Pay to the van O/O?

robh2

Veteran Expediter
I am not asking what anyone makes and I am not trying to get personal, just gathering info. I may be wrong on some #'s below, please correct me if I am wrong. This is assuming 300 miles a day/5 days a week.

If you have a 40k van loan and you avg 6000 miles a month at an avg of .90cpm including fsc, what do you get as a driver per mile to give to mama, .40cpm? I am guessing that the truck gets about 50cpm for everything including a nice nest egg for slow times and repairs

Are these numbers pretty doable? I would hope 10k miles a month, 500 a day/5 days a week avg but it doesn't look like it in this industry. I say 5 days a week because that seems to be common to have a few days a week of waiting on a load.

It boils down to, can you take home 4-6k month in this job? Being on the road away from family can be tough if its just 2-3k a month and gone 4-6 weeks at a time.

Thanks.

Robert
 

LisaLouHoo

Expert Expediter
I don't mean to be vague or a buzzkill, but there is no solid answer to your question; the reason is that the freight isn't steady. There are areas of the country that you will deliver to that rarely have freight within a reasonable distance to go back out. It may be possible(?) to have a 6k month; then next 2 or 3 months be 1k or less. Because of the instability of the availability of freight, there is no way to calculate an average from year to year, month to month.

The type of vehicle you drive may indicate your odds of getting loads; but then it goes back to: if the loads aren't there? There's nothing you can do.

Proceed with caution; have other income if you can. If you have a wife and family, it's hard to be away for some of the pay you get, even at 90 cpm as O/O.

Waiting 2 days for loads at this point in the game is good. There were fellow expediters recently waiting in Laredo more than 7 days to get back out and some of them had to take reduced rates on the cargo in order to get out.

I wish there was a nice, easy cut and dried answer I could give you that came wrapped in a red bow with a fluffy little kitten in a basket; but sorry, there is not.

If you've got the guts and the capital and the patience: GO FOR IT.
 
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LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Well, arithmetic is our friend and using your guesstimate of 40cpm to the operator means you'd have to do 10k paid miles for $4k and 15k paid miles for $6k. I'm sure some of the hard runners are doing 10k paid per month in some months and in other months probably barely hitting 5k paid miles in spite of their best efforts. I'm sure we'll hear a story or two of a 15k paid miles month but would have to stretch on that one. I'm basing this on a solo van driver since you said send home to mama. For a solo van operator to clear $4k average per month, especially with a 40k van loan, would require Murphy never having heard of you and never learning about you and additionally having everything go perfectly every day.
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
I wish there was a nice, easy cut and dried answer I could give you that came wrapped in a red bow with a fluffy little kitten in a basket; but sorry, there is not.
Sure there is: There is no way you are going to average 10,000 loaded miles a month in a cargo van. That's 120,000 miles a year. Really good, experienced van drivers can do 80,000 to 90,000, but most do closer to 60,000 miles. Actually, most do between 50,000 and 60,000 miles a year.

A lot depends on how often you go home and how many days you are actually available and In-Service. If you go home three times a year and stay there for 2 weeks each, that leaves you with only working 46 weeks out of the year. If you can average 1200 miles a week for 46 weeks, that's 55,200 mile a year. That's probably closer to the norm.

General rule of thumb is 1/3 goes for operating expenses, 1/3 goes to the truck (or van) and the remaining 1/3 goes to the driver (O/O). Using your 90 cents per mile, that's 30 cents per mile that goes to you, and that's pretty much what it'll turn out to be, 30-32 cents a mile.

My goal is to average 1563 miles a week. Some weeks I do that, some I don't. In fact, most weeks I don't do that. It's usually 1000 miles or less or more than 2000 miles, but over the course of a month or three I'll usually get at least the 1563 I'm shooting for as an average. The reason I shoot for that number is that if I'm going to do this, live in a van on the road, I want to make at least $100 a day, and as I pay myself 32 cents a mile, that's the miles it takes to give me $100 a day for a 5 day week. That only includes the weeks I am available and in-service, of course.

