What to charge for mileage

S

So. Dak.

New member
We recently bought a 28' goose neck trailor. I pull it with a, F350 dually diesel. I'm wanting to put it to work when I don't need it for my main work. I called the local John Deere implement dealer and told them I'd be interested in making hauls for them or picking equipment up for them for some extra money. The guy had a pick up for me already. He's wondering how much I get. From what I understand people that do this charge by the "loaded" mile. Meaning, if I have to drive 200 miles to pick up a piece of equipment, I wouldn't charge for the 200 miles that I drove to pick it up but I would charge for the 200 return miles. Does this sound right?

Is anyone familiar with this? If anyone is familiar with it, do you have any idea what I would charge for a "loaded" mile? We were thinking around $1.75 per mile. Does this sound right?

If I drove the 200 miles and back, I would have probably $100 if fuel. I would also have 400 miles on an oil change and then I would have to figure wear and tear too.

I'm not looking to charge as much as someone that does this full time. I don't want to scare a potential customer away with my price, but I also don't want to screw myself either.

Any ideas?
 
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The secret is NOT to do a dead haul. If you have time to look around a bit, you might try to find a loaded trip down, then one back. Also, do you need a class 1 liscence to haul for money?
 
We pay $30.00 dollars to 47.00 per ton for our feedstore there is a guy here that charges .35 cents loaded mile witch is too much for the feed. But what you doing is alittle different. Look at it this way 1.75 X 200=$ 350.00 are they making enough profit to pay the frieght that way on feed no we do not maybe thats right for that line of business i will check for you.
 
I'm thinking about going at $1.50. The guy wants me to go to Newell which is 260 miles, one way. 260 x $1.50 = $390. Minus $100 for fuel I'm at $290. If I figure $100 for wear and tear i.e. tires, mileage on the truck oil change ect. then I'm at $190. It would take me a day to do it.

A guy has to figure wear and tear on that brand new trailor as well.

I think the guy would be getting a good deal at $1.50. What do you think?
 
There are some other thing you should check into before you determine what to charge.

Ask the JD dealer what kind of insurance he requires before you can take the equipment off of the lot. Or any other person you will be hauling for. also find out what coverage your state requires for comercial loads. Check into your taxes for commercial loads. Also what type of licsense is required for your type of loads. Any permits required.

Their may be some stuff i'm leaving out. You maybe able to gauge what price you want to charge after you find out what its going to cost for the above stuff.
 
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There are some other thing you should check into before you determine what to charge.

Ask the JD dealer what kind of insurance he requires before you can take the equipment off of the lot. Or any other person you will be hauling for. also find out what coverage your state requires for comercial loads. Check into your taxes for commercial loads. Also what type of licsense is required for your type of loads. Any permits required.

Their may be some stuff i'm leaving out. You maybe able to gauge what price you want to charge after you find out what its going to cost for the above stuff.



Oh, come on! I never said I wanted to be legal! I hate all that Gov't stuff. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
 
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Oh, come on! I never said I wanted to be legal! I hate all that Gov't stuff. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif



Oh I hate it to, they always interfear with a persons ability to make money /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
Used to haul some farm equipment for my Dad, the biggest problem I had was loading and unloading the stuff. Sometimes a farmers loader tractor wasn't up to the task, or had just broken down, so I had to kill another hour or so going to the neighbors to borrow one.

Sorry, I don't remember what he charged, I was just the boy doing as he was told.
 
If you personally know all the State Troopers and DOT Officers on the roads you plan to travel you MAY be OK but if you take a load interstate you WILL need to worry about all that "legal stuff" for sure cause you will have to stop at the port of entry (or get pulled over and fined very heavily). Cops do pay close attention nowadays to people making repeat trips hauling loads.

You may get away with it for awhile but it would only take one fine of several thousand dollars to completely wipe out any profits and possibly saddle you with a felony that will jeopardize your gun ownership rights.

Are the regs onerous and stupid? Yep, usually, but they are very expensive to ignore and are being enforced more and more rigidly.
 
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If you personally know all the State Troopers and DOT Officers on the roads you plan to travel you MAY be OK but if you take a load interstate you WILL need to worry about all that "legal stuff" for sure cause you will have to stop at the port of entry (or get pulled over and fined very heavily). Cops do pay close attention nowadays to people making repeat trips hauling loads.

You may get away with it for awhile but it would only take one fine of several thousand dollars to completely wipe out any profits and possibly saddle you with a felony that will jeopardize your gun ownership rights.

Are the regs onerous and stupid? Yep, usually, but they are very expensive to ignore and are being enforced more and more rigidly.



