brought in-house. There is a reason why when I owned my fleet some of my best customers were rental houses. Stick to your core competencies of renting and servicing equipment and leave the transportation up to the transport professionals.

 

If you run 10 loads per month, and they all average about 1600 round trip, you might need 2 trucks. Plus, as soon as he leaves your yard, you'll need to find a broker load for the return trip.

800 miles out with weather, traffic and screwy permitted roads...add in the crane appointment and unloading time and you're looking at minimum 36hrs from the time he leaves until the time he's empty. Bounce to the backhaul, load, deliver to an area (hopefully) within 100mi of your location and then back home... it could be a 3 - 3.5 day round trip.

 

Well you miss one important aspect to all of it, you have to cover the 822 (what ever) miles dead head back to your location and it better cover your costs or that difference you pay will vanish.

See what you are missing is this fact, you are paying an opportunity cost either with the broker and no dead head or paying to get that truck back, which is the drivers pay plus the maintainance and fuel costs.

 

Exactly why I asked him if he was familiar with HOS. 11hr day on day 1, 10hr break. 5-6hrs the next day, deliver and either start dh for 5-6hr, 10hr break, 10hr day driving back the next day. So 51hrs at best. And thats with a driver who will keep that left door closed and roll