How to track your costs easily and for free - Right or Wrong

Has anyone used this ?
motortransport.co.uk/vehfs.a … leid=21254
(You have to register)

Interesting… I taped in 1 truick , 44 tonnes, 62 unit with tir axle trailer (33), it tells me the foillowing:

Total Costs: £112,731

Total Profit: £5,637

Total Charge: £118,368

Now how can yopu work that out ? That Means you have to earn approx £2300 per week and run at 52 weeks per yr. Now I know theres no WAY any owner driver here clears £2300 per week wk in wk out and if you say you do I want to know how!

Heres the full break down, are Motor Transport out of touch or Spot on ?

Annual Running (Variable) Costs

Fuel: £37,469 (based on 74.18 pence per litre ex vat I assume)

Oil: £568

Vehicle/Tractor Tyres: £1,929

Trailer Tyres: £1,920

Maintenance: £8,888

Total Annual Running (Variable) Costs: £50,774

Annual Standing (Fixed) Costs

Wages: £21,114

National Insurance: £1,607

Vehicle Insurance: £9,743

Establishment: £15,935

Licences: £1,200

Depreciation: £12,459

Total Annual Standing (Fixed) Costs: £62,058

You can get costs for other things, such as your vehicle etc.

V good!!!

Erm… excuse me…

Whats a profit?

ianyng:
Erm… excuse me…

Whats a profit?

It’s that section on the spreadsheet that never gets filled in

smcaul:

ianyng:
Erm… excuse me…

Whats a profit?

It’s that section on the spreadsheet that never gets filled in

Very good!

If you aint makin a profit you have the wrong work or the wrong truck

is this gona be another “i’m making money, oh no your not” things?
i’d question all the figures quoted!

Motor Transport have published their cost tables for donkeys years now, and I have also wondered where they get their work from.

The rates are certainly better than anything I ever saw

I would like to know how they employ someone on 21K a year. What about, taxes, holiday relief, bonus at christmas, paternity pay, and all the other red tape the governement has swamped small business with ■■

And would you really spend £4K a year on Tyres ? That seems pretty high to me. Based on my limited experiences my boss used to get 2 years out of the tyres on our units, and 3-4 years out of trailer tyres.
They were all averaging about 130000 Kms a year.

I don’t think his tyre bill for 3 units and 4 trailers came to 4K a year !

Total Costs: £112,731

How many years is this the costs for?

Total Profit: £5,637

Errr… No.

Annual Running (Variable) Costs
Fuel: £37,469

Nowhere near that figure, but then all my fuel is bought over the water.

Oil: £568

I haven’t bought oil for years, it is all covered by the R&M contract and none of the last three trucks have ever needed topping up between visits to Volvo for routine checks or maintenance.

Vehicle/Tractor Tyres: £1,929

I’ve bought 6 tyres in the last 8.5 years and the total for those 6 tyres was less than that.

Trailer Tyres: £1,920

N/A, trailer tyres are down to the company I pull for.

Maintenance: £8,888

The R&M contract I have with Volvo is less than that per annum.

Annual Standing (Fixed) Costs
Wages: £21,114

No employees so no wages, although my earnings are more than that. They would have to be or it wouldn’t be worth doing it…

National Insurance: £1,607

My NI for the last tax year was more than that.

Vehicle Insurance: £9,743

That is nearly £4000 more than I pay for all my various insurance policies, vehicle, GIT, Liability etc.

Establishment: £15,935

About 6 times what I pay.

Licences: £1,200

What licences come to £1200 a year?

Depreciation: £12,459

No depreciation on a lease contract so N/A.

If my costs, and profits, came anywhere near the ones they are quoting I would be packing it in tomorrow.

Hi Guys n’ gals. I was going to start a new thread today under the heading “7.5 tonner operating costs” but it seems my home work will fit nicely in here. So here it is:

Insurance 1500

Goods in Transit: 450 (based on an old quote)

Road Tax 180

Safety Checks 560 6 weeklies, say 8 x £70

service/maint 1000

Parking in 2080 £40 x 52

Parking out 1000 say 2 nights a week at £10

O License fees 60

Loan Int/repay 2170 5000 + 10% :-36 months

Profit 5000

Fixed Total: £14,000 -: say 50 weeks = £280/week

Wages: £20,000 Based on £100/day working 4 day week due to other commitments

TOTAL: £34,000 :- 48 weeks =£708 /week :- 4 = £177 or 177 loaded miles/day +no empty running

• FUEL! £30 per 100 (£50) so 226 LOADED/day

If i drop £100/week on wages, then:

£29,000 :- 48 weeks = £604/week :- 4 = approx £151 or 151 LOADED miles/day

• fuel £45 = 196 loaded

Fuel cost excluding VAT £3.86/gal -: say 14 mpg = < 30p per mile. (might do 15 or 16)

Envisaged charge out rate minimum £1.30 per mile. So net rate is £1 per mile.

