Hauling RV's for Money
For those of you who might be thinking of hauling RV's as a workcamping job I thought I'd share my experience.
NOTE: I am purposely NOT putting this in the workcamping forum as this is not an advertisement and there is virtually no readership there. (it seems completely dead??)
I was interested in hauling RV's for a while but came to it with a degree of skepticism. So when I came back from spending 4 months in Europe this spring and summer I decided to try it.
I researched it and decided on Horizon Transport arguably the largest RV transport company in the US.
I have nothing negative to say about Horizon they said what they would do and did it. It seems very well managed and the people there were great.
But economically this was not worth it for the time and money invested. I did some careful looks at the numbers before I took the job and saw immediately that it would be difficult to really do well if you counted in your trucks depreciation over and above it's normal rate.
I looked at pretty much all of the possibilities. Horizon's new truck lease program, buying an older 2nd truck just for the job and using my present truck. All resulted in very low margins...about the 20 to 25% range. That wasnt enough for me.
Two of the biggest issues on the expense side was the high cost of Diesel and Hotel stays. My per mile cost of fuel was between .22 to .24 per mile. I got paid between $1.20/mile (for only some loads out of Idaho) and $1.35/mile for loads out of Indiana.
The real killer is the deadhead cost to return from the west coast to Indiana to get another trailer.
So if you get paid to take a trailer from Indiana to Albuquerque at 1440 paid miles at $1.35/mile for a total of $1944. You can do this trip in 2 1/2 days legally under the federal HOS rules. But you then must turn around and pay fuel and hotel to get back to Indiana.
Now my situation may have contributed to my low margins, My truck has no sleeper (as many people do who do this) so I had to stay in motels. I am based for this period out of Tucson (a long ways from Wakarusa Indiana)However when I ran the numbers basing myself in Michigan (a days drive from Wakarusa)the result was basically the same as any trip to the west coast would still result in the same costs.
Now Horizon gives you a Comdata card which entitles you to some really substantial discounts on fuel at some Truck stops but it is still not enough to offset the high cost of fuel. And they have great discounts at Red Roof inn but there are not enough of them to ensure a consistent low cost.
My take away from this is pretty simple. If you have a 1 ton truck, with a class A CDL (I have a CDL)with both bumper pull and fifth wheel hitch set up and a sleeper you can haul the largest array of units giving you more load opportunities and thus higher per mile pay and a bit better margin. But unless you have all of that the margins may be too small to make it worth your while.
I do workcamping mostly to keep busy it is not necessary for my living or travel. But still I want to get a reasonable return for my efforts. We are sad this didnt work out, we knew it was iffy but gave it a chance anyway. The big upside is I learned alot about the RV industry.
NOTE: I am purposely NOT putting this in the workcamping forum as this is not an advertisement and there is virtually no readership there. (it seems completely dead??)
I was interested in hauling RV's for a while but came to it with a degree of skepticism. So when I came back from spending 4 months in Europe this spring and summer I decided to try it.
I researched it and decided on Horizon Transport arguably the largest RV transport company in the US.
I have nothing negative to say about Horizon they said what they would do and did it. It seems very well managed and the people there were great.
But economically this was not worth it for the time and money invested. I did some careful looks at the numbers before I took the job and saw immediately that it would be difficult to really do well if you counted in your trucks depreciation over and above it's normal rate.
I looked at pretty much all of the possibilities. Horizon's new truck lease program, buying an older 2nd truck just for the job and using my present truck. All resulted in very low margins...about the 20 to 25% range. That wasnt enough for me.
Two of the biggest issues on the expense side was the high cost of Diesel and Hotel stays. My per mile cost of fuel was between .22 to .24 per mile. I got paid between $1.20/mile (for only some loads out of Idaho) and $1.35/mile for loads out of Indiana.
The real killer is the deadhead cost to return from the west coast to Indiana to get another trailer.
So if you get paid to take a trailer from Indiana to Albuquerque at 1440 paid miles at $1.35/mile for a total of $1944. You can do this trip in 2 1/2 days legally under the federal HOS rules. But you then must turn around and pay fuel and hotel to get back to Indiana.
Now my situation may have contributed to my low margins, My truck has no sleeper (as many people do who do this) so I had to stay in motels. I am based for this period out of Tucson (a long ways from Wakarusa Indiana)However when I ran the numbers basing myself in Michigan (a days drive from Wakarusa)the result was basically the same as any trip to the west coast would still result in the same costs.
Now Horizon gives you a Comdata card which entitles you to some really substantial discounts on fuel at some Truck stops but it is still not enough to offset the high cost of fuel. And they have great discounts at Red Roof inn but there are not enough of them to ensure a consistent low cost.
My take away from this is pretty simple. If you have a 1 ton truck, with a class A CDL (I have a CDL)with both bumper pull and fifth wheel hitch set up and a sleeper you can haul the largest array of units giving you more load opportunities and thus higher per mile pay and a bit better margin. But unless you have all of that the margins may be too small to make it worth your while.
I do workcamping mostly to keep busy it is not necessary for my living or travel. But still I want to get a reasonable return for my efforts. We are sad this didnt work out, we knew it was iffy but gave it a chance anyway. The big upside is I learned alot about the RV industry.
