Second Quarter Results

These are the figures from my second full quarter as a Lease-Purchase driver at Hill Bros. Note that my quarters don't align with the calendar because my lease started June 6, 2008.

(A reminder from my first quarter results: Your Mileage May Vary. Your numbers would almost certainly differ from mine for any number of reasons, so do not use this as an example of "how much I can make".)

In my first quarter results I mentioned three goals for this quarter:

First, pay off additional monies owed on the set of super-single tires and rims I ordered my truck with. At the time I wrote that report my understanding was that I owed the full amount but, happily, as it turns out that was the gross amount for the tires and did not reflect the refund for the ones I traded in. In short, a $4,000 hit became a $1,500ish hit. I paid this off in full from my maintenance account early on in the quarter.

Second, I had a goal of raising my take home net pay, after all expenses, to $1,200 per week for the quarter. In the first quarter I managed $1,110 per week. As I mentioned in my first quarter results, part of my net pay went to various escrows accounts earlier than required which had the effect of lowering my effective net pay. In the second quarter I not only paid off the tires but also finished filling my maintenance account to $5,000 and also set aside over $1,200 towards paying the balloon payment at the end of my lease.

My third goal was to attempt to average less than 10 cents per mile in fuel costs for my truck for the quarter. I noticed about three weeks from the end of the quarter one week where, up to that point, this number was 9.999 cents but two factors were working against me: first, one extra fueling near the end of the quarter would effectively put me over the mark because I wouldn't have run the miles that fuel was intended for until next quarter. Second, the price of fuel (and the related Fuel Surcharge) has been plummeting which, perversely, hurts me since I make more money running efficiently and capitalizing on the extra money I get for mileage.

Total miles run this quarter were 35,583, as compared to roughly 37,000 for the first quarter. I attribute this to having taken more time off and a few loads I've turned down. Total paid miles are 33,355, giving an out of route percent of 6.68%.

Total fuel expense was 15,723, compared to 22,533 for the first quarter.
Total FSC paid was 12,145, compared to 18,587 for the first quarter.
Adjusted fuel expense was 3,578, compared to 3,946 for the first quarter.

Total revenue paid to truck was 44,381, compared to 50,585 for the first quarter.
Revenue per mile was 1.33, compared to 1.49 for the first quarter.

The price of fuel fell dramatically this quarter, along with the FSC. Since the pay I get per mile is mostly fixed, the largest variable in my revenue per mile is the cost of fuel, so it has naturally gone down as well.

My net pay was 14,645, compared to 14,433 for the first quarter. In addition, I paid an extra 5,249 into various escrow accounts for a total of 19,894. This comes out to 1,530 per week net pay, all told.

Those are the numbers, but what does it boil down to?

Total revenue fell by more than ten percent, but my net pay rose by about two percent before considering the extra money I spent on tires and paid towards escrows. Average miles per week fell by about two percent.

The bottom line is that I drove a bit less, made a bit less per mile but my expenses fell by a larger percentage leaving a larger net profit.

NET PAY BY WEEK

14: 1434
15: 2236
16: 1344
17: 1091
18: 1064
19: 1207
20: 2159
21: 1805
22: 0 (+ 1077 towards escrows)
23: 0 (+ 1676 towards escrows)
24: 0 (+ 1496 towards escrows)
25: 1491 (+ 500 towards escrows)
26: 814 (+ 500 towards escrows)

As you can see, every week this quarter I netted more than $1,000, though in some weeks that money went into maintenance or savings escrow accounts. Since my maintenance escrow is maxxed out, next quarter should show $500 per week going into savings for my balloon payment and the rest heading to my bank account.


GOALS FOR MY THIRD QUARTER

My long term goal for my lease is to pay it off a year early (in three years instead of four). To do this will require a balloon payment of something on the order of $60,000 ten quarters or 130 weeks from now. In order to accomplish this I need to set aside approximately 500 dollars per week. I started having these monies withheld in the last few weeks of my second quarter. So, my first goal for the third quarter is to make at least enough money per week to cover this expense to keep the long term goal on course.

I managed to bring my adjusted fuel expense per mile down from 10.66 cents in the first quarter to 10.06 cents in the second. Mostly, this was due to lowering my Out Of Route mileage percent from 9.15% to 6.68% of total miles driven. The lower cost of fuel and resulting lower FSC reimbursement hurts in this respect, since my thrift isn't as greatly rewarded when fuel is cheaper. Still, my second goal is to maintain or improve upon this number, keeping my adjusted fuel expense to no more than 10.5 cents per gallon for the quarter.

My third goal, now that all my escrows have been paid up in full, is to consistently average a net of at least $1,300 per week throughout the quarter. Since $500 of this is automatically taken out to go towards the balloon payment in 2011, that will leave at least $800 per week in net pay to my bank account. $800 per week for 52 weeks is $41,600 in profit to my bank account after having paid every truck expense and also arranged to take care of the buyout of the truck a full year early.

My next quarter ends the first week of March, 2009.