Guys, I have recently asked you many newbie questions from heavy haul operations perspective. I am now pivoting to financial planning so I need your help with understanding a very critical point please. For all you lone rangers out there, the ones who are constantly hustling for business on your own, how many hours do you run annually? A ballpark number with an estimated breakdown between loaded and empty miles is all I want. My estimate is that annual miles would be around 100000 with 80% loaded and 20% unloaded. I am basing my guess on the fact that heavy haul travel time is restricted a lot through most states. So 10 hours of driving a day for 250 days at an overall average speed of 45 miles an hour is a little over 100K annual miles. Is my guess reasonable? Regards, Singh
I don't haul, but it would seem like your loaded/empty ratio is quite optimistic. Also driving 10hrs a day, averaged over 50 5 day work weeks per year also seems exceedingly optimistic. Double the optimism for a startup company's first couple years.
Wanted to clarify that my planned business model is to run a triaxle 55 ton stretch RGN and get loads off of the loadboards like DAT, Internet Truck Stop etc. I certainly don't expect to get project work.
Unless there are some professionals who would agree with you, I also think your loaded versus empty numbers and average speed (and therefore miles/year) are both wildly optimistic if you are hauling "heavy" loads. I think you'd be lucky to average 35mph over 10 hours (what about loading/unloading time - have you considered that..?) and I'd bet money you will struggle to even hit 50/50 on loaded versus empty mileage.
Our trucks run mostly local under 250mi. They tend to average about 25 to maybe 30mph with in between 1,800 to 2,300hrs some run more but not normally to much more. Our loaded empty ratio is about 50/50.