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How To: Cost Trucks by Tonne-Hr
1. Background
The Logger's Edge allows you set up your truck costing so that you can base trucking costs (internal) on the product of tonnes (net payload) and the round-trip time. For example, if a truck hauls 35 Tonnes and the trip time is 4 hours, the number of tonne-hours is 140 (35 x 4). If the standard cost is $3.00 per tonne/hour, the truck cost would be $420 (= 140 x $3.00).
2. Steps InvolvedActivate Pay Basis Tonne-Hr
You must switch the active flag on the pay basis TONNE_HR to be active. By default it is inactive. In order to do this, you must first login as an administrator and go to Setup | Pay Basis from the main menu (If you are using Tonne-Hr, you should set the TONNE_HR flag; if you are using Ton-Hr, you should set the TON_HR flag.)
Set up Truck Costs to be based on Tonne-Hour
From the main menu go to Setup | Equipment / Trucks | Trucks | Truck Costing
For each of your trucks, enter the the basis (unit of measure) as 'TONNE_HR' and set your rates to be based on Tonne-Hours. (See Below)
Setup Trip Times by Block-Destination combination
The Logger's Edge calculates tonne-hours for each load by multiplying the tonnes on each specific load by the average trip time for the block-mill combination on the load ticket. The average trip time is not calculated for each load, but is an average entered when you set up the block. Ideally, the average trip should be revised as actual loads are delivered. The truck cycle time report can then used to determine actual average cycle times.
First you need to ensure that the fuel rebate basic setup option is enabled (you will need to login as an administrator). This will turn on the window in the block setup wizard that allows you to enter distances.
Next you need to go to edit data setup (as an administrator) and enable the field 'AVG_TIME'. This field is not enabled by default and will not appear in the block setup wizard unless you enable it.
The block setup wizard will now have the window that will allow you to enter average trip times by destination (see below).
You must enter trip time for all destinations, otherwise The Logger's Edge will treat the trip time as zero and issue an error message.
Once you've entered your trip times, you are good to go.
Truck costs will be calculated when you either
1. Run the Vendor Pay Calculator; or
2. Run the Recalc Equipment Cost & Tree Volume Calculator.
The latter option is preferred for loads that have already been paid and you are merely updating your truck costs. For example, if you have updated your truck rates or block trip times.
Note: If you change the unit of measure for truck costs from one basis (say Tonne) to another (say Tonne-Hour), you must rerun the vendor calculator. The Recalc Equipment Cost calculator uses the original basis and will not update costs correctly (i.e., it will use the new rate with the originally calculated basis).
Reports
There are two good reports that show your truck costs.
1. Trucks | Truck Cost
This report shows all your truck costs. The column 'Own Truck Costs' shows the internal (standard) cost of operating your own trucks. In this case it is based on the Tonne-Hour method of calculating standard costs.
1. Blocks | Profit by Activity (new report #131)
This report shows all your activity costs on a block and your revenue by activity. The columns on the far right calculate the profit earned by activity.
For trucking, you can see your own truck costs (both for your drivers and for your own truck costs - based on the dry rate). You can also see your trucking revenue (if the mill splits that activity out as a separate activity) and your trucking profit. Note: Trucking revenue comes from actual revenue (in the load revenue table), not from the invoices table.
The trucking profit (see panel 2 below) indicates whether the mill trucking rate is sufficient to cover your trucking costs.
Panel 1
Panel 2
