Haulin Assets

#29. Understanding IFTA and Fuel Taxes

Ben Franklin made the phrase, “a penny saved is a penny earned” popular, and there is no industry where that saying holds more true than the trucking industry. A savings of 6 cents a gallon of fuel is like saving 1 cent per mile. When you are driving over 500 miles a day, 1 cent a mile adds up to thousands of dollars a year.

Purchasing fuel smartly is one of the easiest ways to save money. In the past I have talked about how fuel planning and a good fuel card can save you lots of money. I want to take it one step further and show you how understanding fuel taxes can help you save even more.

Most people don’t understand how the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) and fuel taxes work. Those who do will save money on their fuel. I had an experience recently that illustrates this point. Listen to this episode for a full explanation.

See the full show notes here, and check out the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.

#28. October Financials

Things are looking better for the month of October than they were for the few months previous. That's not to say that nothing unexpected or difficult came up, but thanks to Chris's preparedness and the relationships he's cultivated, he was still able to turn a decent profit even while driving slightly less than his monthly average.

In today's episode, Chris shares with Craig the numbers for October and also shares some stories that illustrate why it's so important to cultivate relationships--you never know when the right one will be there to help your business thrive. Another story illustrates Chris's point from last week to be wary of a few things that brokers might do to make your life harder than it needs to be.

See all show notes at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.

#27. Don't Get Screwed, Broker Edition

There are good brokers and bad brokers; you need to know how to deal with the guys who don't care about you or your business and just want to get everything out of you that they can. Listen to this episode to learn what to watch out for when dealing with brokers.

Why I'm Doing Haulin Assets

In this episode I also talked a bit more about my background and why I am doing this podcast. I mentioned a couple of my businesses that provide different services to the trucking industry. If you ever had a need for any of the services we provide, we would love to have yo consider working with us.

Motor Carrier HQ helps drivers who want to start their own trucking company go through the startup process and it helps them with other administrative requirements like DOT compliance, IFTA, etc. you can check it out at motorcarrierhq.com.

I also mentioned iThrive Funding that helps trucking companies manage their cashflow and billing paperwork through factoring, you can check them out at ithrivefunding.com.

What to Expect From Episode 27

Craig and I discuss the difference between transactional relationships and lasting relationships. Most brokers work with owner operators like it's a transactional relationship. Basically, they don't care if they ever do business with you again, and that's how they treat you, and some will try to take advantage of you. Because of that, you need to be careful with how you deal with them so you are protected.

Here are the main things you need to watch out for, we cover them in detail during this episode, including what you can do to prevent them from happening to you:

• Not getting paid for a load
• Not getting paid for detention
• Not getting reimbursed for lumper fees

Other Things to Be Careful Of:

• Watch out for brokers who promise the world.
• Read the rate sheet, look for hidden fees, fines, and weird conditions.
• Be wary of brokers who have been in business for less than 12 months.

See all show notes at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.

#26. Control Your Circumstances

What does it mean to control your circumstances, when so much seems to be out of our control? In this episode, Chris argues that there's more within your control than you might think, if you're willing to put in the work to see it. It takes discipline and foresight, but controlling your circumstances -- to an extent! -- is not only possible, it's actually not too complicated either.

Chris gives a couple of recent examples from the road to illustrate how he's taken control of his own circumstances... and how he failed to, in one case.

See the full show notes at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.

#25. Don't Get Screwed

It's a dangerous world out there for truck drivers and not all dangers are on the road. If you want to see me get fire up, start talking to me about ways truck drivers and trucking company owners get taken advantage of. In this episode I cover some of the more common ways I have seen drivers and owners being taken advantage of.

There are a lot of ways I see people being tricked and taken advantage of. Just like wild animals warn you by making some kind of noise or physical display before they attack, most predators in the trucking industry give warnings too. Below are some of the things that are warning signs you should watch out for. During the episode Craig and I go into more detail and give some examples. Hopefully listening to this episode will help you avoid these traps.

They Try To Make Themselves Look Like The FMCSA or DOT

They Use Scare Tactics

How Do You Protect Yourself?

Do some research. There are plenty of websites that you can use to help you be safe. My favorite is to use Google reviews. You have heard me talk about this with shippers. I use it for companies I am going to do business with too. Don't just look at the star rating, read some of the reviews. No company out there will have a perfect rating, but ratings should be high and the reviews people write are what really tell the story. Try to look at reviews for several companies that provide the same service and factor their rating along with the price they charge to determine who you will use.

