"Romeo&Julietta". Only smoke Cubans, and only where it's legal...

Allan, that's "after breakfast...

 

You've got style, Solo! Hopefully the January Tonnage Index will be out soon. Consider extending your holiday and switching to White Owls. :lol: I'm still blessed to be employed (my boss said so, I called him this morning), but here on my second day of layover, in the middle of the week in tanker freight central (La Porte, TX) I'm taking nothing for granted!

Yeah, White Owls...No, I've got it,...you need Swisher Sweets for your depression budget. Do you like Swisher Sweets, Solo!?

 

Yak! After they discontinued "Camel Special Lights 100", i switched to "Marlboro Lights 100".
According to my info, business is not so hot in my company, but they manage to survive. So will i...hopefully...

 

Ok here's my take...

First off I guess I should state that I run pretty specialized...I DON'T run south...I don't run EAST, Canada ends at the Alberta/Saskatchewan border & south to me is Nisku...5 miles south of Edmonton!...I run NORTH...way north...so the rates are quite a bit higher than what you guys get...I also do extended length...mostly Rocky Mountain Doubles.

That being said I will also state that I'm leased onto a carrier, I'm still making truck payments...my truck was expensive, I bought it brand new & spec'd it for the Arctic (where I run) & to pull the loads I do. We bought our 2nd truck 2 years ago in May...sometimes it was tough keeping track of everything on both of them...but somebody's got to do it...& well I guess I was the dummy who put up my hand!

I get good fuel economy for what I haul I average 7 mpg with the trains & 8 when I'm lucky enough to pull just one...you'd be amazed as to what that extra 35 feet dragging along behind you does to the fuel mileage. We're LTL so the weight is not big...for here.. I'm licenced for 56,000 kg..around 125,000 lobs GVW, but I'm fine with that..light loads for my neck of the woods.

Anyway, I start at $1.50/mile, loaded or empty plus the company I lease to pays for my plates & insurance & caps my fuel at 39 cents/litre...which would be about $1.50/gal.

I figure I spend about 25cpm on fuel, 2cpm on my truck payment, maybe 2cpm on maintenance...I don't have a trailer...wouldn't want one where I run...I KNOW what the roads & weather do to them. I AVERAGE 14,000 miles/month. I can buy my tires on the companies national account, so that saved me the cost of one tire if I'd have had to pay retail for it...and that was just my new steers...my drives I run a really deep tread recap, which stands up very well on the chip sealed & gravel roads that make up my existance. The dealer I bought my truck from gives me a decent discount (about 20%) on parts, I can get my annual safety's done in the company shop for 100 bucks. I think my biggest expense is the 5 windshields/year I have to put in my truck!

My better half does all our maintenance & most repairs, we have our own shop in our yard...what he can't do himself, his brother & my brother are both journeyman heavy duty mechanics...so we're pretty much covered with a couple of cases of beer in the labour department...tho we have paid them when it comes to really big jobs.

I would say that after taxes we showed a 25% NET profit last year, which gave us both a decent wage...like Alan we are sole proprietors, so net income is considered taxable wages. I would say we drew about 65 cpm in wages. It certainly makes up for the long hours & nasty weather over the course of the year.

I find it appalling the incredibly LOW rates you guys down south are getting, even leased onto carriers, & the guys up here aren't doing much better...truthfully I wouldn't even start my truck for less than what I'm getting now..call me spoiled I guess. I don't like the idea of paying a carrier for a job.

 

Wildkat - I'm going to pick apart your post a little bit and ask a few questions. Since you say "I AVERAGE 14000 per month", I am assuming that is just you and your truck, not your second truck in any figures.

14000 miles/mo avg @ $1.50 all miles is $21000.00 gross revenue
fuel @ 6 mpg (that's your $.25/mile estimate) @ $1.50 gal. is $3500.00
Truck payment & maintenance @ $.02 per mile each is $560
Having trouble believing your truck payment is just $260 a month on an "expensive" truck or that you average only $260 on maint and any repair parts that are needed.
Plates, etc paid by company and repair labor for "free" is $0 out of pocket.

I'm coming up with a net before driver pay or taxes of around $17000. Pull out driver pay of $.65 per mile ($9100) and I come up with profit of $7900 before taxes.

