Atlanta Outdoor Club

tcollins wrote:OK, it's been changed to 38 cents. This seems to be the majority opinion.

kudos for taking the initiative to address this issue and then being so open to opinions and flexible to adjust it.

I propose the following formula.

That is funny and scary at the same time.

Why not just rent vans for the trips and divide the cost for transportation evenly among each passenger.

A little late getting into this topic but.....

I think at this time, the re-imbursement costs should be monitored weekly. Gas costs has climbed to $3.79 since this topic was posted.

If we drove my Ford Dually today, with diesel at $4.39, my costs just for fuel would be close to $0.30 per mile, not even counting the other vehicle expenese already discussed here.

But then I could carry six people and all their gear in that monster truck.

Personally I'd not care about anything but a split with gas expenses. I'd not even care about wet seats and muddy boots.

Heck... after a few JD's, you could talk me into driving that Dually to the top of Blood Mtn on the AT... LOL

I've been meaning to do just that actually.

The vehicle cost is $.24 / mile and isn't likely to change unless the whole country switches how expensive their cars are.

The average nationwide MPG is 20. I see that the average gas price in Atlanta right now is $3.76 (http://www.atlantagasprices.com/mediaideas.aspx), which is $.19 / mile.

I have adjusted the carpool price to $.43 / mile.

For every $.20 that gas goes up, that equals $.01 more per mile. Unless there's a radical change in prices, I'll probably only adjust the prices every month or so.

FYI

I did a trip this weekend in which I drove the carpool. The estimated per vehicle expense was almost $160 according to the website. My actual gas expense came to less than HALF that amount, and my car only gets about 17-20 mpg max (I have calculated it a number of times so I am sure about this). Even with a $5 per person maintenance charge (since it was a fairly long trip) the total for 4 people was only $100, which is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than the estimated cost on the website. I understand the issue with rising gas prices, but this is a gross disparity. I had a couple who expected to be paying me like $80, which is the total amount I spent. In short, if I had accepted the amount projected by our new number, I would have made a profit of approximately $60.

Do you all still think the milage rate should be this high?

Denise, have you read the entire topic here? It was discussed, in detail, where those costs come from. It's not just gas & oil.
In short, you lost money.

So what you are saying is the people on my trip should be paying $60 ADDITIONAL dollars towards my car OVER the gas AND a $5.00 per person vehicle maintenance charge? I mean, I have seen your breakdown, but it's not what this club is about. These are expenses I would be incurring anyway. I felt like I was taking a lot by taking the $5.00 per person for additional maintenance...

I have read every word of this topic. I just think when people are looking at this in their heads they are not thinking about actual numbers and I wanted to demonstrate what those numbers come to by giving figures from my trip. I took $15 in maintenance fee plus 3/4 of the gas price and you are really trying to tell me I lost money?

Yes, you did.
However, you are not obligated to charge this amount.
Plus, you didn't lose as much because you already have a smaller vehicle, but we have to take in the average vehicle.
Also, I really don't know where you come up with $5 per person maintenance charge.

You say these are costs you would have incurred anyway. Would you have incurred these costs if you had ridden with someone else? Your care is only worth so many miles and you paid money for it. We are not however including insurance and registration in the calculations because those are expenses you would incur either way.

But enough people voiced their opinion that they wanted the mileage calculated this way. This wasn't a decision my me alone.

Tom, I was just posting this as an example for the forum readers to look at. I would appreciate it if you did not hijack the discussion on here. And, for the sake of argument, while my car is smaller than, say, Lee's, I get about half the gas mileage of a sedan, and I get less mileage than what you say is the average.

Now, other forum posters, do you think it is appropriate for me to charge my car $160.00 when my gas expense is only $80.00?

Sorry, didn't mean to highjack it. Just my train of thought today.

Please continue.

Here is an auto technicians way of looking at it. Here are my rough figures (note I have been a BMW tech for 8 years and now a VW tech for 1)

Services every 5000 miles $80
brakes every 20,000 mile $1200
Timing belt every 60,000 mile $1200
tires every 25000 miles $1200
Major services every 20000 $400
wiper and bulbs every 10000 miles $100
suspension rebuild every 60000 miles $1000
misc. breakdowns every 40000 $1000

now I calculated all these numbers down to percentages. If you take just these items listed and break it down to a 450 mile AOC trip you have just spent $79.20. That is pretty close to the $80 you did not have everyone split.

Some of these number I used are different from one car to the other so I used middle numbers. BMWs go through brakes tires and suspension items a lot faster than these numbers but VWs get better than these numbers.

My opinion has not changed: I think of the amount on the website as a guide, but not set in stone. The trip leader should give some additional guidance but really it's up to each of us as drivers or passengers to do what is fair in the situation. And really it will never be exactly even.

I can see Denise's point that the IRS mileage guide is for folks who use their cars for work like real estate agents. Even if you drive your car for the AOC every weekend (which none or very few of us do) then the extra expense is still a small percentage compared with the rest of your weekly driving. I mean we could take this to the Nth degree and talk about how AOC miles are usually highway miles which means less expense.

And nothing personal MoBill, but when you bought one of the biggest trucks on the road you had to know it would use a lot of gas!

So again I say use the amount on the website as a guide but in practice do the right thing!

I'm a financial analyst and this is how I look at this topic. The GTO had the nickname of Gas, Tires and Oil.

GAS
This is the easy part of the equation. The gas price should be shared by all parties. Take the cost and divide by number of vehicle occupants and you arrive at the fuel cost per person.

TIRES AND OIL
These are forgotten costs and only arise when you have the work done at the service station. The true cost may be about 20 cents per mile, but it should be SHARED by all, not CUMULATIVE per person. In economic terms, this is called a positive externality. If I turn on the radio, everyone can hear it. An example of a negative externality would be the front row of a concert standing up, forcing row two to do the same, and then everyone stands.

Therefore, what I'm doing for my Sapelo trip is looking at number of attendees AND number of cars. You need to make TWO computations, one for gas, the other for the tires and oil.

In accounting terminology, one is a variable cost while the other is a fixed cost. This is why companies run 24/7, because once they hit their break even point (cover the fixed cost) all else will become profit (assuming you sell for more than your variable cost).

So in essence, Denise is right and wrong. She lost money for refusing ALL of the tires and oil, but had she accepted money from everyone, she likely would have profited beyond the break even point.

Get it??