Business Operating Costs - Gas F 250

[Jerry D]

From a business standpoint, how do contractors judge the operating costs of pickup trucks?

We have a new F250 ($40k) with a trailer($10k) so we have $50,000 into the vehicles plus annual commercial licensing at approx $450 and insurance probably another $1500 and annual safeties ($500.00 + parts and labor to fix anything wrong)

What would you charge by the hour for just the truck and trailer combo to be on the road. The truck is driven say.... 20,000km a year and we plan to keep the truck for 10 years or 200,000km.

Thanks in advance for any opinions and insights.

[tirebob]

I think you need to think deeper about what true costs are, which will also include things like storage costs (building) which include a bunch of other costs such as utilities, telephone, computer(s), bookkeeping, accounting, etc etc.

In any business you better be accounting for every single aspect and then make sure you are still making a profit over and above that, and it better be more of a profit than what your salary is, which should be counted as a fixed cost as well...

[curtz]

All depends what your doing and hauling, 20,000 km a year is not a lot. I contract operate, checking and maintaining wells. Years ago I was running diesels and they were expensive to buy, fix and maintain, now I'm running toyota tacoma's and they are way cheaper to buy and run. I get paid a day rate for me and my truck and put on about 60,000 km a year. I think I'm down to about $12.00 per hour for my truck, more money for the bank account.

[lmtada]

2013 F150 operation costs = $0.43/km. 2011 F350 Diesel = $0.55/km. No trailers.

[67ZL1]

We used to be about 1% charge rate over total cost, so in your case 50.00/hr. I wouldn’t be surprised if you would also be able to get some sort of fuel surcharge on top of the 50/hr

[jigs]

2015 GMC 2500 hauling a sled or quad most days cost me $.60\km.

this includes monthly payments, depreciation and everything else. I am also forced to buy fuel at $1.22\/lt because of my location.

[Trochu]

We charge $1.00/km for our pickups. As tirebob suggested, although I think trying to pass utilities and building costs off as part of a vehicle's express a tad excessive, there is also insurance, registration, gas, and maintenance.