All this is per month on 1 truck.

What kind of truck do you have that pulls heavy in cold weather and gets 7 mpg avg?
Is $1.50 mile/all miles before carrier lease fees?
I would think your truck would need more maintenance with your running conditions, than any down here in the lower 48. At 14000 miles a month I would need more than $260 avg a month in m & r money.

Final question - if all this is correct, is your carrier looking for o/o's to lease on?

 

My truck payment is around .16cpm and that is without R&M. And I bought it 2 years old.

 

Boy, I guess I should have been a bit more clear...Sometimes it's hard to explain what you mean when you think as you type... LOL

Lets see I'll have a look at my last statement & see if I can't get the figures a bit more clear...and..I'll use the next best excuse... I had just got in from a brutal trip to Yellowknife, NWT & I was tired! :lol: :lol:

OK.. mileage 14,998 mile @ 1.5/mile = $22497, add into that hourly pay...we DON'T donate time here... I even get paid to do my pretrip! LOL Monthly hourly was..$ 2680.65. So gross for one month for ONE truck was
25177.65...my fuel bill was $3500 & that was high..it was cold So that coming directly from my statement, that left me with a net of $21,677 & change..that was what I took home...now out of that I make my truck payment,which of course I should have re-read my post about TEN times BEFORE I hit the submit button, should have read .25cpm..Not, 2 cpm...sorry bout that, pay my maintenance costs, put funds in my emergency accounts, tax accounts & pay myself. Since I don't have to rent a shop..we have one, pay for a place to park nor do I have to pay any repair costs, except pretty much the cost of the parts, I take about $6000/month in wages..if that's what you care to call it. I might also add that I was taught from a young age to SAVE my money..so every cent I don't need to run my house or run up & down the road is kept in an interest bearing account unless it's needed.

As for my truck...you'll laugh when I say this...I have a 379 long nosed Pete...before you say there's NO WAY I can average 7 mpg with that I'll say that my truck is no off the shelf unit that was generically spec'd. I spec'd it to DO exactly what I do. I went & picked the brains of literally EVERY person I could think of the get the most horsepower, the best fuel economy, etc that I could find... I went to the CAT dealership & spoke with CATERPILLAR trained techs about horsepower/torque ratios. I spoke to Eaton/Fuller techs about gear ratios... I did a PILE of research before the truck was ordered.

As far as maintenance cycles...I probably do them LESS than you as I run full Synthetic oils, greases (arctic greases usually are ) in my truck...saves money in the long run. Also I tend to fix things BEFORE they are broke...so breakdowns on the road are minimized. I KNOW my truck intimately...so ANY little noise is checked immediately. Could save me a costly breakdown in the middle of nowhere...I know a guy who had to have an alternator brought out to him...cost him $1200 by the time it was all said & done, for a $300 part...well I don't want that happening...I change all FOUR of my batteries once/year...whether they need it or not. I run the best tires I can afford.

If you would have asked me 3 months ago if they were looking for owner/op's I would have said "yes", but now the US troubles are bleeding across the border & not too many are hiring anymore.

 

$21677-$6000 = $15677

$15677/14998 = $1.05/mile for...for...upkeep !?!?!?

I wasn't paying attention to the numbers until the question was asked, because I never had any intention of being an arctic circle trucker anyway. Now I'm just curious, because there is something I'm not getting.

 

Huh? Upkeep is about oh I'd guess 500$/month...$1.05? Where'd you see that?

Out of that 21677, I make my truck payment, take my wages & SAVE money for emergencies, things like tires, etc, I also have a BIG repair fund, a retirement fund, & a general savings account that I faithfully contribute to EACH & EVERY month!

 

Ok, you're counting your wages as separate from your retirement fund and savings- I'd have considered them as part of your wages.

Either way, it sounds like you're making really nice money. There's a lot more I'd like to know, though. 15k miles per month, you drive 75mph with a big ol' moose catcher while still getting 7 mpg!?

Also too, do you live up there!? You know, loading pelts from Inuit villages, delivering them gunpowder...:rofl: You're way up there, right? How do you get internet access, or do you drive south as well?

I'm sure it's beautiful up there, what, the Yukon Territories? I bet it has a nice, slightly eery desolate feel to it, huh? That's the way northern China felt to me.