Costs Per Mile

[rjones56]

How many on here know their actual operating cost per mile??
You have to figure all of your expenses to get an accurate figure,not just fuel,payments and drivers pay.You can come up with accurate figures by dividing your yearly expenses by the miles driven.I figure my expenses on a 50 week year instead of 52 because I know I`m gonna take a couple of weeks off,so if you know you`re not gonna work every week be sure to allow for that in your figures.My yearly mileage is 100,000--figured @ 400 miles a day x 5 days a week for 50 weeks.My truck average mile per gallon is 5.7 to 6.2 but I figure my mileage on 5.5 mpg just in case.That works out to 18,182 gallons of fuel for the year,so if my average fuel costs were just $4 per gallon my total fuel expense is $72,727.27 for the year.Divided by my yearly mileage,my COST PER MILE is 73 cents-JUST FOR FUEL.A decent dependable driver is gonna want at least 40 cents per mile,so now I am @ $1.13 PER MILE,and I havent figured in workmans comp.,insurance,vacation or anything else that a decent,dependable driver is going to need,so my actual costs will be higher than that.
Then you have to figure truck replacement/payments,insurance,tags and licensing,maintenance and tires whichare going to add MORE than 50 cents per mile.Then there are taxes-the Heavy Use Tax alone adds half a penny per mile to my figure.There are other costs involved depending on where you live.You may have business license fees,parking fees or other things to factor in to your equation.
Wonder how many of you are running more miles a year than me-which will bring your cost per mile down on some of the items.
Just off the top of my head i would say that it costs at least $1.65 PER MILE BEFORE YOU ADD A REASONABLE PROFIT.
Would you agree?

[quickstart]

absolutely driver, most cost increase with the more miles that you run. fuel, maintenance, parts, labor, (depreciation on late model equipment), i figure fuel cost at 5.5 against a cost of, just fueled this morning after they went up last night on price again, now $4.19 at the pump making the cost per mile $.76 for fuel alone. that's every mile the truck operates no matter what your dispatcher tries to shave off the paper wk on customer miles my truck always know the truth. most drivers out here are already losing 5% to 10% of the true miles to the customer and back to the port. that makes your whole bottom line of fixed cost worse. i read on here a few weeks back where a poster made the remark that the motor carrier agents knew just how much to pay the trucker in order to move the containers. he said they have it down to a science. this guy said the going rate seemed to be stuck around $.25 to $.45 cents per mile over and above the cost of fuel per mile to operate the truck. look around at what the different port companies are paying. he is right on the money. companies use the slogan "you make this after fuel" like that's where the profit margin starts.wrong,wrong. these companies think they're so slick but what they are really doing is driving the trucker who serves them out of business. i wonder what their back up plan is when there are no more truck owners to work for them any longer? i haul containers part time. why? because very few agents are willing to pay what it takes to operate so i work a second job when not driving the rest of the time while my truck stays parked. it's funny how i make more during a shift at work then most these drivers do with their own truck the rest of the week. drivers , you can't divide all the cost up at $.45 per mile after fuel and come out ahead no matter how many times you try to do the same math. btw, when my truck and i hook up to a container full of freight we work together for $2.00 for every actual mile i drive, not loaded miles, not pc miles, not book miles, that's actual miles. that's the least i will move their goods for. if everyone operated like this all the containers would move for decent money.

[sixpack]

company jobs i see are paying $.40 to .50 a mile plus benefits. owning your own tractor is a big responsibility and a huge expense. the rates i read advertised in no way cover drivers pay combined with fuel so where do you squeeze truck payments,maintenance,parts,or replacement? profit? what the hell is that

[doc]

i own two nice trucks fully paid for. i work on docks now after deciding it wasn't worth buying any tags after first of the year. nope i will wait see what happens with rates and diesel before wrapping anymore money up in these trucks. if the cans dont start paying more i will sell or find something that does pay. there is no money moving containers is this town.

[guest]

the scoop is,,,,, diesel is up rates are flat