>Can anyone tell me how many miles per week you are running?
>This would be for a Class "D" truck. I know that it varies,
>but to have a basic idea to complete our business plan would
>be appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Kitty Litter and Ms Puss
As others have suggested in this thread, the amount of miles driven in a given time period varies greatly among drivers, carriers, and even among the same driver or driving team depending on time of year, time off, distance to deadhead home, frequency of home time, etc.
As a D-unit driving team, we've been on the road 17.25 months. Our monthly miles have ranged from 9,500 to 14,000 each month. Our total miles to date (odomoter end minus odometer start, regardless of milage cagegory -loaded, deadhead, personal, etc) is 204,957.
To determine a monthly average from that, simply divide 204,957 miles by 17.25 months. That gives you 11,882 miles per month. To determine a weekly average, divide 11,882 miles per month by 4.3 (the average number of weeks in a month - 52 weeks/12 months). That gives you 2,763 miles per week.
So, with that kind of detail, what - for business planning purposes - can you project regarding one's success?
NOTHING!!!!
The amount of miles an expediter drives in a week or averages over a longer period of time is - in and of itself - a meaningless number.
You must also know your expenses, of which there are two kinds - fixed costs and variable costs. Your fixed costs are those that must be paid whether or not the truck moves. They include things like your truck payment and health insurance.
Your variable costs include things that change when your truck moves, like fuel, oil changes, etc. Variable costs also include things like unscheduled reparis, such as when an alternator fails or a tire blows. They may also include meals and entertainment. One month you may spend very little on such things. Another month you might find yourself laid over near New York City. If you decide to take the train into town for some fine dining and a Broadway play, your meals and entertainment costs will of course rise.
Note that some fixed costs are deductible and some are not. Some variable costs are deductible, and some are not. Tax deductibility and cost category (fixed or variable) are two different things.
Of course, revenue is also part of the profitability equasion. With some expediters at least, it's not as simple as revenue per mile. While you can easily use one's gross revenue per month and miles per month numbers to determine a monthly revenue per mile figure, that revenue per mile figure may not tell the whole story.
Diane and I once had a reefer load (cheese) where the shipper and consignee had us sit on the load for a period of time. We were paid a daily rate to do so. The truck did not move an inch but generated a fair amount of revenue.
Just yesterday, we completed a load that paid over $3,00 per mile and nearly $2,000. The high dollar-per-mile rate had little to do with the distance we drove or the amount per mile we've averaged in the past. It had much more to do with the fact that this was a labor-intensive load. At the delivery end, we made five stops and delivered heavy freight to places like construction sites without roads, small rooms on the fifth-floor of a high rise office building, and office parks where no loading docks existed.
Looking ahead, we have no idea what February will bring. It might be a month where we drive 15,000 miles at $1.00 a mile. Or it might be a month where we drive 8,000 miles at $1.00 per mile or $3.00 per mile. Or it might be a month where we spend most of the time sitting still waiting for freight and spending money like water on entertainment because we're bored (just kidding about that, we love to read and can pass the time quite nicely for free in public libraries).
Though, the boredom factor is an important consideration. Regarding that, know thyself. If bored, are you likely to run up your cell phone bill? If bored, will you tend to spend more time at the casinos? If bored, will you decide to deadhead home and away from better freight areas because "I can wait at home for free just as easy as I can wait out on the road?"
Anyway, back to your original question; you asked for D-unit miles and you now have ours. Please note that there is much more to the story than the number of miles one drives. Expediting is not like tractor/trailer line haul work. Those drivers often get paid a set rate per mile, so they naturally seek to drive as many miles as possible.
Some expediting companies also pay a flat rate per loaded mile. Our carrier does not. What I stated above is based on our experience with a carrier that pays a percentage of the load and does quite well in selling accessorial services like labor, lift gate, reefer detention, etc.
If you intend to work for an expedited carrier that pays a flat rate, the D-unit mile figures cited above are nearly meaningless. The meaningful figures would be the average number of miles per unit produced in that particular carrier's fleet.
And even that number would be of limited value because of the vast differences that exist in individual driver work ethics, business skill, load acceptance strategy, truck condition, etc., etc., etc.
When I wrote our business plan for the people that will be financing our new truck, it was easy to make believable projections based on our past experience in fleet owner trucks. While we will be making some equipment upgrades when we get our new truck, and while we expect such upgrades to enhance our revenue, the kind of driving we've done in the past is essentially the kind we plan to do in the future. For that reason, I was able to make credible expense and revenue projections.
For someone in your shoes - one just getting ready to jump in - the business planning challenges are greater. You have no history to work with and you do not yet know that the carrier you start with will be the one you stay with.
Allow me to caution you about using our milage numbers as a basis for your own projections. We're in service more than most. Our load acceptance numbers are high. We seldom go home. We've simplified our lives to be mostly property free. We can stay out for very long periods because we have no property or grandchildren at home that need attention. Unless you are willing to make the lifestyle changes and industry committments we've made, it would be unwise to use our numbers as a basis for projecting yours.
OK. Disclaimer made.
I am really enjoying the questions you ask here in the EO Open Forum. It's fun to see you doing your research. You doing a find job of it.
Nevertheless, it remains impossible to predict how you and your partner will do. Expediting is a highly individualized business. While there are many paths to success in the industry, there are many land mines too.
Reasons for failure or marginal performance might include something as simple as starting out as an owner/operator in a used truck that is in poor condition. The reasons may also include things that are more subtle and perhaps even invisible to the drivers in question; driver opinions for example.
While a driver may believe he or she is wise to refuse certain kinds of loads, that opinion may self-disqualify the driver from a lucrative freight source. While some drivers are making good money hauling that freight, other drivers - beliving themselves wise - are earning less. And instead of looking at themselves for ways to improve, they form additional opinions to justify their shortcomings, which hurt them again. As they grow less and less successful, they become more and more opinionated and end up being among the wisest broke people on earth.
Know the business, yes. Also know thyself.
