golfournut
Veteran Expediter
I can get a 2010 with premium pkg and cargo pkg for $40000. About 3k for dealer to add variable idle and extra battery pkg. Wadya think?
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Sprinter options
- Thread starter golfournut
- Start date
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most of the guys I know are having a hard time hitting 20 mpg. But I don't know their driving habits either...
Wow. That's a deal killer right there.
golfournut
Veteran Expediter
What r u driving? Not locked into buying a sprinter. What kind of mpg do u get?
Thanks
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moose
Veteran Expediter
Good ,Golf,because you might want to reconsider staying with a St. truck .
i don't think i ever herd of a Truck owner running his biz. from the driver seat of a Van .
you will have to make room in your vehicle .to accommodate a team in your truck.
also don't think you can run a truck from a smart phone .you will need a laptop .
it will probably take a full office set up . with a lap top ,printer ,and file cabinetry.
remote truck ownership is all about documenting .
42K$ will get you into a real nice St. Truck those days ,which bring me to the next question on hand : what it is that you are trying to accomplish here ? ,and why ?
since you have the inside story ,i will be interested in your answer .in the past few months i was unsuccessful finding ANY reliable information on how well teams are doing with L1.to the point that it seams they are catering for solo's. what makes you think you will be able to find ,& RETAIN,a for-hire team drivers in your Hino ? how long can you afford the truck sitting without drivers ?
lastly ,running a team in a St. truck,while driving a van ,MIGHT become a big problem comes tax time . you might just owe more taxes then the money YOU make .
LastlyLastly ,it will be interesting to see what kind of contract you can come up with .afterall ,L1 paying a % ,from which you are paying the team a % . so what kind of paper trail will you have in place to show they are contractors and not employee ?
and good luck with that !.
I've said it a number of times. Those who like to have the tax deduction disagree, but IMHO the amount by which the deduction reduces your taxes doesn't quite offset the amount you have to pay out in order to get that deduction. Put as much down on your truck or van as possible, and pay it off as soon as possible. That's one less thing you've got to worry about every month.
moose
Veteran Expediter
think that's will greatly depends on ones personal agenda .
sometimes new trucks can cost as match in maintenance as used ones . and the insurance will normally cost more (tho'w there are ways around it.)
my question for drivers that buy trucks cash always being : what kind of Return On Investment they see ?
is that money working hard for you ?
or can it be invested somewhere else ,or draw a better interest for you ?
That's the problem with Hino's ,(or even realestates ?),with such a low interests ,there's hardly any rezone to ever paying it off ,that same money can work harder.
golfournut
Veteran Expediter
Thanks for all the replies.
First on financing: I can borrow money at 5.5% from my bank. Some dealers are offering 3.9% at the dealerships. I am fortunate that I could pay cash for a van or st., but here is my fuzzy math: between stock market investments, annuities and some notes that I carry for some business transactions, my cash has made almost 12% this year. Not bad in a not so good economy. 12% - 5.5% = 6.5% that I am ahead by keeping my cash for reinvestment. And as we all know "cash is king". My philosophy is, if you can use OPM (other peoples money) and have positive cash flow to your liking then that's the way to go. Depreciation and interest are great tax deductions. Now on the other hand one business should not support another, each should stand on their own merit. Even though it all goes into one pot in the end.
Which takes me to the next subject. Van, ST, Team operation etc. Here is what I am thinking, putting a team in the Hino, regardless of how some feel about Hino, she's a good truck. Never had a service failure, but like on some posts on here, I don't wait either for things to break. Some might say I am pretty anal when it comes to maintaining my equipment. So putting a team in her with what ever company, cause I don't have the inside scoop yet about teams at Load One, I think would be a win win situation. And yes I will get a contract drawn up. I have very good lawyers in Texas that do things for me from time to time that are real good at business law. As far as paying a team, it would still be the percentage split. I'm not sure what was mean't by load one paying percentage and paying a team percentage versus employee or contractor. If the percentage split is off of the gross of what the load paid, what's the diff it the load is paid on a per mile rate or percentage. There is still a total that the load pays.
It seems to me that since I am a solo driver, a van with no log restrictions, better fuel mileage, the potential for a bigger profit exists. Please correct me if I am having some goofy thinkn there. LOL.
By the way, I have a laptop and 3 in one printer sitting right next to me. My phone is a WiFi hotspot, so the laptop, my wife's laptop, printer and Wii all run off of this phone. I can also print just about everything from this phone to this printer or my CPA's printer. It is more comfortable for me to kick back and use the phone.
Hope I answered all your replies. And thank you all for all your input.
Happy New Year! hic lol
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First on financing: I can borrow money at 5.5% from my bank. Some dealers are offering 3.9% at the dealerships. I am fortunate that I could pay cash for a van or st., but here is my fuzzy math: between stock market investments, annuities and some notes that I carry for some business transactions, my cash has made almost 12% this year. Not bad in a not so good economy. 12% - 5.5% = 6.5% that I am ahead by keeping my cash for reinvestment. And as we all know "cash is king". My philosophy is, if you can use OPM (other peoples money) and have positive cash flow to your liking then that's the way to go. Depreciation and interest are great tax deductions. Now on the other hand one business should not support another, each should stand on their own merit. Even though it all goes into one pot in the end.
