Planning out a vacation

Research shows Americans, not just trucking company owners, work more than anyone in the industrialized world. They take fewer vacation days, work longer hours, and retire later. Several different studies have shown that taking time away from the job has both physical and psychological health benefits. People who take vacations have lower stress, less risk of heart disease, a better outlook on life, and more motivation to achieve goals.

With all that said, when you own a business, you must have a vacation plan to ensure the business continues to thrive while you’re re-energizing. And this means not having to constantly check in and manage from the beach or a cruise ship.
When it comes to developing your vacation plan, here are some basic steps to follow:

Step one: Know what it’s costing you to operate your trucking business day to day. For the purpose of your vacation goal, you need to know your daily fixed costs. Take your annual fixed cost total and divide it by 260. (Use 260 days and not 365 because no trucker runs with paying freight every day of the year. So 260 represents five days a week, which is the average time the vast majority of trucks actually generate revenue in a year.) Now you know your daily fixed costs.The most important expense in your fixed cost is your salary. It doesn’t do any good to go on vacation and not have the money in reserve for things like car payments, rent payments, etc.

Step Two: What’s the number of days you’ll be on vacation? The more time you are away, the more planning required. A long weekend needs virtually no planning, while a week-long trip requires a lot.

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