Those that need/want to Fleece Purchase from a carrier

If they lease to a carrier on a milage basis first, then step toward a company that they can learn about eqipment, rates and lanes. Then on to being a carrier, (own authority) if they chose.

 

If you drive for a major carrier yeah he probably right they don't see what they need to see. before I went and bought mine I worked for a company 7 years where I saw all the actual numbers. what a load paid what it cost for fuel the driver what a repair bill cost ect ect and was able to figure out everything.

 

Wouldn't lease to no carrier for mileage. I am leased to a carrier and run percentage and when I see what these companies pay a mile for linehaul and fsc I laugh. my line hauls is avg 2.5 a mile and my fsc avg is .85 a mile why would anybody want to run for .90 a mile lh and .40 fsc

 

Whatever you do don't lease it sight unseen off of Craig's list.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XZn0Jz_D2k

 

FSC .85 per mile? I think the national average is 42.2 per mile. That's great if your getting that. Correct me if I'm wrong please.

 

we figure our fsc as a percentage of linehaul. my last fsc for going 900 miles was 814.65

 

Hey leftlane, why don't you check out the book instead of railing so hard against it, and against Rawze who you don't even know. In reading his posts and yours, he is offering helpful advice... You are offering nothing except sarcasm and ragging on people and methodologies. I really appreciate the book. The author is exhibiting common sense... I hope to be an owner operator one day, as 70% of my 31 working years has been self employment outside of the trucking industry. A book like this with much common sense, is just the resource I need. Thanks again, Rawze, and for your answers to my questions! I am working my way through the book and am gaining much from it!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/115110075/The-First-Time-Class-8-Lease-Purchase-Owner-Op-Guide

Take a look at this excerpt, leftlane, is there any sense in this? Is there anything useful that even you could benefit from?

Speed alone, and reducing it, does not actually save you that much, whenyour truck is governed, or the cruise is set all the time. The problem when atruck's governed speed is turned down, is that most drivers will push the truckharder, using more torque, trying to make up for the loss in speed. This is also truefor many owner-ops that try to slow down to save fuel. Not thinking about it, theytend to use a lot more torque to try and maintain the lower speed. Climbing hills,accelerating from a stop light, or getting onto the freeway become much harder,consuming more torque than needed. An example of this, is that a truck moving75 mph with the cruise control on. When it gets to a steep hill, it will use maxtorque all the way up the hill, then crest the hill at say, 63 mph, then continue on.This same truck, same hill, cruise set at 63 mph, will drop in speed to 51 mph as itcrests the hill, still using max torque to get there. The difference is that at thelower speed, max torque is applied for a longer period of time, causing it toactually burn more fuel up the hill, than when the truck that was going faster.Going down the hill, and on flat ground, when going faster, the truck will usemore fuel than if it were going slower. This 'Give and Take' difference is why notmuch is gained overall. Lets now take a look at this same truck, same hill, movingat 75 mph, no cruise, the driver uses the fuel pedal to only apply 50% torque toclimb the hill. From 75, the truck will slow all the way down to about 43 mph as itcrests. The driver also probably had to gear down once as well, just before thecrest. The truck's operating cost per mile is reduced by almost 60%. 48% in fuel,and 12% in wear and tear. What did you loose time-wise? Well, if climbing at fulltorque, it took 5 minutes to blast up the hill, 75-63 is an average of 69 mph, and athalf torque, 75-43 is an average of 59 mph. This means you slowed down,








