The Truck Payment Trap That Eats Your 79 Cents

In our model, Dale's "good" $3.13 load leaves about 70¢ a mile at today's diesel. In a slow 4,000-mile month, his new truck's payment takes 86¢ of it. Here's the one line that shows whether your truck works for you, or you work for it. Last time, Dale found about 79 cents a mile left on a $3.13 load against ATRI's average costs. This time he buys a shiny new truck, and its bill comes on the same day every month, loaded or empty. We add one line to video 1's formula: payment per mile. Then we work out how many miles a month it takes just to cover the note. We turn the three loan knobs (term, rate and down payment) and see what a balloon payment really does. Next, we put an example new truck beside a used one priced at September 2026's average used Class 8 price. Then we stress-test the used truck by giving it an extra repair fund on top of its average repair costs, and find the monthly mileage where the two trucks cross. It ends with a five-line check you can run on your own truck using last month's numbers, and we run both of Dale's trucks through it. Every number in the video is dated, and every model input is labeled. The $180,000 new truck, the loan rates, the 6.5 mpg and the repair fund are examples, not market data. This is an educational model, not financial advice, and it doesn't promise any income or savings. Chapters: 0:00 The bill that eats 79 cents 0:48 Where the 79 cents came from 2:30 The bill that doesn't care about miles 3:18 Dale's new truck, priced out 4:22 The slow-month math 5:26 Break-even miles 6:00 The loan knobs: term, rate, down payment 7:20 Balloon payments 7:45 The used truck 8:46 The repair-fund stress test 10:53 Does your truck work for you? 12:32 Who's working for whom