What should I Charge My Employer to Operate His Truck?

didnt realize it was a link sorry

 

at that cost, i dont see a problem with whatever fuel mileage you get

the truck has good resale value and after a year of you handling it, you will probably have it running better than ever (even if it forces you to)

a thousand dollars a month (it will most DEFINITELY need more than $1500 in repairs over the next year) shucks for that price, you can throw in a trailer, you can pay them both off in a year

i say go for it, this time next year, get your own authority and you are in business

 

I bought a 2000 377 model Pete from an auction with 1,051,000 miles on the odometer but papers on a cat overhaul that was done at 892,784 miles. Truck ran and had decent tires no damage to body or cab. Paid $9,500 for her. Without an overhaul done already then you would be over paying for the truck at $10 G'sss.

Whatever you charge you need to get some money built up fast for an overhaul. Good luck.

 

What do you not like about your current situation? It would appear as though you are willing to front $1,500 in repairs to a truck and in return you want more money and you want it very quickly, however you are not willing to take on additional risk or operating costs for the potential upside?

You are willing to dispatch yourself for a fee? So on the 90% of the outbound freight that is already set up will you be paying the company a fee for going out and finding you a customer already? Clearly with 20 trucks he already pays a dispatcher or two. Will you be paying for an additional membership to Getloaded or ITS or will he?

With adding the additional truck on to his insurance policy he will incur approximately another $5,000 in insurance costs annually, maybe more - will he be responsible for that or will you? If a broker on a load ends up not paying will you be giving back all the money?

Any kind of deal has to work for both sides - speaking from a business owner perspective anything over 25% can really quickly not work. If you want more of the money ( that's understandable, we all do ) but you want a fee for dispatching yourself when it appears a good majority of your freight will take two phone calls then that is being unfair to the owner.

Does your current company have any o/o or all company drivers? If you get this deal then is everyone else going to want to jump in and buy a $10,000 truck and hope it works, too? If the 1994 truck doesnt make it and needs to be towed somewhere would you be paying that out of your own pocket or is that something you would expect the owner to cover as well. It seems there are many more questions to be answered before you go down this path.

Look - I do not mean to rain on your parade but wanting your money that quickly and your unwillingness to put up the money to operate the truck with the exception of $1,500 in repairs and to charge for dispatching doesn't really seem right. Why are you so against taking on more responsibility ( costs ) in order to potentially collect more of the profit?

 

I can see a few things that can go wrong. It feels like the current truck owner is taking all of the risk here. Which if hes dumb enough then good for you. How long has the truck been sitting? Keep in mind the longer it sat the more problems will come up. Rotted seals, injectors cup seals,fuel in tanks may have degraded etc... Do you have anything too put into a maintenence account? I can see your boss fixing whats wrong to get it running, but not too incur the continuing repair expenses. You both would do better if you drove the truck as a company driver and had him withold X amount of dollars each check until you have the 10 k to buy it. That way at least your boss isnt dumping money in a truck he is selling you without gaining anything.

 

This deal you speak of has a good screwing for you practically guaranteed. Not saying your boss is a bad guy. Just that this is the sort of deal that is likely to go sideways with a major repair or available freight issue. At the end of the day he has the title until the end, and you have nothing but good intentions. You have no leverage from the start and carry all the risk.

Probably better to just live on ramen noodles until you can just pay cash for the truck and have a little backup fund ready when you do.

 

I'm with Windsmith.

Can't figure why I would let a guy run my truck and trailer for a percentage of the gross while I pay for fuel, tolls and likely most of the repairs. I know you said you would fix everything you could but what does that mean really...probably not much.

I suppose I "get" to pay you a percentage of gross to run my freight from across the street too? Near as I can tell you are free to book yourself $2/mile freight and deadhead 500 miles between loads on my dime.

If I was the owner, I would offer to learn you about how tough it is to be a carrier. I would let you pay me a monthly payment for the truck, trailer, insurance, plates and a maintenance account. You have the priviledge of covering all expenses and you get to dispatch yourself, take care of all the billing and collections.

Because I am a nice guy, I will let you out of the deal when you get sick of it, but if you're in the red you have to work it off.

Deal?

 

50/50 on pay, repairs, fuel, and maintenance..

 

Unless I missed something, I don't see an upside for the owner.

 

He gets to sell the truck in a year instead of right now?