Brock's 08 Pete 389 engine swap(Yellow to Red?)

[Brock]

(10-31-2019 )DDlighttruck Wrote:  

(10-30-2019 )Brock Wrote:  

(10-30-2019 )flatbed94kid Wrote:  We learn from seeing things like this from you.

That's why I post this story/ info. I get no joy out of coming on a public forum and letting everyone know what a idiot I've been and publically shaming myself but I hope by people reading this, maybe someone will think twice before making the mistakes I have.

In general, is it better to have high monthly income or steady cash flow? I guess ideally you want both?
I’m just asking to learn- you posted $1 million dollars in gross revenue in one year, yet, still showed a loss. I, for one, would like to learn how to avoid that.

This doesn’t really belong in a motor rebuild thread, but I wanted to ask. Thanks

The very first step is running numbers before buying the trucks. You hear that Kevin guy on XM talk about that all the time and for once.... I agree.

I wish I had taken emotion out and just looked at numbers, it would have been so obvious I was making the wrong choices in the wrong way! I just wanted to own a fleet and grow and get rich...... well that didnt happen haha.

I remember doing unrealistic rough numbers based off what I made and saying to my wife "well I know we wont make as much as with 1 truck but it's a extra couple thousand each month that we wouldn't have otherwise" .... WRONG!!!!! That extra couple thousand gets eaten real quick by variances before we even talk about repairs.

Quick guideline off the top of my head.

Take your gross earnings for the last 2 years and average them. Realize that most employees wont earn as much as you and if they earn more gross.... they are probably running the truck harder than you would so remove 5% off the gross or add 5% to maintenance right there.

Even the best drivers will run your truck harder than you will, plus you arent computing drivers as they come and go but instead life of the truck. You may have good drivers today, but they'll be gone one day so add 10% to your maintenance costs.

Add 5% (could be more) to your fuel bill because noone who doesnt pay for fuel will care! I personally wont run my truck or even a heater until were below -5c because I like to save fuel and pajamas and a warm blanket keep me just fine..... no driver would do that.

Then deduct what a realistic wage would be that you would pay your drivers.

Take the net earnings and see if it makes sense, is there enough profit to cover the big ticket items you didnt do in the last 2 years you took the average from? Is it enough extra income to deal with the stress and pain of multiple trucks?

If your otr it may differ a bit from my line of work, I work in a industry where drivers make over 100k a year and the roads we travel are so bad they can destroy a truck very fast when abused so my numbers can differ than that of a otr owner op.

That white Columbia I showed, I bought off a flat deck owner op who blew the turbo and couldn't afford to fix it, he said the truck was nickle and diming him to death so he had to sell the truck to me for just enough money to let him keep running his 1 truck. I bought that damn turbo with pocket change..... I laughed at the repairs he had done because that was any given month for me.... but we had more in common than I realized, and we had both made poor business decisions.