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The Truckers Trip Planning App Blog provides Industry news and discussions about truckers trip planning and load decisions geared towards helping company truck drivers, leased operators and owner operators gain greater profits from the loads they run.

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Learn how to update the Trucker Trip Planning Worksheet from the Truckers Trip Planning App so that it can correctly calculate your required hours of service, your Estimated Time of Arrivals (ETA), your Next Available Time (NAT), and your remaining hours of service for a load.


Objective: Use the Trucker Trip Planning Worksheet as the initial tool in determining whether you have the required hours of service and whether you can successfully deliver the load on time before accepting the load.


YOU MUST correctly enter your dispatch into the #TruckerTripPlanningWorksheet for it to accurately calculate your hours of service and ETA requirements.


Trucker Trip Planning Worksheet image

There are critical pieces of information that you cannot omit!

  1. You must have correctly chosen your #hoursofservice preference.

  2. You must correctly choose the correct speed in which you will travel.

  3. You must correctly choose the number of stops on your dispatch.

  4. You must correctly select the number of fuel stops you will need.

  5. You must correctly choose the number of load and unload hours.

  6. You must enter a distance to your pickup from your current location and even if you are already there you must enter at least 1 mile or kilometer.

  7. You must enter the correct date of your pick up appointment.

  8. You must enter the correct time of your pickup and if you have a window you should use the latest time of that window. You Must correctly choose whether that time is a.m or p.m.

  9. You must enter the correct distance from your pick up to your next stop. If you have multiple stops on your load, you must enter the distance between each stop on your load. If your next stop is your delivery location, you must enter the distance from your pickup to your delivery.

  10. You must select whether you will travel East or West and the number of time zones you will cross.

With the required information entered into the trucker trip planning worksheet, you simply need to select the button to "Check Your ETA's".


Get Access to the Truckers Trip Planning App and Use the Trucker Trip Planning Worksheet to determine whether you have the required hours of service and whether you can successfully deliver your load on time before accepting the load.

 
 
 

Updated: Sep 2, 2018

Calculating trucking rates per mile using the trucking rates calculator from the Truckers Trip Planning App's Trucker Trip Sheet helps you to quickly see what rate a load is actually paying per mile.


The objective: Compare the load's rate per mile to your trucks operating cost per mile or kilometer and understand two things: 1) If the load's rate per mile is less than your trucks operating cost per mile, unless you can make up for it later, you are going to eventually pay for this load out of your pocket. If you are already in the hole, you should demand that you be assigned a profitable load. 2) If the load's rate per mile is equal to or greater than your trucks operating cost per mile, you will either break even or earn a profit with the load.


To calculate your trucking rates per mile, let us re-emphasize that leased operators and owner operators need to know their numbers. You need to know the total distance from your current location to the delivery location for your load's delivery,


the average miles or kilometers your truck gets per gallon of fuel, the average cost of fuel at the time of the load, and the actual load pay for the load which includes the actual fuel surcharge for the trucking rates calculator to accurately calculate the rate per mile for the load.


If you are an Owner Operator and are operating under your own authority, then you will be receiving 100% of the #loadpay and the #fuelsurcharge. If You are a Leased Operator or Owner Operator who is operating under the authority of a Trucking Company, then you should be able to see in your contract which is required by regulations that are found in Part 376, §§376.11 and 376.12 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations referred to as the “truth in leasing” regulations what percentage of the load pay and the fuel surcharge you have agreed to.

The total distance to the delivery location is automatically pulled into the trucking rates calculator from the Truckers Trip Planning Worksheet when you entered your dispatch.


You should be able to use the performance tab on your Qualcomm to obtain the average miles or kilometers that your truck gets and you could simply do a search to obtain the average cost of diesel.


Now! Just load your numbers into the trucking rates calculator from the Truckers Trip Planning App's Trucker Trip Sheet and Calculating trucking rates per mile is made simple.



Get Access to the Truckers Trip Planning App and quickly calculate trucking rates per mile for your loads today.

 
 
 

Updated: Sep 1, 2018


Learn how to calculate trucking cost per mile and determine your truck operating cost using the Truckers Cost Per Mile Calculator from the Truckers Trip Planning App.


