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Posted by D Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 23:09:22 :
In Reply to: 8.5 mpg. Is that good? posted by RyanNJ [68.63.169.217] on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 20:54:24 :
It's 1958. You've been out of the service for 12 years. Your oldest kid's about to start college. You've got a little drilling company out of Moab Utah and have been getting some nice contracts lately with the uranium prospectors. Until recently, you've made do with old farm trucks, a war surplus CCKW and of course a jeep, but business is good and you were finally able to buy yourself a new Dodge Power Wagon. Sure it cost twice as much as a Ford or a Chevy but you've seen them at work and you knew that's what you wanted. You had your logo painted on the door. You're riding tall in the saddle as you head out on a fresh cat trail across the red rock desert with a 300 amp Lincoln welder, two barrels of fuel, and a case of DuPont in the back. You've got three guys working for you and you're charging $300 per day, plus materials, on this job. You do some figuring in your head, since you don't have a radio to listen to while you drive. 8.5 miles per gallon, divided by 25 cents per gallon comes out to 34 miles per dollar. You might be putting on 100 miles in a day, so figure $3 for fuel. You're paying right around $100 per day in wages and you have a $90 truck payment every month. Of course you've got money tied up in lots of other equipment, insurance, and so on, but fuel is looking like a small expense. Yeah, the Ford got 12 miles per gallon on a good day, but how much time did you waste pulling it out of mud holes and replacing the springs? Any way you figure it, you're probably netting $150 a day on this job. At that rate, 2 weeks work will put your kid through college for a year, even with your $60 a month house payment and your wife's new Plymouth. Life is good. Gas is cheap.
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