E-mail to a US based Truck Broker

Hello Everyone!!

The e-mail you can read below is something I recently wrote a broker in response to his previous e-mail asking me to work with them on 30-day payment terms and submitting original papers and cheap freight rates.

For anyone not aware of the costs involved in trucking, you can see what some of them are listed in the e-mail below.

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This is covered for the $4300 it was posted for. Thank you for the offer. Our terms are 30 days and we require "original" bills of ladings. If you can work within "our" terms, feel free to offer trucks anytime.

Thanks,

Steve D

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It would cost me $2,400 in fuel alone One-Way for this trip. My drivers would not work this run for less than $900, but should really be closer to $1,000 to the driver. It would take 3-4 days to make this run depending on the loading/unloading times, which means my truck could do 3 trips per month (in 30 days) with time off necessary for legalities. This means my truck would run approx. 15,000 miles per month where I would have to come out of pocket with $12,000 to pay for fuel and about $5,400 to pay the driver for a total of $17,400 out of pocket for 3 round trips. The return hauls are paying $2,700 at best, meaning a total of $7,000 for one round trip or $21,000 for 3 round trips. This leaves me with $3,600 to pay insurance $700/monthly for a whopping $2,900 per month net profit, out of which I have to pay Heavy Vehicle taxes, IFTA, Tires, Oil Changes, Vehicle Maintenance and of course SAVE UP to FINANCE more BROKERS that pay within 30 days so next month I can make another $2,900, which of course includes all my office work and salary for book-keeping. So, while I would like to work with you and send you the originals and wait for everything, I really can’t, because of the above stated numbers.

If interested, the other costs to operate each vehicle are:

$ 45.83/month - Heavy Vehicle Tax $550/year

$166.67/month - Truck Registration $2,000/year

$700.00/month - Insurance $8,400/year

$ 90.00/month - Steering Tires

$160/month - Drive Tires

$150/month - Trailer Tires (TOTAL $400/month in tire costs for all 18 tires, based on an Avg. of 140,000 miles per year)

$100/month – IFTA Fuel Taxes at least $300/quarterly

$260/month – 1 oil change per month at 15,000 miles (cheapest I know, but usually costs between $280-320 most places)

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$1,672.50/month in regular expenses (Does not include unforeseen stuff, like TOLLS, Blow-outs, Lumpers not reimbursed, Engine Maintenance, reefer maintenance and oil changes, etc…) But the customers/brokers always want best equipment on the road, best reliability, and on-time delivery as well as a good company safety rating which could very well be bought with all the money we make in trucking.