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Layout's hypothetical run may make sense from a revenue per week perspective. That run combined with another that will likely come may do the trick, especially if the per mile rate is good. You could meet your weekly revenue goal while putting only high paying miles on the truck. As a...

We have EGR issues on our Volvo D-12 engine but will not plug it off. We will instead live with the inconvenience and expense of replacing the valves every 300,000 miles or so as they fail. Mechanics told me stories of drivers who blocked off their EGR valves and later had major engine...

Thinking more about the new FDCC base plate deal, I was too quick to criticize. There are pros and cons. While it remains true, I believe, that an owner-operator who cannot afford one's own base plate is an owner-operator who could benefit from improving one's business and money management...

That would be Diane and me. We would never have considered trucking if air conditioning, power steering and such would not have been available. White collar scum bags we were! And there were those who hated us all the more when we made the job look easy.

You are going down an errant path. Go back and look at what I wrote exactly. Scum bag is a figure of speach in that context. It does not refer to anyone in particular.

When your carrier opens its doors, not necessarily to scum bags, but to owner-operators who cannot afford their own base plates, it becomes your business. When carriers put technology in trucks that enable them to higher less professional people at a lower price, that too becomes your business.

Interesting point about the technologies you mention, all of which are about driver comfort (and perhaps safety), and are taken for granted today. The newer technologies are of a different sort. They create an information link between truck and carrier and thereby change what carriers used to...

My all expediters spreadsheet project will require dozens of hours to complete, if not more. But the project is now far enough along to show where I am headed and what the final product will look like. I am open to feedback and suggestions. Please review the instructions, spreadsheet and...

I'm not sure what you mean by good times for fleet owners. I have only talked to one fleet owner who is trying to bring tractors into the flat rate program. His complaint is that he cannot find good teams. He has been a straight truck fleet owner for many years so team recruiting is nothing...

The carriers have another option, one that has been used by line haul carriers for years. If a driver shortage develops, they can recruit their way out of it. If recruiting becomes difficult, they can lower their standards. There are millions of scum bags out there who have never driven a truck...

If the inverse were true, would it not be a simple matter for a flat-rate carrier to simply lower the rate paid to contractors? Did not that very thing happen during the recession?

Comments from pjjjjj and information made available in the Rate per Mile? thread prompted me to focus early on the various revenue types while building my "All Expediters" spreadsheet. The very, very beginning of this work can now be viewed online. I am using Google docs to develop the...

This is good information; exactly what I need to develop my all expediters spreadsheet. Since the information is now available in one, easy place, I'll redo the revenue section to accommodate different compensation arrangements. (See this).

To step out of the clutter and get back on topic, "Building Your Business Plan Spreadsheet II" (this thread) picks up clean from "Building Your Business Plan Spreadsheet." I've added a couple of monthly expense items to the list and request that interested readers provide more. We are...

Of course that's true. But can we stay on topic? We are not talking about which carrier has the better fuel discounts, or whether FedEx Custom Critcal has the best ones, or what factors to consider when considering a carrier change. We are talking about building a spreadsheet. To restart clean...

pjjjjj and TeamCaffee, you are both right, but only to the extent that profitability is an objective. I know of fleet owners who run a fleet more to pass the time than to make money, and drivers of the same mindset. Some are in it for the money. Others are in it for the fun. Some try to be in it...

The implication is whatever YOU interpret it to be. I have little doubt that most people accurately grasp what I am doing with this spreadsheet project and why. Newbies, welcome to EO, where no good deed goes unpunished. :D

Yes. No. My spreadsheet is for me. This project is to build a spreadsheet for everybody. Ideas are already starting to flow. That will increase once I get the early parts of the spreadsheet online where interested readers can view it. I'm afraid that you are mistaken. I have never met or...

Notice, Linda, that you are talking about cost per gallon and mpg. For the purposes of a P&L spreadsheet, it does not matter how much you paid per gallon, how many gallons you bought, how many miles you drive or what your mpg is. For the spreadsheet, it only matters that you enter the dollar...

I still need from as many expediters as care to share the expense categories and amounts to include in the spreadsheet. To make things easier and less personal, let me modify the question. Instead of reporting what you spent last month on business expenses, let me ask you to share a list of...