Your operating cost per mile?

I must be missing out on lots of free stuff. So far, one poster has at least a clue about the subject.

 

The only way you can get an operating cost is to total up ALL your FIXED yearly expenses tires, pm, insurance, and your emergency fund to give you a basic operating cost. Your operating cost is almost ALWAYS going to vary day to day there is no way to calculate a true 100% fool proof operating cost with fuel involved. I don't care what anybody says riddles aside. Fuel prices changes daily fuel milage can change daily you can get a base at the end of the year but its still going to change every year when you get right to it with the variables involved.

 

I was leased to a big carrier. My operating cost was $.80/ mile in 2011. The company paid for tag, liabilty insurance, trailer expenses, and I got fuel and tire discounts. An independent driver would have a higher cost. . So this is one reason one driver might have a much different cost / mile than another. My truck is paid for, also.

 

If your fuel cost is $.70/mile you are doing it wrong. My fuel cost year to date is $.47/mile. I do a lot of things right for fuel mileage. Most owner/operators do not include a "wage" for themselves in their cost per mile. Most guys run their truck and keep for themselves whatever is left after paying truck costs.

 

This is a really loaded question IMHO.
Without posting if you have a shop to use for the truck, tools for the truck, do any work to it yourself, pay your child to "wash" it when at home, and so on, it.s never going to accurate. Not to mention different operations etc.
For those that post a gross income and divide it by the miles, that is NOT and operating cost of any kind. Operating cost is just that, costs involved in operating the truck. Wages could be dependent on the type of structure your business has, and so on.
Too many variables to get an accurate answer, unless someone is pulling the same type of freight, with the same costs of baseplates etc.
I am plated for 117k lbs, haul OD loads pretty much all the time, and all my stuff is paid for.
My costs all together (fuel, $5k in personal quarterly taxes, cell fones, maint/repairs, plates/permits, securement equipment, and so on, last year were $1.47 a mile on 104k miles. Income per mile was considerably higher though, so fear not

Martin

 

Hmmm, not.
Maybe consider that not everyone has the same motor, hauls the same freight, the same trailer, and so on.
Please, oh please, show me that .47 a mile fuel cost, hauling 14' wide and 14'2" tall loads as a rule, grossing up to 117,000lbs, windmill blades part of the year, and so on.
When I had my 4 axle tractor, along with the 9 axle trailer, I would get physically aroused if I hit 4mpg.....EMPTY! No way to get your .47cpm that way neither huh?
Now, that said, my fuel costs on 104k miles last year was .688 cpm all in (loaded and empty).
See what I meant above by loaded questions? Different scenarios get different results.
Dont assume someone is doing it wrong just because their number differ from yours.
Martin

 

out of all the newer trucks I've had the last few years not one of them did better than 5.8mpg the truck I'm in now gets 5.1 at $4.00/gal fuel that's $.78/mi in just fuel cost ya I'd love to buy a truck that gets 6.5-7.5 but mine is paid for and everything is new or rebuilt so why roll the dice on a different truck. When I first got this truck it did 6.8 but EGR problems showed up and to this day I've never found a shop that can fix it!!

 

I see that a lot, guy takes the cost of the fuel divided by the mpg and says that's what fuel costs. BUT, I don't think it's quite that simple. At $4 a gallon, 6mpg, that's $.667 per mile. Drive 2400 miles a week, get 6mpg, that's 400 gallons at $4, that's $1,600. BUT, you may only get paid for 2,000 of those miles....so all of a sudden that $.667 per mile goes up to $.80 per paid mile. At least that's the way I see it...still have to pay for the fuel, even if you don't get paid for those miles. Or am I looking at this wrong....best to plan for the higher cost and hope you do better.

 

I look at it as ALL MILES every mile I drive it will cost me around $.78/mi loaded or empty