What is the cpm you would want for this type of work?

Not wanting to throw a monkey wrench in anyone's plans, but IF this is a firm contract that you have been offered, aside from the "price to be paid and your expenses" I would want to have two identical trucks.

Problems can and do arise, to only have one day off a week non-stop will get old in a short period of time, having to maintain your truck on the 7th day, and you will bouncing off the walls quickly.

If you had two trucks, even if they were older, you would have a standby if anything went down, or maybe alt. them, week on, week off so that you could have someone local look one over for you.

Otherwise, I see you letting your company/customer down at some point, or at the VERY least, make a deal up front with a local truck rental place or dealer, so that you would have a truck available at a moments notice if/when you should break.

Just something I would think about.

 

It all looks good on paper but keep in mind taxes. The IRS always wants their money reguardless. Find a good accountant that is going to tell you how to manage your money in the business. I would say $300/load sounds like a good deal $900-1500/day gross. $500 for fuel. Keep in mind as well if its rigorous severe service you want to service the truck more. Keep all that in mind. If you go from 12k on an oil change interval down to say 8k on 132k/ year you will rack up a lot more in services.

I have never pulled an end dump but have pulled a hopper and running back roads and rough roads etc will tear the hell out of a road tractor. I blew 2 bags in 2 months pulling a hopper rocks get caught under the airbag going over a bump sit there and wear through and then the bag blows to the tune of about $200. Expect tire repairs picking up nails in tires good thing is if you're dedicated drop to about a 250 mile radius if not less. That will save a ton on insurance. There is a lot that's going to go into this that needs to be considered. Make sure you know what you're getting into. You're eyes may get real big and see dollar signs and it may not turn out to be the cake walk you thought it was been there done that it sucks but be prepared. I hope it works out for you but I'm trying to get you to think about other costs you may not be considering consider everything taxes, tires, more mainainance, etc and make sure its still going to work for you.

 

I think you said it a lot more "nice" Kansas......

additional points?

Do you have a back-up driver and as we both said, a back-up truck? Those right there are going to be expensive to keep around.

Two trucks, I can see that being about $10,000 annual insurance if you have your own authority. Plates, $1700 each,

At that way, since you are providing a service to keep a trailer moving and a dropped trailer in place, I see at least 3-5 trailers being needed. One in-transit, one in load, spare at load in-case you have a break-down or delay getting back. (Murphy rules) Another for rotate out for Maintenance.


My hardware is tied up in a dedicated account every day of the year for this operation with no chance of being used. Regardless of miles driven if you get re-routed for construction, delay for accident etc. I would likely charge them $1500-1750 per day for all the hardware and service provided to ensure that they have a fresh trailer to load regardless. Just a different way of looking at it.

Are you moving single loads? or providing a disposal service and making sure that they have an empty trailer to discharge their waste (commodity) into at all times.

 

Why do you drop and hook a dump ? I mean why don't they just fill the empty dump on your truck instead of having a pre-filled dump waiting ?

Makes no sense, but I've done similar stuff (other than filling by loader) for concrete companies. They had several routes, each route was bid, they really didn't care if you went by mile or hour or whatever. I'd look at hours, and I can't imagine allowing less than 3 hours for a turn. So you are talking a 9 hour day for 6 months and a 15 hour day ?? for 6 months ? try to hussle so you can grab a sandwich ? and that's all only if they truly have the drop trailer loaded and ready when you get there.

I think the minimum would be $300 on a run like this. you have to pay the driver $75/run or hourly and likely gonna be days, traffic or whatnot, it's gonna be 10 or 11 hours instead of 9. And lots of days in busy 6 months he prolly only get 4 loads instead of 5. unless it's a straight shot interstate or something. even then, long day for 5 loads.

 

No one can give you an accurate price in reality. Only you know the details of the operation, and that is for the better for you. You're going to have a minimum daily cost of insurance, tags, overhead, truck payments, driver benefits, etc. Once you figure that out, you can figure out the driver pay and your minimum profit margin you'll need to make it work. Base your profitability on the lower side of the middle of the loads promised and you should be ok. Anything over that will be gravy to save for rainy days.

 

You will have a hard time finding a truck to rent with a wet kit. Might talk them into it with a long term lease. But you'll probably pay for it.
Also don't know what your hauling but its not likely you get all the loads you say. Things break on there end too. Weather can slow things down too.
But I would be on this like stink on smelly stuff. But I like k knowing what I'm doing days in advance