Question

Hardee Transportation

One of Jim O’Brien’s customers has presented him with an opportunity for a significant amount of freight moving into a new market for Hardee. Hardee is a truckload carrier primarily moving freight in the East/West market in the United States. Although it has some movements in and out of Canada and Mexico, Hardee has focused on moving freight in eastward and westward directions. Hardee has dispatch centers located throughout the United States, which have some dock capacity.

The new move would be between Pittsburgh and Miami. Hardee has avoided this market because of the lack of backhaul opportunities that exist outbound from Florida. However, this new move offers a significant increase in volume for Hardee. A complicating factor in this move is the request that Hardee perform sorting and segregation at its dispatch centers. Each shipment will consist of straight (one product) pallet loads of various types of consumer goods freight destined for a retailer’s distribution center in Miami. Sorting and segregation at Hardee’s locations would consist of breaking the pallets and sorting the freight by the retailer’s store locations, then palletizing into rainbow (mixed products) pallets for each store.

Hardee has never experienced this type of request before. Jim knows that he needs to put some type of costs to this move to make sure that the moves are profitable. Because of the large volume involved, not covering Hardee’s costs in pricing could result in large losses for Hardee. The relevant information for costing this move is as follows:

Equipment Cost Data

Equipment Purchase Price

1. Line-haul tractors 5 $120,000

2. Line-haul trailers 5 $40,000

Depreciation

1. Tractors 5 5-year straight line

2. Trailers 5 8-year straight line

Interest

1. Tractors 5 6 percent APR for 5 years

2. Trailers 5 6 percent APR for 8 years

Fuel 1. $3.83 per gallon for diesel

2. Line-haul tractors 5 6.0 miles per gallon

Labor 1. Line-haul drivers 5 $0.45 per mile

2. Pickup and delivery (PUD) drivers 5 $30 (fully loaded) per hour

3. Dock workers 5 $25 (fully loaded) per hour

Miscellaneous

1. Insurance cost 5 $0.067 per mile

2. Maintenance cost 5 $0.152 per mile

3. Billing cost 5 $1.95 per freight bill

4. Tractors and trailers are available for use 24 hours per day, 365 days per year

5. Administrative overhead cost 5 10 percent of total cost of move

6. Dock facility cost 5 $15 per hour

7. Line-haul vehicle averages 45 mph between origin and destination

Route and Time of Move The shipment (45,000 pounds) originates at a customer location in Pittsburgh, located 20 miles from Hardee’s dispatch center. A PUD driver is dispatched from the Hardee location at 8:30 a.m. on January 12, 2015, and arrives at the destination at 9:00 a.m. the same day. The shipment is loaded from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The PUD driver departs the customer location at 12:00 p.m. and arrives back at the Hardee dispatch center at 12:30 p.m. The sort process starts at 12:30 p.m. and ends at 8:30 p.m. on January 12. It requires unloading the trailer, sorting, and palletizing the load. This operation requires two dock workers, each working the same trailer for 8 hours in the dispatch center.

The line-haul portion begins with the vehicle being dispatched from the Pittsburgh location at 8:30 p.m. on January 12 and traveling to Charlotte, North Carolina, a distance of 481 miles, and arriving at Charlotte at 7:12 a.m. on January 13. The driver rests from 7:12 a.m. until 3:12 p.m. The trip continues with the vehicle departing Charlotte at 3:12 p.m. on January 13 and traveling to Jacksonville, Florida, a distance of 399 miles, arriving at Jacksonville at 12:06 a.m. on January 14. The driver rests from 12:06 a.m. until 10:06 a.m. The line-haul portion concludes with the vehicle departing Jacksonville at 10:06 a.m. and traveling to the customer’s location in Miami, a distance of 369 miles, and arriving at the distribution center at 6:18 p.m. on January 14.

The line-haul driver stays with the vehicle while it is being unloaded (2 hours unload time). The driver then deadheads at 8:18 p.m. from the customer’s distribution center and arrives at a Hardee dispatch center located in Miami at 8:48 p.m., a distance of 15 miles from the distribution center.

CASE QUESTIONS

What are the pickup, sort, line-haul, and delivery costs to Hardee for this move?

Answer 1

The pickup cost to Hardee for this move includes the cost of sending a PUD driver from the Hardee location to the customer location in Pittsburgh and back. The sort cost involves the cost of sorting and palletizing the freight at the dispatch center. The line-haul cost is the cost of transporting the freight from Pittsburgh to Miami, and the delivery cost is the cost of unloading the vehicle at the customer's distribution center in Miami.

Step-by-step explanation:

The pickup cost to Hardee for this move is the cost of sending a PUD (pickup and delivery) driver from the Hardee location to the customer location in Pittsburgh and back. The driver is dispatched at 8:30 a.m. on January 12 and arrives back at the Hardee dispatch center at 12:30 p.m. on the same day. The cost is calculated by multiplying the distance traveled (20 miles one way) by the cost per mile for the PUD driver ($0.45 per mile).

The sort cost to Hardee for this move is the cost of sorting and palletizing the freight at the dispatch center. This process requires two dock workers, each working the same trailer for 8 hours. The cost is calculated by multiplying the hourly wage for dock workers ($25 per hour) by the number of hours worked.

The line-haul cost to Hardee for this move is the cost of transporting the freight from Pittsburgh to Miami. The distance traveled is summed up from Pittsburgh to Charlotte (481 miles), from Charlotte to Jacksonville (399 miles), and from Jacksonville to Miami (369 miles). The cost is calculated by multiplying the total distance traveled by the cost per mile for line-haul drivers ($0.45 per mile).

The delivery cost to Hardee for this move is the cost of unloading the vehicle at the customer's distribution center in Miami. The line-haul driver stays with the vehicle while it is being unloaded, which takes 2 hours. The cost is calculated by multiplying the time spent unloading (2 hours) by the hourly wage for line-haul drivers ($30 per hour).