The hits just keep on coming!!

Darn . I have to stay away from this post. this stuff may be contagious.

 

No, it hasn't tracked right since I bought it. I thought maybe it had some kind of suspension issue after it was aligned and still wasn't right but at least I finally know what's wrong.

 

The reason no spreadsheet will EVER tell you that is because it's called networking.

And networking is what the business sense is all about. You don't DO the work as an owner, you delegate it to the financial benefit of your bottom line.

 

Actually, the fault with a spreadsheet model is that it's an estimate. The less you know of actual costs, the less reliable those numbers are. Unfortunately, in an extensive or complex model errors tend to compound. A few estimates missed by a small amount and the calculated values get way off.

Of course networking will help you reduce costs by finding resources you might not have otherwise found on your own. You still have to be knowledgeable enough to predict if cheap repairs are going to be done competently or will lead to even more expense later.

What you pay others to do versus putting your own hands on is dictated by value. Two examples that I can relate to:

1. I pay someone else to do PM services. It usually runs about $300, give or take. Some guys will buy the materials and DIY for a $150 savings. The value in it for me is twofold. Not only do I not have to do a nasty job and get rid of the used oil and filters, but I also get a different set of eyes on my equipment to spot things that my driver and I may not have seen. As a bonus, I get back a couple of hours focusing on my business. Someone else will place higher value on having their own hands on their equipment. YMMV.

2. Wiring problems I will do myself. For some reason, electricity baffles most mechanics. That adds billable hours to a repair job, and I pay for their incompetence. The last one I had, I gave my shop (that does everything else top-notch) 1/2 hour to find a minor lighting fault. They spent the half hour poking around, ultimately doing a hack fix that caused another problem. I ended up having to find what they did and reverse it. I got the service manager to fax me the wiring diagrams. After studying them for 10 minutes, I ordered two parts that took 5 minutes each to install. I spent another 1 minute finding a broken wire and 5 minutes splicing in a patch. In this case, less than an hour of my time netted a $300-500 savings plus however many days of downtime it would take them to figure out. To his credit, the service manager gave me a discount on my next service that more than made up for the missed electrical repair. Good people, just no good with wiring.

Everyone ultimately has to figure out where those value points are for themselves. For most people, that happens when they start writing the checks and funding the downtime.

 

Life is an "estimate". Even the assumption that doing your own work has value.

For everything we do there is an opportunity cost to it. Managing that cost is what being a business owner is about. Until you pay that cost and see the rewards, you won't know the benefits or deficits.


As I said above...

If you decide to DO the work, it is for personal pleasure and distraction as the owner. There are competent mechanics that can figure out the wiring issues all you want. Again, THAT is networking.

 

This is the only point we really disagree on.

Thinking that personal pleasure and distraction are the only reason an owner should work on their equipment is incredibly naïve. Just this weekend I spent a couple of hours on a Saturday repairing a bumper end on one of my trucks. It wasn't fun and it was kind of hot. In fact, I kind of hate doing bodywork related stuff. I did it because:

1: I can.
2: I saved about 20% on the parts and 100% on labor.
3: No downtime (truck was parked in the yard, not to go out until Sunday for a delivery today) and
4: I didn't have something more valuable to spend that time doing.

Depending entirely on hired help is an expense that doesn't always make sense. The degree that it does depends on your skills, equipment, and what kind of place you have to do the work at. Along with that opportunity cost you mention, where your time might be more valuable doing something else than what it costs to pay someone to do it for you. Opportunity cost can also be expressed in delays in scheduling. If I have to miss or drop a load because my guy can't get to me fast enough, that has a cost too.

 

Our perspectives are different.

You are a small fleet owner and I am a single truck. I spend all my time around that truck and every repair I make is technically a line 4 item for me. Even doing my accounting duties. Thank God for my liking wife the accountant.

 

Write a paid out cash receipt to someone and it's not technically line four then.

 

You are incorrect, it would then be called tax fraud, theft, unethical,and down right dispicable.