THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE - DFO gets a truck and hops on Schneider's IC Choice Program

Ok, so if I'm grossing 1.50 a mile, and the truck is costing me 1.03 a mile, then 47 cents is what I am netting, and that is what is taxed. The 1.03 a mile are my costs for the business are is not taxed. My tax guy tells me to set aside 20% to pay quarterly taxes, so I put 25% of my net earnings into savings so I should have no surprises come tax time and have a little extra just in case.

If a load grosses 1.50 a mile, truck costs 1.03 a mile, net a 47 CPM profit on that load, put away 11-12 cents of that 47 for taxes.

If a load grosses 1.30 a mile, truck still costs 1.03 a mile, net a 27 CPM profit on that load, put away 6-7 cents of that 27 for taxes.

I don't put away tax savings per load, I just do it off whatever my paycheck for the week is. Last weeks paycheck was $1300 something so I put away about $325 of that to pay come quarterly tax time.

Hopefully that makes sense?

 

Yep, honestly the way I look at it is that I'm making the same amount that a good company driver with an excellent DBL would make. However, I'm also making a truck payment towards a truck I want to keep, and running a business that I want to continue with in the future.

I have some weeks where I bring home a really nice paycheck and other weeks where I might have a $500 check. I do a lot better than I did as a company driver, but I think my experience as a company driver was a bit rougher than many. Maybe I didn't throw enough fits, or stand up for myself and got pushed around too much, I don't really know. I just liked to be left alone and do my own thing, and I think they took advantage of that.

Now, I can truly be left alone and do my own thing. Go where I want to go, be comfortable in my truck that is operated and maintained and outfitted by me, myself and I, run my days how I want to, etc.

Its far from perfect, I wish we had more freight in the Southeast. I could spend all my time trucking around Georgia, going to and from NC only when I wanted to go home. I will truck the living **** out of Georgia. But freight is pretty quiet there now and I can't, so I have to adapt and maybe go some places that I'm not particularly fond of. I still haven't had to go into the true Northeastern states yet, and I hope it stays that way. I'm fine bringing home a little less knowing that I don't have to deal with the added stresses and complications of running that area of the country. If that's where you want to run, you can do very, very well. But it will take a toll on your truck and probably yourself as well.

Personally I think the one year lease is the best way to go under the following conditions:

You get a good used truck
You plan to get away from leasing as soon as possible
You plan to eventually own a truck outright

A used truck has a lower payment than a new truck. Your total monthly payment will be about the same as someone with a new truck running the same lease term, but more money goes into a maintenance account than on a new truck. The money in this maintenance account is yours at the end of the lease, or obviously may be used for making repairs. I'd much rather be putting money towards in account which will either a. come back to me, or b., get put towards maintaining something that is mine, vs. going to Schneider in the form of a higher weekly payment.

I plan to get away from leasing as soon as possible, hopefully at the end of the 52 weeks, whether its switching to traditional financing on the residual value of my truck at the end of the lease through SFI (this is one of several options with SFI at the end of my 52 weeks), or, what I am hoping that I can do, is take my profits, losses, etc., etc., to the bank and show them that I am running a successful business and will try to get a loan to pay off the residual on the truck. If I can have a lower payment, lower interest rate, and be free from SFI (i.e. I can manage my maintenance account money all myself in my own account), that would be ideal. Will it be possible? I don't know, but I am going to try. I will of course have to compare financing options between SFI and the bank to see which, if either, is the best one.

Lastly, I think its OK if you plan to keep the truck. If you don't plan to keep the truck and just want to keep renewing leases, in my opinion you are just throwing away your money, making truck payments for Schneider. Again, that's just my opinion and I mean no offense to anyone who likes to keep revolving their leases and getting a new truck. For some I'm sure its the best plan and that they are successful at it, in my situation, probably not.

You can do a longer lease I guess if your credit is good enough, or you have more experience. But that's locking yourself into much longer time periods with SFI which I don't think is good. Leasing is not BAD, per say, but I don't want to be doing it any longer than I have to. The nice thing about the way that SFI does the leasing is that it is not leasing in the same sense that many other companies lease... IMO its closer to very short term/high payment financing with a roughly 20% interest rate, which I get from doing the following:

I look at it like this:

$80,000 truck
Weekly truck payment of $685 (this is my actual truck payment, not maintenance, insurance, etc., just the truck)
Owe $54,000 at end of 52 weeks

52 weeks * $685 payment = $35,620 paid towards truck
If 0% interest, would still owe $44,380 on truck
Actually owe $54,000
So a 19.5% difference in those values

I've seen other companies where their idea of a lease is you just keep leasing and leasing and leasing until you have FINALLY paid off the truck completely with a $1 buyout, but only if you can make it that far. I don't want that, and I'm glad that SFI doesn't run things this way.

It's been a way for me to get a start as an o/o in the trucking business, when I really had no other way to get started. I wanted to stay with Schneider as there was a lot that I did (and still do) like about the company, despite making deplorable wages as a company driver.

So far, I'm happy, and I'm making money and working towards owning my truck, what can I say?

 

No problem, not hijacking, you're welcome to join in!

Yep, I have got one of these. The most useful use of this little gadget is using it to read and clear codes from the ECM.

It's not as great as I thought it would be, it has a MASSIVE plug that connects to the data port under the dashboard, and it has 2 different types of connectors, about the size of your average ibuprofen bottle you pick up from the drug store. The connector weighs so much it wiggles itself loose and the device loses its connection and any memory of values you have been trying to track, as it doesn't have any kind of internal power.

Whatever it uses to estimate fuel mileage is WAY off, like 2MPG+ lol. Not sure if there is a way to calibrate this or not, but honestly hand calculating fuel mileage is the only truly accurate way to do it.

Being able to use it as a boost gauge is nice, I also had it set up to monitor a couple more parameters I don't have gauges for, like intake air temperature, etc. Just a neat readout to have. However, if the electronic sensor is reading wrong its obviously not going to display accurate data.

In the future I will just install a mechanical boost gauge and pyrometer (measures exhaust gas temp) on the dashboard. Cost would be about the same as the ScanGauge. But, like I said, its very handy to be able to read and clear codes with, especially since I don't really have much other than a glorified trip meter on my dashboard and not the info center like the new Cascadias (mine however, does not blind you at night, which I am thankful for lol).

The one truly useful electronic tool that will be worth its absolute weight in GOLD that I am planning to purchase is the adapter to be able to interface with the trucks ECM with Cummins's software on my laptop. Then I will be able to test and see the actual values all the sensors are putting out and will make any electronic engine troubleshooting I do so so much easier. Not exactly cheap, but for someone that does their own work, invaluable.