Cost Logistics of Hauling Cars

[88Racing]

What I saw this morning just made me think if the car hauling company was coming out ahead of the game.

They(1 driver and 1 passenger) were driving a 88 chevy 1 ton dually probably with the 454. What they were hauling were 2 smart cars(the cars looked used).

Option 1.
Truck and trailer.
400 miles total.
5 mpg.
Gas $2/gallon.
$160 of gas.
2 people@$9/hr each.
Total time pickup and back 8 hours.
Labor $144.
Total $304.
Not including wear factor.

Option 2.
400 miles total.
Gas@$2/gallon.
Driving the cars.
3 people@ $9/hr.
7 hrs total.
No load time.
$189 labor.
Transport car gets 30 mpg.
Roughly 13 gallons.
$28
Each smart car gets 50 mpg.
4 gal each.
8 gal total.
$16
$233 total.
Not including wear factor.

Now not all dealers pay out like this. Just thought I'd like to see the difference.

So
$304-$233::$71
That's the savings with option 2.

-Lars

[Sburn]

Originally Posted by 88Racing

What I saw this morning just made me think if the car hauling company was coming out ahead of the game.

So
$304-$233::$71
That's the savings with option 2.

-Lars

I love these kinds of costing excercises.

With two cars to be moved, you might be right that it's cheaper to just use two drivers to drive the cars. But there's probably more stuff to be considered:

$9.00 an hour doesn't cover the true people costs, at least not for the kind of folks you would actually want driving new cars hundreds of miles on the interstate. It might cover the paycheck, but there's payroll taxes, healthcare, SSI, etc. So even with 9 bucks and hour to the driver, the actual cost will be more like $14 or $15 per hour to the employer. A bad business decision would be to, "just find some college kids and give 'em a few bucks cash"

Is it acceptable to the customer that a few hundred miles are added to the car during transportation? If a used car, maybe that's OK. But for a brand-new car, a couple hundred miles on the clock is probably not going to be OK.

How about rock dings and other such minor damage from driving on the highway? If I load the cars on a transporter, I can wrap them up nice to prevent that.

In the case of the transporter, it "scales" well for added cars. Same truck/trailer at 5 mpg, but there's little added cost for taking a third or fourth car on the same run. No extra driving labor, no extra gas.

Insurance? I got one or two drivers to insure with the truck/trailer, and a minimum of two drivers for on-the-road method. Not sure what kind of trailer you saw, but if it's big enough, it might require a driver with a commercial license. That's good, bucease we're more likely to get professional driver with a clean DMV record. But somebody with a commercial license won't be around long at 9 bucks an hour.

But, my bigger rig, aside from the gas costs also has bigger insurance, maintenance, and finance costs. Those costs tend to be fixed (monthly nut), so my cost per transported vehicle per mile goes down for each additional car I can load on the rig.

Also, we need to account for getting everybody and everything back home at the end. Fly our drivers back after putting them up for a night in a hotel? Take an extra vehicle for the return trip? Drive the transporter back empty?


Yes, this kind of analysis passes for "fun" in my world.

[88Racing]

Yeah
I know
I know
I know
I was just trying to use the KISS strategy.

Kinda of struct me in odd way this morning. Seeing 2 USED smart cars being hauled by a gas guzzler.

I know of the transport company also and probably where they got the cars from. Back when gas was really high, what would they do?

I do this for a local dealer on the weekends. Making $9/hr.

Thanks for the input. The response was great!

-Lars

[Jackpine]

And, to carry it to extremes, think of the railroad radio commercial that points out that they can haul a ton of freight for over 400 miles on ONE gallon of fuel!

It's all in cost per unit delivered, isn't it? An SUV makes sense in terms of cost per passenger per mile if the vehicle is full of people. And, so does an airplane. If the CEOs of the Big 3 had flown coach in a overbooked plane, they could have said they got to Washington by the cheapest route. They actually spent more than that, in terms of fuel used per passenger, by driving their little "economy" vehicles on the second visit.

Like you Sburn, I love this kind of analysis.

- Jack

[88Racing]

There are so many other factors also like being in the car pool lane and getting caught because your the only one. Another one driving at excessive speeds and getting a ticket, not only that your gas milage goes out the door and your insurance goes up because the ticket was over 15 mph the posted speed limit not mentioning the excess wear and tear. Well I could keep on going with this but mobile devices bite as far as typing goes. Hey we could do a cost breakdown on that too. (yeah someday)

Lars

[Sburn]

Originally Posted by JackandJanet

If the CEOs of the Big 3 had flown coach in a overbooked plane, they could have said they got to Washington by the cheapest route. They actually spent more than that, in terms of fuel used per passenger, by driving their little "economy" vehicles on the second visit.

- Jack

On one hand, a reasonable case has been made for executives flying on private Gulfstreams. The logic being that if you have somebody who gets paid a couple of million a year, you don't want to waste a second of that expensive time by having the guy spend an hour or two standing in line at the airport on both ends, not being able to use the laptop, or to rearrange meetings and such to fit into commercial air schedules. So if CEO's productive time cost is more than the cost of piloting, leasing, fueling and maintaining a private jet, it might appear to work on paper.

But, Detroit really blew it on their trips to Congress. If they would have shown up in their Gulfstreams with actual bulletproof costs detailing how the private jets were supplying value to the shareholders, they might have avoided the hammering they got and deserved. Likewise on the ploy of showing up in the little economy cars the second time.

Of course, after the theater of arriving in the eco-cars, I'm sure they ate at Hometown Buffet and spent the night at a Motel-6 to save even more of our money :bluewink:

[Power Hungry]

Originally Posted by Sburn

Of course, after the theater of arriving in the eco-cars, I'm sure they ate at Hometown Buffet and spent the night at a Motel-6 to save even more of our money :bluewink:

I'm a "Waffle House" person, myself. Me... and Kid Rock.

[bbbxcursion]

I love waffle house, it's just down the street

[Power Hungry]

Originally Posted by bbbxcursion

I love waffle house, it's just down the street

Glad to know I'm in good company.

+ =

Scattered, Covered, Capped, and Topped (with Bert's Chili). Any day... Any time!