Which takes me to the next subject. Van, ST, Team operation etc. Here is what I am thinking, putting a team in the Hino, regardless of how some feel about Hino, she's a good truck. Never had a service failure, but like on some posts on here, I don't wait either for things to break. Some might say I am pretty anal when it comes to maintaining my equipment. So putting a team in her with what ever company, cause I don't have the inside scoop yet about teams at Load One, I think would be a win win situation. And yes I will get a contract drawn up. I have very good lawyers in Texas that do things for me from time to time that are real good at business law. As far as paying a team, it would still be the percentage split. I'm not sure what was mean't by load one paying percentage and paying a team percentage versus employee or contractor. If the percentage split is off of the gross of what the load paid, what's the diff it the load is paid on a per mile rate or percentage. There is still a total that the load pays.
It seems to me that since I am a solo driver, a van with no log restrictions, better fuel mileage, the potential for a bigger profit exists. Please correct me if I am having some goofy thinkn there. LOL.
By the way, I have a laptop and 3 in one printer sitting right next to me. My phone is a WiFi hotspot, so the laptop, my wife's laptop, printer and Wii all run off of this phone. I can also print just about everything from this phone to this printer or my CPA's printer. It is more comfortable for me to kick back and use the phone.
Hope I answered all your replies. And thank you all for all your input.
Happy New Year! hic lol
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golfournut
Veteran Expediter
Hi Turtle, I agree with you. The right amount of the down payment is critical to the success of ones financial plan. It does need to a very calculated deliberate down payment. Most folks when they by something, whether its a house, car or widget let either the lender choose the down stroke, or they just throw a number out there. I've got 5k or 10k or whatever for the down. I look at what I want at the end of the 1st year, 2nd etc... mind you some of that is based on projections, so you gotta do your homework and have a good CPA or access to a good crystal ball. So far I've been pretty accurate. Sometimes I build in a little Murphy fudge factor for the what ifs.
If you have access to financial folks that are willing to get creative, that can be real useful. I have actually written an amortization schedule that even I thought was far fetched, but I was able to sell it based on sound financial facts and they bought it. That was a pretty hefty chunk of cash.
I want to pay my share of taxes, I just don't want to pay yours also, so that's why it is so important to know your business, not just for today, 5, 10 and 20 years and if your young enough. 30, 40 and 50 years. That is if you want to leave something behind.
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I got an extremely good deal on my Sprinter. It was a year old, but only had 4100 miles on it, and still had the plastic on the steering wheel, the airbag warnings for children, and the new Sprinter smell. I paid $28,000 for it, put $20,000 down, and had a 24 month note which I paid off in a little more than a year (I think it was 14 months or something like that).
Until it was paid off, all I could think about was making sure I had enough revenue to make that payment. As soon as it was paid off, I didn't freak out when I had a few bad weeks back to back, and I could take off for a month or so without worrying about it.
Remember back when the economy and expediting went into the toilet? Many people lost their trucks because they couldn't make that payment. Mine was already long paid for.
Until it was paid off, all I could think about was making sure I had enough revenue to make that payment. As soon as it was paid off, I didn't freak out when I had a few bad weeks back to back, and I could take off for a month or so without worrying about it.
Remember back when the economy and expediting went into the toilet? Many people lost their trucks because they couldn't make that payment. Mine was already long paid for.
golfournut
Veteran Expediter
WOW, great deal Turtle. Mind if I ask where you found it. I agree having a payment of any amount can be daunting for some folks.
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ErieBigDawg
Seasoned Expediter
Hi,
I have been lurking for a while and will be picking up my new 2010 Sprinter 2500 144" WB in Pgh. tomorrow.
Here's the scoop- Cost = $31,695 PLUS the following options:
2,215 Raised Roof
225 Ext.Power/Heated Mirrors
320 Cruise COntrol
850 Cargo Pkg. 1
980 Destination/Delivery $36,285.00 TOTAL COST
OUT THE DOOR WITH TAX, Lic., etc. total was $38,666.75
Dave
Lake City, Pa.
Will it take 3 full skids? How big cargo space?
In June of '06 I placed an order with the dealer for the Sprinter I wanted, with all the bells and whistles (like the ultra comfortable La-Z-Boy-esque Deluxe Seating Package, and the house bank aux alternator that is normally used in passenger vans for passenger air conditioning), and was expecting delivery in October. It was going to be roughly $36,000. A couple of days after placing the order I called the dealer to see if there was a change I could make (adding fog lights to the order), and was told it would now be April before I would be able to take delivery, and it would now be an '07 model and a lot of things would be different, that we'd have to go over all the specs again and re-do the entire order.
I began to rethink my options.
Down the street from where I live I kept noticing a Sprinter in a driveway that never seemed to move. Guy bought the Sprinter to haul barrels back and forth from Texas to western KY. He installed 3 pair of vertical pipes along each side of the cargo area to use as tie-down anchors. He made a trip to Texas and back, twice, never having hauled any barrels, and the whole thing fell through. He put 4100 miles on the van. He parked the van in his driveway for a year, while trying to sell it.
All he wanted for it was what he still owed at the bank.
Deal. For that kind of discount I can live without a few bells and whistles, or add whatever bells and whistles I wanted.
ErieBigDawg
Seasoned Expediter
Cargo space is 128.5". 3 if 48x42 or smaller turned sideways.
Dave
Dave