The Coach Cost-Per-Mile Kit

The CoachGarage kit for counting what a coach really costs to run, and for pricing every hire above it

CoachGarage's Fleet TCO Calculator turns four typed figures (price, annual fuel, annual maintenance and resale) into a cost per mile, and its own note says what it leaves out: finance, insurance, tax and driver wages. Our other calculators work out the pieces it asks you to guess, the measured fuel economy, a tire's life, which limit sets each service, the cost of the days off the road, and none of them meets it. The Coach Cost-Per-Mile Kit puts them together. In its worked example the TCO calculator prints $1.19 a mile for a coach running 45,000 miles a year. Measured at the pump, the fuel is $4,200 a year more than the brochure figure; tires budgeted to the replacement point, the service schedule counted by whichever limit comes first, the standing costs and a downtime reserve bring the full count to $1.87 a mile, 57% more. A 180-mile day hire quoted on the lower figure comes out $122.40 short of its floor, and even with a 15% margin it sits $38.52 under what the job costs. Every worked figure is an example you replace with your own coach. The kit never lengthens a service interval or runs a tire past its replacement point, and it states no legal tread depth, inspection interval or drivers' hours limit: the maker's schedule, your inspection regime and the law where you operate come first. You get a 25-page printable PDF with seven steps, a cost-per-mile worksheet, a service schedule counter, a quote floor sheet, a fleet table, reference tables, the safety floor and a quickstart, plus a personalised sheet worked out from the numbers you entered in our calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the kit, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• Fuel at the pump: measured mpg, fill to fill, instead of the brochure figure
• Tires to your replacement point: each axle's life and cost a year, never to the legal minimum
• Whichever comes first: every service counted by its distance and time limits, the schedule never lengthened
• The standing costs the TCO leaves out: insurance, finance interest, licenses and fees, the depot
• The downtime reserve: the days off the road, counted once
• The denominator: cost a mile at the miles the coach really runs, fixed and running costs apart
• The quote floor: miles, every paid driver hour and the extras, with the drivers' hours rules respected
• Working pages: a cost-per-mile worksheet, a service schedule counter, a quote floor sheet and a fleet table
• Reference tables and the safety floor: fuel a mile by mpg and price, fixed costs a mile by miles a year
• A quickstart, and a personalised sheet worked from the numbers you entered

The kit picks up where the free Fleet TCO Calculatorleaves off. The calculator turns four typed figures into a cost per mile and, by its own note, leaves out finance, insurance, tax and driver wages; the kit measures the fuel at the pump, budgets tires to your replacement point, counts every service by whichever limit comes first, adds the standing costs and a downtime reserve, divides by the miles the coach really runs, and prices each hire from a floor with every paid driver hour counted. It never lengthens a service interval or runs a tire past its replacement point, and it states no legal tread depth, inspection interval or drivers’ hours limit: the maker’s schedule, your inspection regime and the law where you operate come first. The worked figures are examples; your own coach replaces them.