Trucks - Money Pit or Money Maker?

At the turn of the 20th century, when the automobile was new, most heavy lifting and hauling was done by horse, mule or oxen. The term “horsepower” is not a quaint colloquialism, it had real relevance when the internal combustion engine was new. 

Now, as then, horsepower (horses then, trucks now) was expensive. Keeping horses, and other beasts of burden, healthy and productive was very expensive. Today, a new truck, especially a new work truck, can cost more than $100,000. Maintenance is another matter entirely. 

In years past any “shade tree” mechanic could work on a truck, for not very much money, to keep it running smoothly. Not so today. With the new electronic components and engine improvements, only a trained mechanic (at the dealer) should, or could, work on it. The costs of repairs have skyrocketed and failure of electronic parts has now overtaken the drive train as the most expensive parts to work on. That is an investment worth a little consideration before buying. 

Things may have changed since the early 2000s, but recalling how employees treated a new truck then still makes me cringe today. Giving a brand-new work truck to one of your service people used to give pause, at least. The trucks didn’t look so new after only a short while. Windshield cracks, dent’s, dings, scrapes and unspecified accidents seemed to appear out of thin air on work trucks.

Usually, but not always, you would give a new truck to your best employees in the hope that they might keep it looking new for a little while. After all, when the truck was outfitted and your name painted on it, it represented your company. It would not do to have your service guy show up at a customers’ home in a vehicle straight out of “Road Warrior.” What would that say about your company?

Still, it is a huge investment. The payments (if you didn’t buy it for cash) kept on coming, as well as any repairs that were required to keep the truck looking relatively new and on the road. A cost burden of significance.

A New Toy… Er, Truck

In better times, regularly trading in work trucks was almost a rite of passage. What owner, foreman or journeyman didn’t salivate over getting a new truck every couple of years? It was almost like a hidden (or maybe not so hidden) incentive. In fact, it was a great tax incentive because you could depreciate the vehicle over a short term. If you were moderately successful in business, it was easy to justify the expense of trading in your older trucks for newer ones regularly, and the “new” factor just added a bit of “success” to you and your business.

The argument could be made that newer trucks had less service problems than older ones, and that would be true to a point. It could also be said that improvements in technology made newer vehicles more cost efficient, and that would be true as well. The dark side of the equation was that in most, but certainly not all, cases employees rarely treated the new trucks with anything remotely resembling good care after the “new” wore off. After all, they didn’t pay for it.  

Along with the aforementioned dents, dings and scrapes, etc. on the exterior, coffee, soda, chewing tobacco, etc. in the interior rendered a vehicle worn beyond its years in a very short time. This diluted the trade-in value and lowered the overall value for resale privately.

Today, trading up for new trucks is much less likely if you are a small to medium sized shop. The cost of fuel alone (especially Diesel fuel! But that’s another column) is climbing faster than most owners’ blood pressure, with no end in sight. If you’ve always taken exemplary care of your vehicles, what I am suggesting is not news, but if you are not in the habit of worrying too much about your trucks, you might find this at least interesting and, at best, a way to profit.

Keep on Truckin’

How do you treat your trucks? Do you look at them as merely necessary tools that help you do your job? Or do you think of them as an extension of you and your company? This is a legitimate barometer of how long you can expect your expensive, depreciating asset to “live.”

In times past, there were those who took good care of their beasts of burden. They fed, doctored and husbanded their animals with care, thus extending their useful working life and realizing more profit in the bargain. Then there were those who took a different view. They, quite simply, worked the animals to death. When a horse or other working critter took ill or came up lame, they destroyed it and replaced it with another one.

The problem with the latter point of view was that, relatively speaking, livestock was expensive to replace. Unless a person was doing well in business, it was likely that replacing a horse, mule or other working animal was cost prohibitive. Relating that scenario to our present economic situation, one can understand that taking good care of vehicles will save money in the long term and ease cash flow in the near term.

Maintaining Your Truck(s)

If you are not used to thinking in terms of truck longevity, it might be a good idea to start. It is much easier to repair a vehicle you own than to finance a new one. The repair that costs $1,600 or $1,800 dollars for a “paid for” three-year-old truck (does anyone not keep a truck for three or more years today?) is only a month or two’s payment on a new truck.

Keeping up service and maintenance on your trucks is the best way to keep them running and working. If you don’t have a regular maintenance schedule for your trucks, you are really missing the big picture. With quick change oil/lube franchises almost as ubiquitous as gas stations, there is no reason not to have your trucks on a regular schedule for this most basic, but very necessary, maintenance. Regular oil changes alone can extend the life of your trucks by years.

Tires, shock absorbers and brakes wear out. Replace and repair them regularly. Waiting until you hear the wear sensor screeching at you to take a look at your brakes is foolish, and a waste of money. Riding on bald tires is, likewise, a false economy, and dangerous too. As mentioned earlier in this article, the cost of a new set of tires is about equal to two, or at most three, payments on a new truck. Heck, your insurance premiums will be less for an older truck too!

Try thinking about how long you can make a truck last as a goal to be achieved. Regular washing and cleaning can also make your employees appreciate their company vehicle just a bit more too. Make vehicle maintenance and care a priority. You won’t be sorry. You’ll keep more of your hard-earned profits, and that’s what it’s all about.

The Brooklyn, NY-born author is a retired third-generation master plumber. He founded Sunflower Plumbing & Heating in Shirley, N.Y., in 1975 and A Professional Commercial Plumbing Inc. in Phoenix in 1980. He holds residential, commercial, industrial and solar plumbing licenses and is certified in welding, clean rooms, polypropylene gas fusion and medical gas piping. He can be reached at [email protected].