Trucking arrangement

Since getting in this business I have been against shipping to a buyer. I want to either buy or rent a box truck and fill that guy from floor to ceiling with e-waste and drive it to my buyer in the Midwest. There are things that have value as is but don't have much value if your spending 1.00/lb on shipping so it seem logical to rent box truck up and drive it up there yourself. I live in Alabama and I'd be going about 688 miles one way. I understand that the break even and then benefit from this I'd have to have volume but haven't figured out what kind of volume yet. I will though.



What I was wondering is has anybody on this forum ever had an arrangement like "I live here and I'm driving to a buyer here so if you have anything that needs to go to him for the cheap you can meet me on my route and I can deliver it along with mine for X amount of dollars? Haven't been on the forum long enough to know if anyone has tried that or not.

Originally Posted by burrage1

Since getting in this business I have been against shipping to a buyer. I want to either buy or rent a box truck and fill that guy from floor to ceiling with e-waste and drive it to my buyer in the Midwest. There are things that have value as is but don't have much value if your spending 1.00/lb on shipping so it seem logical to rent box truck up and drive it up there yourself. I live in Alabama and I'd be going about 688 miles one way. I understand that the break even and then benefit from this I'd have to have volume but haven't figured out what kind of volume yet. I will though.

What I was wondering is has anybody on this forum ever had an arrangement like "I live here and I'm driving to a buyer here so if you have anything that needs to go to him for the cheap you can meet me on my route and I can deliver it along with mine for X amount of dollars? Haven't been on the forum long enough to know if anyone has tried that or not.

That would be similar to what those guys do on shipping wars kind of.

However, if you go this particular, make 100% sure you what kind of value and material you have.

Also, inform your buyer to pay you directly, and you will take care of the delivery guy, so you are confident that things go smoothly.

Biggest factor you will need to know, is how much weight you are sending in.

For instance, if you are sending in 1,250lbs of motherboards, you want to make sure it all gets there, and not 1,200lbs.

If you have that much stuff to ship, it would cost FAR less than $1/lb. I don't know what kind of prices they charge down there, but I used a smaller shipping company and it cost me under 30 cents/lb for 600 lbs (from Upstate NY to Ohio). Just something to think about

I had a local gentleman "loan" me a pickup (Ford Ranger-cheap on gas) and I supplied half the gas and drove and delivered a load.
Mine alone was not enough to drive but the two together made about a 1200 dollar load.
Splitting the expenses meant that I didn't have much in my load.
That Ranger loaded with totes and still got 28MPG

Unless you just like a road trip it will always be cheaper to ship the boards than you can drive them there....I live in Tennessee and have ran the numbers on driving to Ewasted...........Guess what I'm still shipping em in boxes (LOL)

I like the drive, and you mentioned buying the truck, imagine how you could use it in your business. ive drove to dallas to see easy and don't regret it, I also drive to barrens which is way closer, ill never say this enough, in my experience I like the personal approach and deliver the boards myself, both Stephen and frank went out of their way to show me how to make more money that they never could do over the phone or on a forum. imo

Originally Posted by corycouch

I like the drive, and you mentioned buying the truck, imagine how you could use it in your business. ive drove to dallas to see easy and don't regret it, I also drive to barrens which is way closer, ill never say this enough, in my experience I like the personal approach and deliver the boards myself, both Stephen and frank went out of their way to show me how to make more money that they never could do over the phone or on a forum. imo

Exactly! I believe my buyer is very knowledgeable. It's worth something for me to go down there and spend a little time conversing with him. Plus even if its just once, I'd like give him a face and a personality to go with the name.

Originally Posted by corycouch

I like the drive, and you mentioned buying the truck, imagine how you could use it in your business. ive drove to dallas to see easy and don't regret it, I also drive to barrens which is way closer, ill never say this enough, in my experience I like the personal approach and deliver the boards myself, both Stephen and frank went out of their way to show me how to make more money that they never could do over the phone or on a forum. imo

EXACTLY! IM(not so)HO It's always a good idea to get face-time with your buyer, shoot the breeze over a cup of coffee, getting one-on-one instruction on little tips to make his (and therefore yours) job easier & maximize your payout. You can't do that with a taped-up box. It's 100 miles round-trip from my house to HLH&R down in Waxahatchie... and after going there once I know I don't need any other ewaste outlet. Except for gold mylar, but jghilino will get that once I get a medium flat rate full.