Truck Cost Per Mile Calculator from the Truckers Trip Planning App

As a Leased Operator or Owner Operator you need to know your trucks operating cost in order to select profitable loads. This should be the first step that you take when you first purchase and download the Truckers Trip Planning App.


Once you set up the #TruckersCostPerMileCalculator, it will be available for all future loads and you will only need to add and make changes as they become necessary.


The Truckers Cost Per Mile Calculator opens with the Total miles or kilometers set to 100,000 and the salary percentage set to 30%. This is just an average to use based upon a yearly operating cost preference. You can change this information to meet your preference.


To calculate trucking cost per mile for your trucking business, you will need to have available, your settlement statements, all associated #fixedcost and #variablecost expenses, and of course the #totalmilesdriven during the period in which you intend to calculate your truck operating cost per mile. The overall objective is to determine the minimum rate per mile that you can accept when selecting your loads to either achieve a break even point or to earn a profit with the load.


How To Calculate Trucking Cost Per Mile Using The Truckers Cost Per Mile Calculator From The Truckers Trip Planning App.


  1. On the workflow page of the App, open the Truckers Cost Per Mile Calculator by tapping on the icon on the left.

  2. Make your decision as to whether you want to calculate your operating cost based on weekly, monthly, or yearly miles driven.

  3. Enter the total miles you drove during the period in which you selected.

  4. Determine what percentage of the total vehicle cost you want to add as a personal salary. This is separate from the actual cost of operating your truck and can be adjusted as you monitor your #successmetrics and make adjustments to increase your #loadprofitability which will be discussed in a future post.

  5. Enter the decimal value of your salary percent into the box provided.

  6. Make a determination from your settlement statements which of your expenses are fixed cost and those expenses which are variable cost. Fixed cost are those cost in which you will have to pay regardless if the wheels on your truck are turning and variable cost are those cost that you have an option to pay or avoid paying by choosing alternatives. Examples of Fixed Cost are truck payments, health insurance, physical damage insurance, trailer rental, base plates and permits, Accounting, and such things that you would have to pay even if you do not run any loads. Examples of variable cost are tolls, scales, internet, fuel, diesel exhaust fluid, and such things that you will only need if the wheels are turning and such things that you can avoid purchasing if you so choose to do so.

  7. Based on your decision to calculate trucking cost per mile on either a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis, enter your fixed cost and the amount of the recurring cost into the fixed cost section of the Truckers Cost Per Mile Calculator and clicking on the "+" to add lines for each entry. The cents per mile, the total fixed cost, and the fixed cost per mile or kilometer will be automatically calculated based upon your recurring cost. While you update your fixed cost, the Truckers Cost Per Mile Calculator will also build a chart that you can view later to see which of your fixed cost should be consistently monitored.

  8. Based on your decision to calculate trucking cost per mile on either a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis, enter your variable cost and the amount of the recurring cost into the variable cost section of the Truckers Cost Per Mile Calculator and clicking on the "+" to add lines for each entry. The cents per mile, the total variable cost, and the variable cost per mile or kilometer will be automatically calculated based upon your recurring cost. While you update your variable cost, the Truckers Cost Per Mile Calculator will also build a chart that you can view later to see which of your variable cost should be consistently monitored.

  9. After you have completely updated your fixed and variable cost, scroll to the bottom of the Truckers Cost Per Mile Calculator to see the truck cost per mile or kilometer, the salary cost per mile or kilometer, and the operating cost per mile or kilometer which was also calculated as you updated your fixed and variable cost. Notice that the operating cost per mile or kilometer is a combination of the truck cost per mile or kilometer and the salary cost per mile or kilometer. The operating cost per mile or kilometer is the minimum rate in which a load should pay for you to achieve a break even point. Any thing above that amount would help you to achieve a business profit. Any thing below that amount would cause you to achieve a business loss.

  10. You can now close the Truckers Cost Per Mile Calculator and return to the workflow page of the Truckers Trip Planning App to begin planning your loads.

Get Access to the Truckers Trip Planning App and calculate trucking cost per mile for your truck today.


 
 
 
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