Are you thinking about purchasing a dump truck for your business? Dump trucks are a substantial investment for many businesses, both in terms of owning and operating cost. However, they can often save a company quite a bit of money, too. Whether or not a dump truck is best for your business depends on many factors, including whether or not you or your employees qualify to operate it.
Owning: the Cost of Purchasing a Dump Truck
A dump truck, as with any type of equipment or vehicle, will depreciate in value. Consequently, you can save money by purchasing a dump truck used instead of new. Dump trucks are often rated for fairly extensive use, so an older dump truck may still have a significant life ahead of it. The actual cost of a dump truck varies significantly depending on the truck itself, with a range between $100,000 to $150,000 for a new purchase, and a drastic swing between $15,000 to $100,000 for a used purchase.
As with cars, purchasing a very affordable dump truck may simply lead to higher maintenance and repair costs further down the road. In general, a used dump truck that is in reasonable shape will cost at least $30,000 to $40,000. In addition to used dump trucks, refurbished dump trucks are also available at value. Refurbished dump trucks, like other types of equipment, have been modified by the manufacturer following some defect. They often have the same warranties as brand new machinery but with the understanding that the item was once sold, returned and repaired before.
Operating: the Cost of Maintaining a Dump Truck
Maintaining a dump truck can be fairly expensive. In addition to tires (which can cost up to $1,000 a piece), there is regular maintenance, fuel and insurance. In particular, a dump truck tends to consume fuel at a very high rate. Many will get anywhere from 3 to 6 miles per gallon, though naturally they are vehicles that aren’t used for cruising.
And there is one additional fee: the driver’s fee. An employee, or even yourself, will need to be qualified to drive the dump truck, and this can mean that the employee may be paid more than your regular drivers. In sheer numbers, the estimated cost for a dump truck over a year is a little more than $100,000, with an estimate of $719,422 over a seven year lifecycle. This is only an average estimate; more affordable dump trucks or heavier duty dump trucks may come in substantially lower or higher.
As you can see, the cost of owning and operating a dump truck is fairly significant. Generally, the cost of operating your dump truck is going to be fairly equivalent to the cost of first purchasing it, assuming that you purchase it new; in other words, multiply the purchase price of your vehicle and you’ll know how much money it will cost to operate and maintain. Keep in mind that dump trucks will need to be replaced more frequently than another type of vehicle, as well. Nevertheless, when a business is considering a dump truck, it’s very likely that the dump truck will be a substantially helpful improvement to their current site equipment.