purposefully, by 10 mph (15%), but almost doubled your fuel mileage during thepull up the hill, costing you half as much to climb that hill.On typically flat ground, physics dictates that for every 1 mph slower yougo in your truck, you save about 0.1 mpg, depending on your truck, your weight,the wind, and the road. Also, maintenance costs go down by about 0.5% for every1 mph you slow down. This is because the overall torque needed to keep youmoving is reduced. This definitely gives you reason to slow down when you havethe time for it, and if you combine slowing down with limiting torque on hills,even small hills, it will start to far outweigh, in reduced costs the extra moneygained by running faster. This savings can only be achieved by those individualswilling to sacrifice their driving habits, their ego, and the amount of extra timethey have on their deliveries. If done right, what they gain in return, is lessdowntime in repairs, less stress because they are driving slower, safer drivinghabits, and, oh yeah, between $200 and $800 more in your pocket at the end ofthe week (as a solo driver), even though you ran less miles.In your truck, torque is what you need to micro-manage while going downthe road, if you want to maximize profits. Torque comes from horsepower, andhorsepower comes from fuel and air. Fuel is controlled directly by your foot onthe fuel pedal, but the air going into your engine is controlled by the turbo. Theturbo is not connected to your fuel pedal, but you have the ability to speed it upand slow it down by accelerating and decelerating. Your foot has control of both,and the fuel part is easy enough to figure out (the further down, the more fuel),but without some kind of visual aid, you are guessing at best, when it comes to theair. As I have mentioned several times in this guide already, a turbo boost gaugewill take the guess work away and let you see what you are doing. By controllingturbo boost pressure, you can directly control horsepower and therefore torque. Itbaffles me as to why every single truck on the road does not have one of thesegauges in the dash. Some trucks do in fact have them, but most these days do not.Installing a mechanical type is dirt easy because all you have to do is connect it toa spare port on the intake manifold, run the hose over to the gauge, and connect it.A brass fitting or 2 from Home Depot may be needed to adapt the end that goes tothe intake. A mounting bracket for it can be purchased from an auto parts store ifone does not come with it, or if it does not fit into the dash somewhere.Before continuing, I would like to explain why I push so hard for driversto use a turbo boost gauge to help them save fuel, and to kill the ignorance behindthose drivers that claim they can save fuel just as well without one. First of all,even the very best drivers out there, with no gauge, will only get to within about8% of the fuel savings that a similar driver can achieve with one. Even if you take














this percentage to an un-achievable extreme, and say that your super-humanabilities get you to within a very impossible 1%, that 1%, for a solo driver in oneyear equates to about $1000 in wasted money on fuel. Realistically, 8% meansyou loose somewhere in the area of $6000 - $8000. That very well can be thedifference in spending $68k in fuel this year, rather than $76k.Driving, using a turbo boost gauge is not difficult. If you push your fuelpedal all the way to the floor on an open stretch of road, it is likely to readupwards of 30+ psi, letting you know what it shows at full torque. How you driveto save torque with it, is to limit how much boost pressure your turbo isproducing. The more you limit it, the less torque you are using to get and/or keepyour truck moving. As a starter, if you have just installed one, or have one, buthave not been using it, watch the road obviously, but keep an eye on it trying tonot let it get above half of what it can reach maximum, or roughly 15 psi. Thisreading will not always follow how far you press the fuel pedal, so you have topay attention to it. Do this in each gear whenever you accelerate from a stop, orwhen getting onto the highway, and of coarse, while climbing a hill. If you arelimiting your boost, and the truck slows down, then let it slow down, choosing alower gear. This will help you keep your truck in the most fuel saving gear whileclimbing those hills. The more you do this, the better you will get at driving thetruck at maximum fuel savings. Eventually, you will want to work on using evenless boost, limiting it as much as you can for any given situation, includingkeeping it down when cruising on flat ground. I know drivers that will not let theirboost get above 10 psi, even with heavy loads. This is a very good place to be,especially when climbing steep hills in lower gears. The fuel savings is enormous.This one little gauge, if used right, will help your shifting, help your truck lastlonger, show you the proper gear to be in when climbing hills and going down theroad, and save you a ton of money.The very day you start using a turbo boost gauge, if done right, is also theday your settlement checks will increase, compared to those weeks that you ranthose same number of miles. In very short order, you will also see that, you areable to make even more money by slowing down, using your boost gauge, anddriving more gently overall.How do you slow down if your deliveries are tight? By better timemanagement. Learn to pickup your loads earlier if you can, and to stop much lessduring your trip. When you are using a lot less fuel, you will not need to stop asmuch to fill up. Use rest areas to take short breaks instead of using truck stops thatwaste your time getting into and out of. Planning your trips better and slowingdown will absolutely earn you more money. Make the most efficient use of your














