Number of miles it takes to pay for a Sprinter.

gangster49 · Aug 10, 2013

I am condering buying a Sprinter van to contract with a expediting company. I am not a mathematician and I am working with estimated numbers. I came up with about 2,700 PAID miles per month for the New Sprinter, fuel, insurance and maintence.

Do the veteran Sprinter drivers agree with my estimate or am I way off?

Thanks
Bob Johnson

mcavoy33 · Aug 10, 2013

Your numbers might be right or wrong but what is important is, the way your thinking is wrong. You need a paradigm shift in the way you think about expenses. It's not a set amount of miles per month. You have fixed expenses and variable expenses.

I am wording it wrong but you should be thinking in terms of 2700 miles a week, which in itself is a pipe dream.

gangster49 · Aug 10, 2013

You are saying it would take 10,800 miles a month to pay for the van and its expenses??

xiggi · Aug 10, 2013

What you make per mile at one company can be very different from the next. I would be doing my estimates in dollars.

Sent from my Fisher Price ABC-123.

xiggi · Aug 10, 2013

Insurance costs can also vary widely. I have seen some say with new rate increases they are paying 600.00 per month buying their own insurance. I pay a fraction of that through my carrier.

Sent from my Fisher Price ABC-123.

Murraycroexp · Aug 10, 2013

Insurance varies widely!! Call CIS with the year, make & model and get a quote. Add 10% in case rates rise 4 months after you get it. But insurance is just one little part of it. But I learned many years ago to always add 10% to your estimates for error and price adjustments.

westmicher · Aug 10, 2013

gangster49 said:
I am considering buying a Sprinter van to contract with a expediting company. I am not a mathematician and I am working with estimated numbers. I came up with about 2,700 PAID miles per month for the New Sprinter, fuel, insurance and maintence.

What do you want to be paid personally during this time? How many months do you want these payments to run?

gangster49 · Aug 10, 2013

2,000 a month should cover a Sprinter with a 36 month loan insurance, plates, and maintence with Load 1?

I am just trying to figure out what I would be getting in to.

gangster49 · Aug 10, 2013

I deliver RV's right now and run my butt off for penny's. I don't want to spend $40,000 on a Sprinter and keep making $3 an hour.

Moot · Aug 10, 2013

Murraycroexp said:
But I learned many years ago to always add 10% to your estimates for error and price adjustments.

Yeah, at least 10%. Prior to buying my first van I ran all the numbers. I padded them just to be safe. Fuel was the greatest variable so I carried that number way out to the extreme of $1.50/gallon. I figured worst case, if gasoline got to $1.50/gallon, I could still make my van payment and a living.

LDB · Aug 10, 2013

You'll have a van payment and insurance payment every month whether you run 5 miles or 5000 miles for the month. Your fuel, tires, maintenance etc. expenses will be totally different whether you run 5 miles or 5000 miles for the month.

If you don't already have it go to the OOIDA website and download the free spreadsheet. At the top of this page you'll see the diesel fuel average at $3.90 so use $4.50 in your spreadsheet. If Sprinters get 22-23 mpg so use 20 mpg in your spreadsheet. Add 10% to your insurance, maintenance and other costs in your spreadsheet. Subtract 10% from your expected miles. So, add 10% to all expenses and subtract 10% from all expected incomes. Add in a Murphy account to your calculations equal to your maintenance account. If it appears you can make it based on those numbers then you can probably make it on the real numbers and be prepared for at least most of what Murphy plans for you.

gangster49 · Aug 10, 2013

Thanks LDB

roadeyes · Aug 10, 2013

Good info LDB.

I would like to add the following for people who are "running the numbers".

1) you will always have a truck payment

I have heard so many people say "once my truck is paid off". Your truck is never ever paid off. Don't fall into that mindset. If you are financing the truck you are making the payment and once the truck is officially paid off you need to keep putting at least that same amount away every month to use as a down payment on the next vehicle.
If you paid cash for the truck then you should still be putting away an amount every month equal to the life expectancy of the truck so you will have the cash to purchase once your current vehicle is kaput.

2) I don't need to budget as much for maintenance as others suggest because I can do most of my own maintenance.

That's great that you are handy enough to do your own maintenance, however you should still put away the recommended amount every month because eventually as you get older you will feel less like crawling under the truck and or turning wrenches in general and/or will develop a medical condition which may prevent you from doing so. As a bonus (while you are still able to do it) the money you have budgeted and not used will be like found money or can be added to the "Murphy" account that LDB mentioned about having.

Look up Eric's 4 wheelin blog here on EO. He has posted some valuable cost info for potential sprinter owners as well.

Cheers!

mjmsprt40 · Aug 10, 2013

I would hesitate buying new anything anyway. You're going to be putting 40K plus interest into a van that you can easily put 100K miles a year on. The possibility of running the van into the ground before the payment book is kaput is very real, and now you have a 4 year old van with half a million miles on it--- what do you think the resale is going to be?

Look for used metal. A two year old van won't cost as much to purchase, and depending on how it was used it should still have lots of useful life left in it. Just a thought.

gangster49 · Aug 11, 2013

I have been looking at some used Sprinters on Ebay,Craigslist, etc.
I guess my next step will be to talk to a few expediting companies, make sure I qualify, run the numbers they offer, and make sure I can make it work.
I really don't like talking to recruiters. I always feel like we have a different agenda. There's is to butt's in seats, mine is to make as much money as possible for me.

LDB · Aug 11, 2013

Recruiters obviously have a job to do and a duty to the company. That said, Marc Hodge at Fedex, Anne Keel at Bolt and John Mueller at PTL are totally stand up people. They will tell you the truth and you can believe what they tell you. I'm sure there are other good ones too but these are the ones I know and can recommend.