Well their is an equation to figure out what it will cost you.

We will assume the following for a box truck, and this is being generous. Well assume the truck get's 15 MPG empty.

We will then assume that you are transporting 5000 pounds of motherboards at $3.50 per pound.

We will also assume that gas will only cost you $3.50 per gallon

We will also assume that every 50 pounds is a 0.5% drop is gas millage.

The equation is (15/(5000/50*0.5%*3.5))

This will drop your gas millage to 8.57 MPG assuming you got 15 in the first place.

So you are traveling 688 miles each way this will take aproximatly 80.28 Gallons of gas. But we'll round up to 85 for stops, ect.

So your cost in gas is 297.5 each way. For a total of $595

Now knowing this cost, we can see how much it cost you to ship your items. It cost you $0.119 per pound.

But this wont take into account cost of the truck, your weight or anything else.

Lets add the truck. Lets say you rent and it costs you 22 cents a mile in millage and $100 to rent the truck

The millage will cost you an additional $302.72 for a total of 402.72 with rental fees.

Now knowing these costs we can again calculate the cost of shipping your items. It cost you $0.199 or about 20 cents a mile.

So knowing that 5000 pounds of mother boards will net you $17,500 we can subtract your costs.

$17,500 - 595 - 402.72 - (1376*0.199) = Total profit of $16,228.46 or a total cost of $1271.54

Originally Posted by hobo finds

How many mother boards can fit into a box 12 1/4" x 12 1/4" x 6"? I don't think 70 pounds worth!

Grid them into a fine powder first?

Originally Posted by drozenski

Well their is an equation to figure out what it will cost you.

We will assume the following for a box truck, and this is being generous. Well assume the truck get's 15 MPG empty.

We will then assume that you are transporting 5000 pounds of motherboards at $3.50 per pound.

We will also assume that gas will only cost you $3.50 per gallon

We will also assume that every 50 pounds is a 0.5% drop is gas millage.

The equation is (15/(5000/50*0.5%*3.5))

This will drop your gas millage to 8.57 MPG assuming you got 15 in the first place.

So you are traveling 688 miles each way this will take aproximatly 80.28 Gallons of gas. But we'll round up to 85 for stops, ect.

So your cost in gas is 297.5 each way. For a total of $595

Now knowing this cost, we can see how much it cost you to ship your items. It cost you $0.119 per pound.

But this wont take into account cost of the truck, your weight or anything else.

Lets add the truck. Lets say you rent and it costs you 22 cents a mile in millage and $100 to rent the truck

The millage will cost you an additional $302.72 for a total of 402.72 with rental fees.

Now knowing these costs we can again calculate the cost of shipping your items. It cost you $0.199 or about 20 cents a mile.

So knowing that 5000 pounds of mother boards will net you $17,500 we can subtract your costs.

$17,500 - 595 - 402.72 - (1376*0.199) = Total profit of $16,228.46 or a total cost of $1271.54

I had to read this several times lol! That being said I appreciate this formula! Not sure how it'd work for me as there are several factors I would have to include but for now I've cut and pasted it into a file on my own PC. I am going to use it before I leave, just gotta wait and get some data. I did see one small oversight though, I think the gas is off because while I may go there full, I'd come back empty raising my gas milage back up to 15 miles per gallon. That small oversight notwithstanding thank you so much sir!

EDIT: If anyone is interested I am going to put this into an Excel spreed sheet. You'll enter the miles you have to go to your buyer, you miles per gallon empty, the weight of what you are hauling and the other assumables and you'll get an estimate of the cost of making the trip. I'm covered up right now but should be able to tackle it by this weekend. Not sure if you can post an excel spreadsheet on the forum so PM me your e-mail addresses if you'd like one.

It was nice meeting you Alacycle2 & Alacycle1. Keep processing and get ready for August!

I'll call ya later!