70 hour clock as well, but not by speeding up. Things like combining your postinspection with your fuel stops will help your 70 hour clock. There is no lawstating the post inspection has to be at the very end of your shift. Take the timeand use a little bit of math to figure out how slow you can go to get there on time,then stick to that speed. After a couple weeks of driving to maximize savings,rather than miles, you will get better at it, and it will become easier. After a monthor two of driving slower and more gently, you will not even want to drive fast anymore. You will feel better over all, have less stress, less back pain, and your bodywill be subject to much less wear from the road, just like your engine will be fromusing less torque. Anyone in doubt of this needs to challenge this beforediscrediting it. Try it for 2 full weeks, then compare those two settlement checkswith two that have same miles on them in previous weeks. Then find two weeksfrom before that you made the same money, and look at how many more milesyou had to go to get that same pay. It will become obvious. Using less torque, andminimizing your overall speed absolutely earns you more money.Finally, there will still be those individuals who will protest everythingabove based on their claims that, if they run faster, and deliver early, they willhave more hours for the week, and/or be able to get another load in for the week,earning them more money. This is actually a very good argument, so lets take agood look at it, and try to prove it right. If you take some extreme cases, 55 mphvs say, 70 mph. From 55 to 70 is a 21% increase in speed. This means your milesand your gross income will increase by 21% too. Unfortunately, you do not putgross pay in your pockets. You put net pay in your pockets, so you will have tofigure out if actual net pay goes up. If you only use fuel mileage loss at the base0.1 mpg rate, assuming you are saving torque and driving right at both speeds,you end up loosing about 1.5 mpg from the increased speed alone. If your truckgets 6.8 mpg at 70 (being generous), then you would get 8.3 at 55 mph. 8.3 to 6.8mpg at $4.00 per gallon is a loss of 19% in fuel. A gross increase of 21%, and anexpense increase of 19%, looking only at fuel, makes your net increase by 2%from going faster. Now if you consider maintenance, 55 to 70 is an increase incosts of about 7.5%. This makes your total net from going faster an actual loss ofabout 5.5%. Do you see a pattern here? It becomes very clear that even if you aregood at saving fuel, and even if you squeeze every last ounce of income out ofyour week, all that extra effort and headache will, at best, keep us teeter-totteringwithin a couple of percent, usually to your disadvantage, actually getting us nofurther ahead for your extra efforts. As fuel prices keep increasing, fuel surchargeor not, the savings from slowing down, even a little, will keep pushing us towardsaving vs going faster. Instead of asking what happened to your pay, when fuelgoes even higher, start now, by slowing down, using less torque, and getting aboost gauge, so that you are well prepared for the day fuel spikes past $5 a gallon.














Stop making donations to the oil companies by chasing the mile, and start chasingthe dollar instead. Slowing down to a minimum speed, limiting turbo boost, andplanning your trip better so that you can still get your freight delivered on time,keeping your truck rolling, will indeed make you more money.

 

and not sure what the fsc rate is set up but here some customers we charge the full percentage and then other customers we give them a discount depending on the amount of work they give us and keep us as the sole carrier for all loads

 

But fsc is based on what a carrier negotiates with the customer. maybe these van carriers only charge a .422 a mile fsc I don't know but the last two carriers I was with based the fsc as a percentage of whatever the linehaul was and based it off the fuel prices for the previous week off the DOE website

 

Craggy did you foget to tell us that you have percentage taken out by your carrier? Theres alot of that going on these days. I figure FSC fuel cost per gallon 3.80 - 1.20 divided by 6mpg = .43 on a mileage basis.