Plug in your own numbers. See what your driver actually costs per car.
Most dealers importing 10 to 20 cars a month from Germany know roughly what they pay their driver. What they usually have not calculated is the full cost per vehicle once you add fuel, tolls, hotels, vehicle wear, insurance, and the opportunity cost of that driver not being available for local work.
| Cost Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Driver daily wage (2 days) | €400 |
| Fuel (1,600 km round trip at €0.35/km) | €560 |
| Tolls (Germany, Austria if applicable) | €140 |
| Hotel (1 night) | €85 |
| Meals and incidentals | €40 |
| Vehicle wear (tyres, maintenance, depreciation) | €80 |
| Total cost per trip (1 car) | €1,305 |
If the driver brings a trailer and collects 2 cars, the per car cost drops to roughly €650 to 700. Still significantly more than a professional car carrier at €190 to 300 per vehicle.
A car carrier moves 7 to 9 vehicles on a single run. The driver costs, fuel, and tolls are divided across all 9 cars instead of 1 or 2. The per car economics are fundamentally different when you share a truck with other dealers importing on the same corridor.
This does not mean you should fire your driver. Many dealers use a hybrid model: car carriers for long distance imports from Bavaria and BaWü, their own driver for local pickups within 200 km and customer deliveries. The driver becomes more productive, not redundant.
The hidden cost most dealers miss: your driver is unavailable for 2 full days per collection trip. If that driver also handles local deliveries, customer handovers, or auction pickups, every Germany trip means those tasks do not get done. At 2 to 3 trips per week, that is 4 to 6 days of lost local productivity every week.
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