Need help figuring mileage!

[Jennasis]

One of my clients asked us to trailer her horse to a clinic for her since she doesn't have a trailer. Gas is ridiculously pricey and even more so when you are towing something.

We had our mileage set at $0.80/mile way before the gas prices shot up (since last year actually). The place we'd be trailering her horse to is 58 miles away (one way), so that makes it 116 miles round trip (and we'd have to pick her up and bring her home 3 days later since the clinic is lasting an entire weekend). This means we will be travelling 232 miles at an approximate cost to our client of $185. I don't want to rake my student over the coals, but I want to be fairly compensated for our time and use of the trailer/truck.

SO is $0.80/mile reasonable?

 

[browneyes]

What kind of mileage does the truck get?

 

[aprincessmom]

I believe the IRS recently bumped up the reimbursable mileage to 48.5 cents per mile for reimburseable rate for business mileage until the end of the year to allow for increased gas costs. It is used to compute the deductible costs of operating a vehicle for business use in lieu of tracking actual costs of operating the vehicle, especially if it isn't a vehicle used solely for business. I don't know how you have it set up within your tax structure for costing out the vehicle in regards to your business so I don't know what it allowed.

From a contractual standpoint, if you told her that the mileage rate was 80 cents a gallon previously and hadn't given her an addendum or notice that the rate had changed, I think the 80 cents is fine.

 

[Jennasis]

I hadn't told her anything about rates yet. She asked DH on the phone while I was away this weekend, and he said we'd talk about it and let her know (wasn't sure if we'd even be available that weekend).

The truck gets lousy mileage normally and TERRIBLE mileage when towing the horse trailer.

This isn't like being reimbursed for business travel. Someone wishes to hire us as a commercial shipper. It cost me over $700 to ship my horse from NY to NC. I can't afford to be simply reimbursed for the gas used. She would be hiring me for my time, wear and tear on the vehicle, and gas...like hiring a moving company.

I think we settle on $0.70/mile though

 

[mudnuri]

you went from 80 to 70?

250 miles, x 80 cents a mile is $200.00

I'm guessing you'll spend- 1.5 hours to get there, 1 hour to get home, 1 to get there and 1.5 to get home...total of 5 hours- $40.00 an hour for you, your truck and your trailer....

Now if you left your trailer there for the weekend, it will cost you less....since you'll get better mileage 1/2 of your trip

This has me really thinking- depending on your engine you might only get 4-7 mpg, lets say you have a 454 3/4 ton truck or even a newer 8.1 or even a ford V10.....Even at 7mpg- thats 35 gallons of gas.....at say 3.00 per gallon thats $105 in gas...that leaves $95 for your time, your trucks time etc..

Now if you had a diesel- I know the X's would get about 23mpg- he'd use about 10 gallons of fuel for that total trip, and it would cost him about 25.00 in fuel...

Doesnt really look too good when I do the math IMHO

Brandy