Anyone in a trucking business? Cost tracking...

I have some industry-specific questions & am hoping to get a bit of help with creating a spreadsheet to capture what my boss has now tasked me with creating. Of course, I'll list what he is wanting and maybe it will cross over to other industries as well.

We operate a business where we go to towns in about 100 mile radius of our office. He wants me to create a tracking spreadsheet where we can place mileage, fuel cost, time, & driver hours in order to find out our costs to do each stop. He rambles off a bunch of things so I am basically trying to decipher what it is he really wants and I think this would best summarize my task.

If it is too much to ask for help, I apologize.

Thanks in advance,
Anita

Anita,

The best thing you can do in a situation like this is ask a professional businesses consultant. More than likely, your boss is like 95% of them in the world. They have no idea what they want, nor do they understand any of the software that can do what they need. It sounds to me that Excel would work just fine for what he is asking for. But then again, so will 50 other programs! =)

I know a lot of truckers and people who work in trucking companies, and most of them are lagging a bit behind the rest of the world in terms of their usage of sophisticated software. Many people are still using Excel.

If you ask more specific questions, people might be able to offer better guidance. But again, I would suggest you be careful about asking your boss any specific technically related questions because he probably won't have any answers. So more than likely, he is counting on you to figure it out. Have you ever used Excel before? What do you know about it?

Hmm...I typed up a reply but don't see it. Gee.... is it another Monday?
Anita

a reply to this thread?

someone on an ms access forum once told me to push the copy button inside the forum post before hitting the submit button. LOL

LOL....well the post sure did disappear and yes, I was replying to your comment.. I sure should have copied..LOL

Oh well, lost in cyber-world forever.

Basically I was saying he specifically wants a spreadsheet and that he thinks I'm some guru so I try to live up to it...my bad, right? LOL
I am sure my crown is full of beautiful jewels by now cause I do try to jump through all those hoops.

I am going to look at what we charge the customer, subtract the landfill cost for dumping, figure the mileage and driver time as well as the cost of the driver... I am sure I'll come up with something right or wrong and I'm sure I will not do this on every single customer but instead look at those at the furthest point and take an average. LOL

I also said I have limited knowledge of the intricacies of excel. I just do the basics of what I know how to do and try to turn to the forums to fill in any blanks when the technical things are over my head (usually all the time). I used to turn to my own guru from North Carolina...but sadly, he passed 4 years ago. He was an awesome human and was always willing to be of great help to me. Tommy Harrington--- and I sure miss that man.

well, I hope he's taken care of. and I really don't know much. My brain is just a warehouse storage of information. When I learn something, I never forget. Yes it's rare. But i'm not a machine, surprisingly.

based on everything you've said, it's hard to instruct or guide you because it was seriously vague. But based on your second paragraph of text, you can do that many different ways with a program like this. you can use code, or you can use interface built-in formulas. but if all you're doing is doing mathematical calculations, you don't need any code for that. one of the primary purpose of excel is to calculate anything and everything. that's why there are an endless amount of formulas and functions available in it. =)

does that help? if it doesn't, what I suggest is that you delve right in, give it a try and post specific questions when you get stuck. I think that's what a lot of the professionals around here look for anyway. so it should increase your visibility and the help you receive, greatly. =)

Naturally, he's already asked me about this spreadsheet and is chomping at the bit-- even though he knows I was off Friday. I know I set myself up for his expectations because for the past 7 years, I allowed myself to be available anytime he needed something. LOL

Between the 2 message board and responses, I'm gonna just jump in and start trying to piece-mill this together and go from there with questions and such.

Crossing my fingers and diving in! Now for my co-worker (who sits 5' away), if she will leave me alone with her general conversation. ugh.. LOL
Anita

Well, I posted this once today and don't see it so let me try again. OMGOOTNESS..is it a Monday already!

https://www.mrexcel.com/board/thread...cking.1142876/

Anita

Originally Posted by araymc

Well, I posted this once today and don't see it so let me try again. OMGOOTNESS..is it a Monday already!

https://www.mrexcel.com/board/thread...cking.1142876/

Anita

ummmmm....Anita,

if the moderators or admins around here find out that you are cross posting, they will warn you by putting up a message here as a reply linking to the forum rules, I think. I think pretty much all forums have that as a rule, either that or they frown upon it.

What exactly did you want to say by showing us you cross posted? Obviously it's the same post as this one here. you are getting answers over there. and that obviously doesn't make me happy, as I have helped you already in this thread. good luck.

I'm just going to mark this thread as 'solved'.
Thanks,
Anita