Facebook has ratings and reviews too. Other rating services like the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or Trust Pilot are rating companies businesses subscribe too. There ratings can be helpful, but I always take them with a grain of salt because the company they are rating has paid them and I have had too many bad experiences with companies that they rate highly to take them at face value.

I'd love to hear what you do to keep from getting scammed, let us know in the comments at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also see the full show notes and hear previous episodes.

#24. September Financials

It’s another episode where we go over the financials for Haulin Assets.

Over all, it was a pretty good month. Here is a quick overview, we talk about all the details. There are a lot of things that happened this month and we talk about all of them in this episode, so give it a listen. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see copies of the Profit and Loss Statement and the Balance Sheet.

• Total Miles Ran-10,520
• Deadhead Miles-1,157
• Total Revenue-$20,939.04
• All In Rate Per Mile-$1.99
• Full Days on the road-13
• Partial Days on the road-6

In the end Haulin Assets realized a profit of $1,099.86. The synopsis is that revenue was good for the month, but expenses were a lot higher than normal. Listen to the entire episode to learn more about the details, specifically which expenses were so high and why.

The company that replaced my trailer tire I discussed was Kent's Tire out of Wichita Falls, TX. They were super fast, didn't even have time to burn a 30 minute rest break.

See the full show notes at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.

#23. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

In this episode Craig and I cover two topics. First, we talk about the UCR (Unified Carrier Registration) fee and how it brings out the dark side of the trucking industry and then we talk about a life principle that is super important for anyone who runs their own business.

It’s kind of strange because these two topics are really not related, but I wanted to cover the UCR because this is the time of year the predators start to come out and take advantage of owner operators, so it got plugged into the beginning of this episode.

Unified Carrier Registration aka UCR and Shady Business Practices

You can learn more about exactly what the UCR is by checking out this blog post about it. In the podcast I talk about how a lot of companies use scare tactics to try to get you to pay way too much for them to take care of it for you. I have seen companies charge over $300 to file the UCR for a one-truck company. It should cost less than half that for a third-party company to provide that service.

Be careful out there. If you ever have a question about a fee someone is trying to charge you for that you are not confident you owe, give one of our coaches at Motor Carrier HQ a call and they will let you know if it is legitimate or not, those calls are always free.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

On the surface, this may seem like a lame, unimportant topic, but let me assure you it is critical. It is human nature to want to focus on things that we are good at or that we enjoy doing, while we avoid doing tasks we dislike or are not good at. In this episode we discuss why it is important to do some of those tasks and how that will make you more successful.

Here are some of the things I see a lot of trucking company owners avoiding or not doing that they need to do:

• Understanding the numbers in your business
• Talking to shippers
• Negotiating rates
• Being nice to everyone
• Saving money

We go into each one of these items in detail during the episode. See the full show notes at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.

#22 - Eating Out vs Store Bought Food

I thought it would be fun to see how much  of a cost difference it would to eat out for a week verses eating store bought food for a week. I was shocked at the difference. Listen to the episode for the full details, but some of the highlights are below. Leave a comment let me know what you do to save money on the road.

In this episode Craig and I talk about my little experiment to determine the cost difference between eating at truck stops and restaurants for a week compared to eating food I bought at Walmart and was prepared at home or on the road. The difference was shocking.

See the full show notes at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.

#21. August Financials

I'm pleasantly surprised I made money in August. If you have been listening to the podcast, you will know I am in the Army National Guard and I did my two-week training period during August. I was only on the road for 10 full days and two partial days in August. My total mileage for the month was only 6,645.

Even with half the month off I was able to make all the important payments and the company made $595.65. The down side was, as a driver I earned half of what I normally would. Luckily, I get paid from the National Guard to make up for it.

In this episode Craig and I review the Haulin Assets financial statements for August.  We also talk about the effects of only running half a month and how that affected the profit and loss statement and balance sheet. You can see both in the full show notes at HaulinAssetsLLC.com.

#20. Understanding Cost Per Mile

This is another topic that's important enough that we'll revisit it a few times over our first year or so. Cost per mile is a vital number to know for your business, and if you know it, you've already got a leg up on about 80% of the other owner-operators out there.

So why do you need to know your cost per mile?

• It helps you make important business decisions
• It ensures you take the right loads
• It helps you know if you're spending too much in certain categories, like fuel or repairs

What goes into cost per mile?

• Number of miles you drive
• Your fixed costs and variable costs

Knowing the difference between fixed and variable costs will really up your game as a business owner, and that's what we'll discuss on today's episode.

Check out our Cost Per Mile Calculator at MotorCarrierHQ.com. And visit the Haulin Assets website to hear previous episodes and view full show notes.