I guess you didn't pick up on my sarcasim. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
Why don't you ask the dealer to pay 'dead head'miles?It wouldn't have to be much...10 to 20 cents,to offset the price of unloaded miles.I don't know exactly where you are dilivering but you can get out of Newell and pretty much bypass the scale houses without to much problem.
If I were you I would discuss the insurance with the man you are hauling for, as for liability.There are ways around just about anything,if you need help PM me and I might be able to give you an idea or two.Straycat
 
It's a little more than irritating than to see a guy try to make a few extra bucks to raise a family and stupid gov't regulations just make it more difficult. So much for free enterprise. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif Hope it all works out, SoDak. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
A 100.00 in fuel to go 260 MILES?? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

or is that 100.00 for the round trip of 520 miles?
 
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It's a little more than irritating than to see a guy try to make a few extra bucks to raise a family and stupid gov't regulations just make it more difficult. So much for free enterprise. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif Hope it all works out, SoDak. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif



Straycat: I'll pm you if I run into any issues, thanks!

greg223: I hear you. God forbid a guy tries to work hard to bring home a little more $ to put some food on the table without the govt wanting more than their share.
 
don't quote me but i think you will need authority, fuel permits and possibly more. your best bet is to contact d.o.t, they can tell you more but for my tractor-trailer i would charge $1.50/mile if loaded both ways, $1.75/mile if only one way. on a short trip like 400 mile or less (one way) i would add $.10 to $.25/mile
 
We get 2 dollars a mile loaded and the return trip is on us..

If you are doing this as a commercial aspect (making money or a job) you will need authority, state DOT numbers , fule permits for each state you will travel (known as an IFTA permit) as well as USDOT numbers also. Also you will need a minimum of 500 thousand in insurance (Texas minimum, your stae may be less but it could be more).

If you are caught without all of this, you will definatley regret it when you show up for court and they wack you for several thousand dollars in fines.

DOT laws are there for a reason and that is to help protect the public from unscoupulous truck drivers .

That is not to say that you are unscupulous but you are talking about breaking some very important laws..

Oh yeah, did I mention a log book? If you are caught without it they can redtag you as undrivable for 10 hours. If you decide to go ahead and you just hapen to get caught it can lead to a as far as losing your liscence..

How about a commercial driver's liscence? Gotta have one of those for a commercial one ton now..

That is all I can think of right off the top of my head but if i dug around, I am sure that I could come up with some more........ James L..
 
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We get 2 dollars a mile loaded and the return trip is on us..

If you are doing this as a commercial aspect (making money or a job) you will need authority, state DOT numbers , fule permits for each state you will travel (known as an IFTA permit) as well as USDOT numbers also. Also you will need a minimum of 500 thousand in insurance (Texas minimum, your stae may be less but it could be more).

If you are caught without all of this, you will definatley regret it when you show up for court and they wack you for several thousand dollars in fines.

DOT laws are there for a reason and that is to help protect the public from unscoupulous truck drivers .

That is not to say that you are unscupulous but you are talking about breaking some very important laws..

Oh yeah, did I mention a log book? If you are caught without it they can redtag you as undrivable for 10 hours. If you decide to go ahead and you just hapen to get caught it can lead to a as far as losing your liscence..

How about a commercial driver's liscence? Gotta have one of those for a commercial one ton now..

That is all I can think of right off the top of my head but if i dug around, I am sure that I could come up with some more........ James L..



Umm.. Texas must be A LOT different than SD, 'Cause I just went through a formal commercial truck check recently pulling my 30' gooseneck business trailor with my business name plastered all over the side of it (different than the one mentioned above) with my 1 ton truck with commercail plates and the Hwy patrol and carrier enforcement mentioned NOTHING like what you are talking about. They checked my license (which isn't commercial) they checked my insurance, which is REGULAR vehicle insurance like my wife has on her mini van. The officer asked me to see my yearly trailor inspection report. I told him I didn't know what he was talking about, after he did some checking he decided that my particular rig didn't need the report. And I was on my merry way.

Log book? What? I know what one is but why in the world would I need a log book? Never heard of a fuel permit. Never been asked to see my fuel permit. No DOT or Hwy patrol has ever mentioned anything about a log book or a fuel permit to me.

Not sure what you're talking about. I guess we live in a slower paced world up here than you do. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I can get away with a lot LEAGALLY up here with simple farm tags on my trailor.
 
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first and foremost it depends on how heavy you're tagged... under 26,000# you don't need a CDL, if you don't have air brakes you don't need a CDL... no log book under 26K... as for fuel permits and such that varies so much per state I'll not go there... but still would be a good idea to contact your state DOT and the feds if you're going interstate...
 
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