I know owner-operators who only track the revenue on a load and how much the fuel costs will be.  They run their business (or hobby I should say) like that and wonder why they can't get ahead.  That's a classic example of a truck driver who buys a truck and continues to act as a truck driver.  To succeed, you must be a business person first and a truck driver second.

I track all fuel purchases by writing odometer reading on receipt and then recording price, gallons, fuel mileage and state where purchased.  All this is needed for IFTA. 

Here's a list of what I track monthly on a spreadsheet:  These are what I call KPI's or Key Point Indicators.

1. Total Miles - from home until I get back home

2. Revenue in Dollars

3. Revenue per Mile -from home until I get back home

4. Average Fuel Cost

5. Fuel Mileage

6. Fuel Costs per Mile -Fuel Cost per gallon divided by Fuel Mileage

7. Cost to Operate -I have a fixed number for the other expenses and I add my fuel cost per mile for that month to obtain this number

8. Profit - Revenue per mile that exceeds my cost to operate per mile

9. National Fuel Price Average -www.eia.gov

10. Remarks -  anything to add context to the numbers; ie. No deadheading, out sick for a week, truck down for maintenance for 4 days, etc..

I've found that by tracking these KPI's monthly, I'm able to easily identify areas for improvement.  I'm able to accurately determine how much profit I'll make on a certain load and be in a position to compete more aggressively with the competition. Start tracking your Key Point Indicators (KPI's) to make 2015 your best year in business ever.

Comments (5)

Joey Slaughter

Joey Slaughter is the owner of Blue Ridge Transport, LLC. Joey has been in the trucking industry since 1992.

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Joey Slaughter

Thanks Chet! It's good to hear from down under!

January 05, 2015 20:43:05 PM

chet cline

Agree totally Joey. We work with and sell to lots of truck operators. It amazes me that most don't know how long their tires last, only know the fuel use because the dash tells them, have never checked, or done the arithmetic. Here in australia, most don't care about aero. Don't keep track of fuel use. They just feed it, fit new tires, and hope they make a dollar at the end of the job. It's a business folks.

January 05, 2015 0:09:46 AM

Joey Slaughter

Jeff, that might work, but I'm moving freight at market prices which change from hour to hour so I don't think I'd be able to find any useful trends.

January 04, 2015 22:43:42 PM

Linda Caffee

Personally Jeff I like to average loads as it is to easy to get stuck on cherry picking and then the fixed expenses get you.

January 04, 2015 6:24:32 AM

Jeff Clark

Remember that in Accounting the smaller the break down the better - for instance you can track revenue by trip or location. If for instance you track your revenue by trips to a certain area you can always add those trips - to the revenue to trips to other areas to calculate total revenue. If you start out with total revenue - it will be harder to separate into smaller units. You can find the most profitable runs that way.

January 04, 2015 5:57:18 AM