RD68's 2013 income on a month to month basis

What does a "poor man's APU" mean exactly? I know it means you don't have heating and cooling to a near exact comfortable level, which would cost you a lot extra as an O/O. How do you achieve enough cooling in the hot summer time without an APU? Does it mean you idle at extreme hot and cold temps, and otherwise you just grin and bear it with blankets/dc fans/...?

And what about keeping the product you're hauling at a specific temperature. When you need to do that, as ethos has spoken of with Schneider allowing unlimited idling and wsyrob has indicated with Superior "Company" as well, does Superior pay for your fuel/extra engine maintenance when you have to idle through your 10 hours?

What kind of mileage might later model tractors get, which have the additional smog controls, compared to your 6.3 mpg?

Are Superior company trucks governed to a certain speed? Are you governed as an O/O?

Thanks!

 

By my arithmetic, ped, your YTD gross revenue divided by your YTD "total" miles has you bringing in approx $1.70 per mile. In another thread, Tennessee Trucker wrote: "My cost per mile is .83-.85 Cpm. My truck payment, maint, ins, etc etc is .40 cpm fuel is running between .40-.45. I run slow though 58-60 you would be amazed how much money you can save." From reading another of his posts, he said he runs cross country and hauls lite loads. I know you haul heavy with a probable consequent decrease in mileage. His avatar shows a late model International. I don't know if that's his truck though.

I do understand you are not getting the 401K match, profit sharing, vacation/holiday pay,... Really, you are getting these things, just in a different form, I think. Even if your average total operating cost year to year incl fuel, which you separated out, were $1.00 per mile equaling .15 cpm more than Tennessee's, and considering what you wrote in your first paragraph, still, your gross paycheck after all operating costs (fuel, oil, tires, repairs, licensing and registration..., insurances, misc expenses, and truck replacement/depreciation), which is somewhat equal to a company driver's "Gross" paycheck having not paid any taxes yet (less 401K match, vacation/holiday pay, and with you paying both the employer's and employees portion of the payroll tax. BUMMER!), would be approx .70cpm (with that convoluted sentence, I was trying to convey that your gross paycheck by my math may be approx .70cpm. This is figured on revenue you've received for total miles, not just paid miles). On some posts in this forum I've seen two Superior Company drivers' gross paychecks equaling the equivalent of .57 per mile over the course of an entire year. Sounds like you're doing pretty well, if my limited understanding is anywhere near reality.

I know some of my terms are different from yours. As well, possibly Tennessee Trucker's fuel surcharge is different from yours at Superior. I don't understand much of this yet.

Your fuel cost divided by your "Total Miles" equals approx .57/mile. Do Superior's delivery times generally give you enough time to run 58 to 60 mph?

I'm thinking that comparing you to Tennessee Trucker is like comparing different kinds of apples, not apples to oranges. Is this correct? You may not have a truck payment, however, you certainly are figuring in tractor replacement costs per mile into your operating costs.

If I've gone too far in expressing too much specificity in analyzing/questioning your operating situation, I apologize! Thanks for enduring letting me flesh stuff out in my limited understanding. And for any responses and corrections you or anyone here may care to share!

 

I didn't want to have to idle the truck, didn't want to pay the money for a Thermo King APU, but I wanted to be comfortable; so I bought a Honda 3000is generator and installed a remote start/stop switch in it, got a space heater and electric blankets for winter, and a portable AC unit, which I mounted on a shelf inside the truck, for summer. I have a battery charger plugged into it as well. The generator burns a couple gallons of gas if I run it all night.

Superior pays quite well if they want me to idle overnight to keep the Intransit Heat running.

I only know what I've read here in the forum and those figures vary depending on the individual driver.

The company trucks are governed at about 65 if I remember correctly. I removed the governor from my ECM, but the company still monitors things and would frown on me exceeding 70 or so.

 

Excellent idea!

 

I agree with most of your analysis, except I believe my total operating costs will be less than $1.00/mile. Since fuel is by far my largest cost at .57/mile, and all of the other expenses you listed add up to a YTD total of less than $5k (less than .10/mile), I don't see it getting above about .75/mile (unless I start having major repair bills (heaven forbid)).

Superior's delivery times almost always allow for enough time to run as slow as you can convince yourself to. I'm working on that but still tend to keep it closer to 65 mph.

