Our bill is similar. This season and next, we would have paid for a respectable setup with the hiring bill. Then we sat down and started figuring the costs and risks of ownership/operation vs. hiring.

 We put good values on exposure and risk, then penciled in the time for as many details as we could come up with. The time it takes for pre trip inspections and general maintenance. The time it takes and the extra cost of having a spare tire and wheel and the support tools for it etc. Then we got to the washing because 90% of our elevator delivery miles would be in de-icer and rain. Suddenly our affordable year model equipment would be a time and money pit with electrical connections and corroded parts.

 So far this season to deny or confirm our figures, we've sort of kept a good tally of what the company we hire has to do to keep his trucks on the road. A crack in a suspension component is found on the pretrip, then it's down time until it is fixed and the cost of the repair. So far, we're pretty happy with the decision to continue to hire it done and that makes the bill easier to pay when we have a better idea of how little we would actually save with ownership for our operation in our location.