This makes no allowance for empty running.
Some jobs will pay more than above rate.

Have i missed anything? (Don’t think so) though i’m aware £1k a year for servicing & maintainence may be on the light side for a 6 - 7 year old vehicle.

As i see it, TOTAL op costs, INCLUDING profit element (no business is any good without this) & wages & fuel = £48,000. (for a £4.5k 7.5 tonner!!!)
assuming 50,000 miles a year @ 14 mpg = £14,000 (rounded up)

34,000 + 14,000 = 48,000 -: 50,000 = total op cost of .96p per mile.

Now i bet that’s suprised a few of you■■? It certainly did me.

So basically it needs to pull in £1000 a week with minimal empty running.

Your thoughts please gentlemen & ladies.

£1.30 per mile on a 7.5 tonner …

Nobody got any serious comments?

difficult to comment, insurance +git is more than i pay for a 26 tonner, on the other hand £1000 maintainence might be very optimistic at 50,000 mile a year, thats a lot of work for a small engine.
a mate of mine runs a 7.5t doing light haulage/removals but he also has a 3.5t high roof van, reckons it’s more cost effective to have either one parked up at any given time rather than do everything with the 7.5tonner which at times means taking half a ton 2-300 mile down the road, plus the vans off of tacho.
he does very well but he’ll take work on seven days a week, wether you could do the amount of work your counting on and at the same time dictate that your only working a set four days a week, i don’t know.

Okay, Please bear in mind that I do not run a lorry, this is all based on theory.

I reckon your costs go as follow (based on your figures) :

£5000 Loan for Truck £153.25 PCM
Insurance £125 PCM
GIT £37.50 PCM
Inspections £46.66 PCM
VED £15 PCM
Wages £1600 PCM
Other Costs ** £100 PCM
** This covers, phone bills, cost of tacho’s, O’ Licence fee’s, postage for invoices, etc.

Total Outgoings before you start the engine £2077.41 PCM
As there are only 20 Working days in a month, and you only want to work 16 of these, your daily cost before you drive anywhere is : £129.84

Now for the rest. 14 MPG, Fuel at £0.81 per litre (ex vat) and averaging 250 miles per day.
Cost per mile = £0.26

So you will spend £1050.69 PCM on Fuel
Maintenance of your truck will cost you in the region of £100 PCM
Tyres for your truck will cost you in the region of £82 PCM

So, for 4000 Miles per month you will be looking at spending £1232.69 on running costs Which is a total cost per mile of £0.31.

So to bring this all together, if you were to do one job a day, that was a total of 250 miles(including running to pick it up, and running home after you have tipped), you need to charge £77.50 for your running costs + £129.84 for your standing costs, and then add some profit. So I would say :

£77.50 + £129.84 = £207.34 + 15%(Profit margin) = £238.44

So, if we assume that you can charge for loaded 200 miles and get a backload to get you home, then you need to charge £1.19 per mile to make it pay. You then also need to get a similar rate for the backload, unless you can do it in the same day as your original delivery (without messing your hours up), in which case, you could accept a rate of anything over £0.31 per mile(plus a profit margin).

That’s my take on it anyway. I might be totally wrong, as I said this is all done through theory, and the research I have done regarding running an Artic in the past.

Wheel Nut:
Motor Transport have published their cost tables for donkeys years now, and I have also wondered where they get their work from.

The rates are certainly better than anything I ever saw

i agree, think they are more for “show” so transport buyers get an inflated idea of what costs are? i’ve used them to try justify demurrage costs with difficult customers before (with mixed results!) we have someone from MT in the forums don’t we? maybe they’d care to comment

as for tyres though, don’t any of you lot ever get blowouts or wreck the occasional one? probably down to the type of work but we certainly get a few which pushes up the average of course