I haven't read any of his posts but in general you are probably correct. I am not currently planning on replacing my truck any time soon, though it's probably inevitable if I keep at this for several more years. But since I only paid $10K for my current one, I could replace it every year for .10/mile. I'm not likely to find as good a deal as I did on this one, but amortizing the cost of say a $40K truck over 3 to 4 years would result in about the same per mile cost.

You've brought up some good questions and observations and made me think through my situation a bit more. I believe my figures are reasonably correct but if you or anyone else sees where I'm off track feel free to point it out. I only made the switch to IC about 10 months ago so I'm learning more about it every day.

And my apologies to RD if we're running his thread too far off his original intentions.

 

According to your numbers, if things continue as they have so far this year with few repairs and lots of miles, you're on track to make 1.70 revenue per mile minus .75 cost = .95 for
e v e r y mile you drive! That is a whopping amount of income for a driver!!! Good job on getting a $10,000 truck!

And considering your eventual need of a different truck and potentially needing more maintenance/tires/..., say you add .20 per mile to your operating cost, moving it up to .95 per mile. That's still .75 per mile of income to you!

Thanks for your answers!

 

Hey ped, I've been pondering what you wrote here, and have been perusing other threads about O/O costs. I'm thinking in your first 10 months owning this truck that you've probably had a couple oil changes at $500 to $600 total, you haven't had to replace tires (drives may last 300,000 to 400,000 miles! I'm learning some things ), you've had few to no repairs though you're probably putting maybe .10 per mile into a maintenance fund (?), and you have had to pay licensing/permit expenses..., and you've had to insure your truck at what seems like maybe $600/month or so? These expenses combined, have to have added up to more than the approx. $5000 you wrote that you've spent. So, I'm wondering if possibly that Superior pays your truck insurance and maybe at least helps out with your licensing... costs?? If so, that would be so COOL for you!

Something I found which might help analyze O/O costs: http://www.ooida.com/EducationTools/Tools/costpermile.asp (I don't at all understand the Tractor Fuel column over 100,000 miles at just $20,700!)

Bottom line: If I'm not asking too personally about your business arrangement with Superior, do they help you out with any ownership costs, which are helping to keep your expenses so low? If so, can you enlighten us a little more?

Thanks,
Dan

 

I can only wish I'd had no repairs to this truck during my first 10 months of ownership Dan. I paid a shop $2,600 to make several repairs in the engine compartment in my third month of ownership; but that was November of last year. Some other expenses were the generator, the wireless start/stop device, the portable AC, fans, space heater, and a wheel seal repair all of which totaled up to maybe $3,500 or so, again, all last year.

The totals I gave were for the first 6 months of this year where I've been lucky enough to have no significant repairs. I do some of the simpler repairs myself to keep costs as low as possible. I've had 3 oil changes this year (~$850) and replaced 1 tire ($575). Superior covers the insurance required to haul their product, but I'm responsible for Physical Damage and Bobtail Insurance which total up to just under $500 YTD. I also have Occupational Accident Ins. at $600 YTD. My IRP base plate (IFTA) is at $1,600 so far this year and I don't need any permits. I don't know how other companies handle all of these things so I don't know if this is exceptionally good or not.

I need to get organized and do up a chart like that, but like I've said, I'm 10 months into this deal and I'm still learning. I do know I'd like a fuel cost like that!

Superior does require a maintenance fund for which they pull $100/week for. I haven't listed that as a cost because it's still my money. They want a minimum of $2K and my fund is at $4K now... I should probably stop the deduction since I never draw anything out of it. I see this cost similar to truck replacement cost; I know I need to allow for it, I just don't think of it in terms of a per mile cost. I just make sure I have ample funds in my account to cover them.

I also need to say that I've tried to come up with the major expenses I've encountered, and I'm sure I've missed some. When tax time rolls around next year I will be looking very hard for every expense related to my trucking business. For instance, one expense I've neglected to list is the gas I purchase for the generator/APU which is at about $700 for the year. I love paying this because I know it's saving me much more in diesel fuel cost due to no idling.

I don't mean to make truck ownership seem to be an easy way to make money. There are many hassles and some major risks associated with it. But it suits me so far, and I believe I'll make more this way than driving a company truck - which I was satisfied with for four years.