What I've been offered - appreciate your opinion

Mattwoodtransport:

nsmith1180:
My standing costs per day, (including £78 a week for skelly hire) minus my salary are £133.67 a day.

Diesel based on 450 miles at 9.5mpg, reasonably easily done with a E6 wagon and a well set close coupled wind deflector: 215.34l a day, current price for me is 0.9593 per litre so £206.58 a day in diesel.

Total costs: £340.25

£550 a day - £340.25 = £209.75.

Name me one PAYE driver who can bring that in a day on general taut work.

My numbers are based on a five day working week.

The agency I have lined up just in case I need them will provide a driver at £125 a day for the driver + £30 commission so £155 plus any nights out if you need an agency driver. If you are going to put someone in on PAYE its pay rate x 1.138 to figure out costs.

If you are going to pay £10.50 an hour and pay all hours, thats 71 hrs x 10.50 = £745.50 x 1.138 = £848.38 so £169.68 a day in wages.

£209.75 - £169.68 = £40.07 profit a day or £10,418.20 per vehicle per year.

If the vehicle never works and just earns the £330 a day you still make £26.65 profit a day, even after paying the driver for a full days work!

Just to recap, thats accurate standing costs for a first year new operator + reasonable fuel cost calculations + worst case staffing costs. Not pie in the sky numbers.

You are guaranteed earnings, even if the wheels don’t turn and you have to do 1500 km a day before you start losing on the price per mile bit, (based on my running cost per mile), which is only feasable if you are double shifting the wagon and both drivers are doing 8.33 hours at flat out motorway miles.

If I had this offer on the table I’d be very seriously tempted but it would have to be in writing and would need to include a fuel cost escalator and a reasonable demurrage rate.

Thanks for your ongoing transparency and detailed breakdowns of figures smithy, it’s rather refreshing in this industry of cloak and daggers and smoke and mirrors. I have just a couple of questions…
am I right in thinking that if your on the boxes, that your heavy going out and light coming back in? Iv never done boxes.
With regards to 9.5mpg, we only get that with the Scania with us running 40tonnes plus 65% of the time and the other mileage is empty. With our fleet spec renaults we can’t get above 8.6mpg (didn’t you say you were opting for one?) anyone else getting the same?
And with regards to the agency, was the £125 quoted for 8 hours? What was the hourly after that?
Thanks in advance
Woody

The agency rate was a day rate. Basically it’s what the agency pay for people to do the same job in their wagons so when they said, “We only pay our drivers by the hour,” I responded with, “fine, I want my back pat then” and they agreed to fixed costs!

On MPG. Last year I drove for Drivers Direct on the boxes in a 15 plate Range T. In the six months I was in it, that truck turned in a weekly average of 10.2 MPG. I didnt record weights but I was about 70‰ loaded. The Benz I am in now I have bullied up to 9.1 to the gallon over 40k km.

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