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JEEPOHOLIC · 06-04-2014, 04:24 PM

The RV industry is claiming they are short 2000 drivers for transporting RV's. If it was more lucrative I bet they wouldn't be short drivers. So I decided to look into it and this is what I came up with: just doing some math on this, lets just say you have a 2000 mile trip, so 2000 miles and avg 8 MPG that would be 250 gals of fuel, so lets say 250 gals of fuel at $3.85 would be $962, ok now we break that trip up in 4 days, so 4 nights in a hotel $85 times 4 is $340, and lets say 4 days of conservative eating might be $50 a day so $200, now at $1.58 a mile that's $3160-$962=$2198 and $2198-$340=$1858 and $1858-$200=$1658 and now our return trip at say 13 MPG is 154 gals at $3.85 is $592 and 4 days of hotels $340, and 4 days of food $200, we start at the $1658-$592=$1066 and $1066-$340=$726 and $726-$200=$526, Transport companies deduct 10% of the pay for a "Damage Escrow Fund, so 10% of your gross is $316, duduct that from the $526=$210, lets not forget to pay our taxes on the gross of $3160, now depending where you are from it might vary, so lets just say 20% (washington State Tax Rate), so from our $210-$632=negative $422, and lets not forget truck maintenance too. So on the trip in this example, you drove 4,000 miles, or about 1/2 of an oil change. I'll guess that half an oil change on a diesel if you have it done somewhere is $80? Let's say you get 80,000 miles from a set of tires, so this 4,000 mile trip just used 5% of the tread. Tires are $200 each and you need 6 for your dually, so a set is $1200, and 5% of that is $60.So now our negative $422 just went to a negative $562,no wonder no one wants to do this job CWRV Transport FAQs | CWRV Transport

harleychief · 06-04-2014, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JEEPOHOLIC

The RV industry is claiming they are short 2000 drivers for transporting RV's. If it was more lucrative I bet they wouldn't be short drivers. So I decided to look into it and this is what I came up with: just doing some math on this, lets just say you have a 2000 mile trip, so 2000 miles and avg 8 MPG that would be 250 gals of fuel, so lets say 250 gals of fuel at $3.85 would be $962, ok now we break that trip up in 4 days, so 4 nights in a hotel $85 times 4 is $340, and lets say 4 days of conservative eating might be $50 a day so $200, now at $1.58 a mile that's $3160-$962=$2198 and $2198-$340=$1858 and $1858-$200=$1658 and now our return trip at say 13 MPG is 154 gals at $3.85 is $592 and 4 days of hotels $340, and 4 days of food $200, we start at the $1658-$592=$1066 and $1066-$340=$726 and $726-$200=$526, Transport companies deduct 10% of the pay for a "Damage Escrow Fund, so 10% of your gross is $316, duduct that from the $526=$210, lets not forget to pay our taxes on the gross of $3160, now depending where you are from it might vary, so lets just say 20% (washington State Tax Rate), so from our $210-$632=negative $422, and lets not forget truck maintenance too. So on the trip in this example, you drove 4,000 miles, or about 1/2 of an oil change. I'll guess that half an oil change on a diesel if you have it done somewhere is $80? Let's say you get 80,000 miles from a set of tires, so this 4,000 mile trip just used 5% of the tread. Tires are $200 each and you need 6 for your dually, so a set is $1200, and 5% of that is $60.So now our negative $422 just went to a negative $562,no wonder no one wants to do this job CWRV Transport FAQs | CWRV Transport

And don't forget that you are now 2,000 miles from where you started with just a truck, no trailer, no backhaul.

JEEPOHOLIC · 06-04-2014, 05:03 PM

And don't forget that you are now 2,000 miles from where you started with just a truck, no trailer, no backhaul. I included that in the cost

chaps2018 · 06-05-2014, 08:07 AM

Agreed, I did the math last year and came to the same conclusion

SmokeyWren · 06-05-2014, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JEEPOHOLIC

So now our negative $422 just went to a negative $562,no wonder no one wants to do this job

Remind me to not hire you to do my cost analysis. You left out depreciation and insurance on your $60,000 truck. Assuming a life of 250,000 miles on a diesel dually, depreciation alone is $.24 cents a mile for your fund to replace the truck down the road. Oh, you think your truck can go 400,000 miles before it's worn out? That's still $.15 per mile for depreciation.

And how much is your commercial truck insurance? It's certainly not free, so determine the cost per mile for that and add it in.

You covered tires and oil changes, but how about the other costs of maintaining a diesel truck for the 250,000 miles life of the truck? ATF changes, coolant changes, fuel filter changes, broken AC compressor, shocks, etc. You can buy maintenance insurance in the form of a service agreement or extended warranty, but those are expensive too - over $2,000.

And count on replacing the automatic tranny once before the truck goes to the graveyard. That's at least $2,500 and probably more.

Annual license plates/registration fees? At the commercial trucker rate - not the "car" or RV rate.

But yeah, your basic conclusion is correct. You're not going to make any money towing RVs and staying in $80 motels every night.

But real truckers don't stay in $80 motels. They stay in Motel 6 at $50 to $60 per night once or twice per week, and the rest of the time sleep in the truck and use the showers at truck stops to do their bathroom routine. You can fabricate a comfortable bed in the back seat area of a CrewCab pickup. Drive until midnight in the summertime, then sleep in the back seat area without an AC until the heat wakes you up the next morning.

JEEPOHOLIC · 06-06-2014, 05:31 AM

thanks for adding that in smokey

Bigd9 · 06-06-2014, 06:02 AM

Very interesting calculations and conclusions. Kind of reminds me of a neighbor who was so excited because he drove to the next town 10 miles away and back to save $.10 per gallon of gas. I attempted to explain the math to him about that false savings by using a real simple $.56 per mile (2014 GSA POV mileage reimbursement rate). He saved (15 gallons @ $.10) $1.50....but spent $11.20 doing it.

Bottom line, like you guys showed, you gotta figure in all your cost. Thanks for the post!

Kurtsara · 06-06-2014, 06:20 AM

And if you drive four days you only need to sleep 3 night, so you don't lose as much as you say

DegoRed · 06-06-2014, 06:22 AM

I took delivery of my previous motorhome directly from the manufacture, Thor in my case. It did not go to the dealer first. You are definatly missing some key pieces to your estimates.

The guy who delivered our MH, definatly only used a shower once a week at most, so you can take showering off your list. You can also take motels off your list, as I dont think they use them. When I asked the guy about his trip, he told me always drives straight through whenever possible, with occasional stops at rest stops for naps when necessary. He had a big old drop cloth that he had drapped over our master bed. At first I could not figure out what it was, but upon futher inspection, he had put that down to protect our bed when he slept upon it. Needless to say, this drop cloth was nasty.

He had an old beater toad hooked up, like 1980 Mazda 626. It only took him a minute to un hook the toad, crawl into it and drive off. He told me he was heading straight back to pick up another rig. He did leave the receipt in the MH where he stopped to get the MH washed before he delivered it. While the guy looked like a Meth head, smelled so bad it would make your eyes burn, and was greasy as can be from sweat & dirt, he was actually a really nice and pleasant guy.