GPS Tracking Can’t Save That Much, Can It?
Here’s a recent item of interest about the actual cost of driving from MercuryNews.COM
Q How much does it really cost to drive a car one mile, taking into account the cost of gas, insurance, maintenance and depreciation? It certainly makes one reconsider driving to the grocery store for milk and is helpful when driving around a group of freeloaders who think a donation of a few dollars will more than cover the expense.
Barbara Horning
Morgan Hill
A About 62 cents a mile on average, according to calculations based on a formula by the state auto club with gas selling for $3.50 a gallon. That’s up from 56 cents a mile a year ago. The cost varies from about 45 cents a mile for a small car to close to 70 cents for a sport-utility vehicle or van. Click on www.csaa.com and search for Your Driving Costs. The AAA form is based on gas selling at $2.26 a gallon, so update the numbers to figure in today’s price of about $3.50 a gallon.
OK, gas is much more like $4 a gallon now … just a few weeks since I first noted this article for a future blog post. Wow. And how much more than a passenger car does a truck cost to run … especially a heavier truck in delivery or point-to-point freight operation? Mind boggling at times.
I should have posted this on Earth Day. We all know we should do something, but hey, it’s hard for many of us. we’re often in the position of running on a treadmill … trying to earn enough just to cover costs and maybe have enough left over to pay the kid’s dental bills.
So, with all that going on, this guy Dave is trying to sell me GPS?
Well, actually, I am not selling anything. I’m trying to help you close that gap between income and outgo so that becky can get those braces she needs this year.
How many miles do you vehicles drive in a month? 2000? 3000? How many do you have on the road? 2?, 10?, 27? Let’s make it simple. Suppose you have 10 vehicles … small ones … doing 2,000 a month. That’s a direct cost of about $14,000 a month your business has to generate in profits before you can even begin to break even.
Installing a quality, industry-standard tracking system on these vehicles and using it to monitor nothing but excess mileage and fuel economy will save you 20%, at least. I’ve installed and monitored thousands of these systems and I’ve never seen less.
To equip 10 vehicles should cost you less than $7,000 … including an allowance for some downtime, employee training, etc.
$7,000 to earn back, and $2800 a month in savings. How many months will it be before you show a profit? Looks like about 2 and a half to me. So after 2.5 months you are going to be $2800 ahead of the game every month? Eight more full months of savings in the first year looks like a bit over $22,000 to me. I know some of those orthodontists are expensive, but that ought t6o cover Becky’s braces, don’t you think.
Of course, if gas and diesel drops in price you might save less. Hmm, wanna bet that is going to happen?