When assesing the benefits of large sleepers, quantifiable items include:
1. Reduced food costs of $500 to $1,200 a month (as reported in testimonials on the A.R.I. web site)
2. Reduced fuel costs because you do not have to go out of route to find showers and bathrooms (especially important to male/female and female teams. In many cases, you can stay at pickup and delivery docks when arriving at odd hours.
3. Reduced hotel costs (Diane and I have spent zero dollars on hotels on the road since we got into our big-sleeper truck. We used to spend more. RV parks are used but less frequently than hotels and at lower cost). (Streakn1 reports previous hotel costs of $5,000 a year).
4. Reduced deadhead miles because after a delivery it is easier to wait in a self-contained sleeper than having to drive to a truck stop or some other place where food, water, bathrooms, etc are available.
5. Reduced idling because of the generator that comes with the big sleeper. (Though, a generator-only truck will provide the same savings).
6. Increased tax deduction because of the big sleeper's higher price. But that is not to say one should buy a sleeper for the tax benefits. More money will go into your pocket by not spending money instead of spending and deducting it. Still, the tax deduction reduces the real amount of "E."
7. The above-mentioned ability to spread a quality sleeper's cost over 10 years by moving it between trucks.
8. Higher truck resale value.
There may be more quantifiable money savings that I am not thinking of at the moment. The specific amount of the savings will vary with the drivers and sleepers in question. But in every case, the numbers can be objectively determined, if the drivers have prior time on the road with factory sleepers.
I do not think a case could be made to cost-justify a big sleeper on items 1-8 above. 1-8 totaled will not exceed "E" over 3 years. It might over 10 years. I don't know.
Big-sleeper expenses must also be included in the analysis. One that comes to mind is higher insurance costs because of higher truck value. Maintenance costs are minimal in well-built sleepers from high-quality manufacturers. Another expense is the additional finance costs (truck loan interest) you will pay on a bigger sleeper if you finance your truck.
The desire for comfort has been well discussed above.
I wish to add a note about productivity. We drove factory-sleeper trucks for three years before getting into a bigger-sleeper/smaller-box truck. It is absolutely the case that we sleep far better now than before, especially when the co-driver is rolling down the road. That is huge, because after a long run (coast-to-coast) we do not need to take as much time off to rest up for the next one.
It is also the case that we take fewer breaks on the road than we used to. Before, we stopped more often to get out of the truck and/or rest up. Now we stop less often and seldom feel the need to get out of the truck.
The exact dollar amount of the increased productivity is hard to determine. While our run count is higher than before, other factors also affect run count, so a clear determination cannot be made by run count alone. Revenue is higher too, but it is impossible to say how much, if any, the sleeper contributed to it.
Finally, I would not put too much weight in the assumption that a larger box truck will haul more freight than a smaller box truck. While the laws of physics certainly say it CAN do so, there is nothing in expediting that says it will. If box capacity was what it was all about, we would all be driving tractors with 53' trailers. In our business, it is more about speed and accessorial services than space.
There is not an expediter out there that does not have a story to tell about his or her tiny loads (an envelope, a three pound box, a single gear the size of your hand, etc.) Such loads have been hauled in trucks of all sizes. No one turns loads down because they do not fill up a truck. And if loads fill the truck, we get paid nothing extra.
You could try for a cleaner analysis by using an all-things-being-equal scenario but that too is problematic. For example, Diane and I drove factory-sleeper DR units before getting into our CR unit with a custom sleeper. One would expect our revenue to go down because of the smaller CR box. We are pretty close to an all-things-being-equal story: same drivers, same credentials, same carrier, same equipment except for box size. Still, our CR revenue (gross to the truck, fuel surcharge factored out) is higher than it was when driving DR trucks with factory sleepers.
Another way of looking at it is, the fewer large loads we hauled, the more money we made. Increased box space does not necessarily equate to increased revenue. Thus, a bigger sleeper and the reduced box space required for it does not necessarily equate to reduced revenue.
Here again, other variables apply, so it is impossible to assign the difference to sleeper changes alone. Still, the assumption that a bigger box means more revenue is not supported by the facts.
One could use FedEx's fleet averages to make the case that there is a direct relationship between box size and revenue, but big-sleeper purchasers are not buying a fleet. They are buying one truck. The human variables of one driver or team compared against another, or compared against fleet averages are meaningless as the one-truck stats have no predictive value. There are a lot of straight truck drivers out there making more money than tractor trailer expediters.
When I started this topic, it was not my intention to make the case that bigger sleepers pay for themselves. I do not belive that they do. It was my intention to help prospective big-sleeper purchasers think through some of these issues. With the help of everyone who responded, that has been accomplished.
I'll close by sharing that when Diane and I spec'ed our truck, we considered buying what would have been a very nice, fully-equipped, White Glove capable truck off the lot. Instead, we bought the truck we wanted, which cost about $50,000 more (with much of that going into other extras, not just the sleeper). Given the 10 years we plan to keep the truck, that works out to $5,000 a year or $416 a month extra for the quantifiable and non-quantifiable benefits the big sleeper and other truck extras provide (extras like more lighting in the box, custom ladder on the liftgate, more rows of E-Track, custom-made front placard holders, etc.).
Having now driven sleepers of both types (factory and custom), we would not hesitate to spend that money again.
