Why are we so concerned with fuel prices?

There's been an increase in discussion about fuel prices.

So, I took a few minutes to review my fuel costs over the last 6+ years, and here'e what I've got.

There's many variables here, but I track fuel cost as % of revenue, and cost per mile. Over these years, I've ran 50k miles to 80k miles - but that's somewhat irrelevant.

• 2016 - .28cpm
• 2107 - .36cpm
• 2018 - .45cpm
• 2019 - .40cpm
• 2020 - .34cpm
• 2021 - .47cpm
• 2022 thus far - .54cpm

So - taking the spread - 28cpm to 54cpm, that's a 26cpm increase from low to high on almost 7 years.

In this time, I went from a 2001 N-14 averaging 7.2 mpg to a 1995 12.7 Pete Brick edition averaging 6.25 mpg.

Maybe I'm naive for asking the question - but can anybody tell me why they're about to go out of business because fuel costs are rising?

Are you in a locked in contract rate situation that requires you to be profitable on low fuel prices?

Are you hauling freight that barely allows you to make a profit?

If you were profitable at $3/ mile - then why would an increase of 26cpm kill your business?

Added point - to the multiple posts from folks asking about entering into the business - if you can find a reasonable used truck as I did, with enough capital to see the plan through - why is now a terrible time to enter?

All thoughts welcome.

Blair.

 

I'll give you both that - I've only been O/O since 2015.

And that was a pretty scary year to start.

The F-150 frames contract for 10 months had a LOT of LS guys there that were saying it was the best money they'd made consistently - at $1.86/TTT all miles for the year.

My first year, I listened, worked and went on.

 

Pity Kevin Rudder Fudder got cancelled - his flow below and Turbo 3000D could have been very useful right now.

 

Ok - so zero in on the cpm figure -

7 cpm or 20cpm, 2020, or 2021 respectively.

I guess I could have extrapolated this out to $7-$10/gallon fuel cost.

 

On a FSC contract. I'm leased on and get a percentage of the rate cut out as 100% to the truck, but it only represents a 15% odd difference.

Guys on their own authority banking a flat rate? I'd imagine they'd be negotiating 25cpm higher than last year . . . ?