This past year I worked a total 305 days, or 43.5 weeks, 'cause I took more time off than normal. My average length of line haul was 446 miles, and I had 162 loads (3.72 loads per week), for a total 72,253 loaded miles. So my average for the 43.5 weeks bested my 1563 goal at 1661. But averaged over 52 weeks, it's just 1389 miles per week. Odometer miles (92,632) minus loaded miles (72,253) leaves (20,379) 22% non-loaded miles, or deadhead, which, of course, includes any running around I do while at home.

My numbers are not typical, but aren't wild and crazy, either. Some will have done more, most will have done less. Your mileage will certainly vary.
 

robh2

Veteran Expediter
I have understood more from this thread than any other I think about numbers. Thank you very much for your help everyone.

fyi--The reason I chose 40k for a van, I was thinking the sprinter or a unicell type van. By the time you get one, put a sleeper in them, heat/cool, batteries inverter/gen and whatever else you need to have your basic comforts, I figured it would come out to 40-50k. even with 10k down I was figuring it would take another 10k or so to add all the things that make the van home like the items listed above.

Do the S/T O/O's get 4-6k avg a month? Under 26k or cdl b?

I am so glad I asked about this. I have read posts from so many others asking and everyones responses and I dont know why, but I got the answers in a way that made sense to me this time.

Thank you again.

Robert
 

EnglishLady

Veteran Expediter
For a solo van operator to clear $4k average per month, especially with a 40k van loan, would require Murphy never having heard of you and never learning about you and additionally having everything go perfectly every day.


Only the other week we had our sprinter serviced, plus repairs (one of which was the heater) that came to $1700.00

Sometimes wish Murphy would give us a break ;)

Maintenance/Service/Repairs - you need back-up money.
 

jeffman164

Seasoned Expediter
General rule of thumb is 1/3 goes for operating expenses, 1/3 goes to the truck (or van) and the remaining 1/3 goes to the driver (O/O). Using your 90 cents per mile, that's 30 cents per mile that goes to you, and that's pretty much what it'll turn out to be, 30-32 cents a mile.

Explain if you will please : "1/3 for operating expenses" and "1/3 goes to the truck" . Is the truck's 1/3 for insurances , vehicle payments , etc. ? As I have mine calculated , "operating expenses" include vehicle maintenance and fuel ... so just what does "1/3 goes to the truck" mean ??????
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
1/3 means whatever you want it to mean. If you lump maintenance into the cost of operations, then I guess you're 1/3 will be more than 1/3. :D

But generally, "operating expenses" are those expenses you need to operate on, needed to pick up and deliver loads. Chiefly, that means fuel and oil and tolls, and the weekly deductions from your settlement, like Qualcom and insurance. Generally, this amounts to about 1/3 of your gross revenue.

Generally, another 1/3 of your gross revenue goes to truck-related expenses, like maintenance and repairs, truck payments, tires, Espar heaters and fridges and generators and anything else having to do with the truck itself.

What's left over is, generally, the final 1/3 of your gross revenue.


generallee4.jpg

There's generally a joke in there somewhere.
 

jeffman164

Seasoned Expediter
In essence , how would a van fleet owner be able to turn a profit while paying their contract drivers a fair wage ??
 

idtrans

Expert Expediter
In essence , how would a van fleet owner be able to turn a profit while paying their contract drivers a fair wage ??


You don't pay a fair wage it is commission and the desire of a driver under contract to work hard to make money ! and the o/o van owner should have the van on with a good company for driver to have the chance to make good money.

I have given up on contracting anymore drivers the head aches are incredible and not even worth the $1600 extra a month a van can produce profits for me.

I hav e come to a conclusion if someone can not gt the funds or sell junk off to buy a used $5k and and get started to and work hard to grow up the ladder of OO status something is very wrong. I do understand there are a few cases where people have hit some very bad times with the depression and all but so far I have not had the chance to contract the driver with financial problems I have gotten goof balls that turn out to be just flat a%% lazy !
 

ebsprintin

Veteran Expediter
From time to time in the Bolt Express carriers forum, I post a snap shot of my real world numbers. It can give you an idea how the real numbers come in compared to the rules of thumbs and averages.

eb
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
In essence , how would a van fleet owner be able to turn a profit while paying their contract drivers a fair wage ??

A lot of them don't, they can't in many cases and because vans are so so cheap, it does not make any sense to get into one for an owner.
 
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