Summary

Driving a UHaul truck one-way Toronto to Bonavista took $5,098 out of my pocket, if I’ve done my sums right. My estimate was $5,371. I credit ICL’s Software Development Centre back in the early 1970’s for arousing my interest and mild passion for making fortnightly estimates and using a feedback loop to improve my accuracy.

		Rental	Motel		Meals	Fuel	Ferry	Unloading
Day 1	Collect truck and load	2,786			25
Day 2	Toronto Riviere du Loup?		120		25	150
Day 3	Extra day drive		120		25	150
Day 4	Riviere du Loup? North Sydney		120	25		150
Day 5	Sydney to Corner Brook		120		25	161
Day 6	Corner Brook Bonavista		120		25	150
Day 7	Bonavista		120		25	150
Day 8	Bonavista Clarenville				50		125
	sub totals	2,786	720	175	800	161	125
	GST/HST @ 13%	362	94	23	104	21
	TOTAL	3,148	814	198	904	182	125
								5,371
	Actual	3,104	810	107	895	182	0	5,098
	Delta	(44)	(4)	(91)	(9)	-	(125)	(273)

I was out by only $273, which is not bad considering I’d not driven a UHaul fifteen-foot truck before. The “savings” of $273 means that my net worth will be $273 greater on April 4th, my projected date for having my own money again.

Rental

My biggest surprise given Idiot1 and the other guy and head office is that the truck rental came in under estimate. They had reserved the truck for me at $3,148 but I paid only $3,104. Idiocy might be a new paradigm for our age.

Motel

I came within $4 for motels, a fluke. Despite my building lists of Microtel-like places to stay across five provinces, the snow storm which surrounded me for six days meant that I often just grabbed the first motel I saw. Still and all, I’m pleased that the actual cost wasn’t double my estimate.

Meals

Coming in $91 under budget surprised me. For 35 years I have driven across the USA and Canada, round trips to San Diego and Telegraph Creek; driven in to Alaska twice. I thought I had a good grip on meals on long-distance trips. I have a lot to learn

Fuel

Fuel is a good example of estimating. I figured that at age 72 I could drive a tank of gas a day. A sedan’s tank holds enough gas for 7½ hours, and I reckoned on doing about that many hours out of a 9½ hour day on the road, which would be about $75 in a sedan, and I doubled that for a truck.

Ferry

The ferry cost was spot-on because it is a fixed price obtained from Marine Atlantic’s web site.

Mileage

Date	$/mile
Jan 29	0.47
Jan 30	0.28
Jan 31	0.45
Feb 1	0.30
Feb 2	0.36
Feb 3	0.66
Feb 4	0.51
Feb 5	0.56

I averaged $0.47 per mile for the trip, pick-up to drop-off. My latest ten sedan car rentals (basically one-day trips around Ontario and New York State) came to $0.23 per mile, so my estimate that a UHaul would cost twice as much as a sedan (with the same driver and driving habits) was correct. So much for people who respond “I have no idea” when asked “How much?.

But note the discrepancy in each day’s average. Why is this?

(1) For the past three to five years, rental companies have abandoned the practice of offering a full-tank vehicle. This is cruel to customers. When you leave with a tank half-full, how do you make the tank half-full when you drop it off? It is, to you, a strange car, and you cannot determine how late or early in the day you should fill up. If you bring it in below the outgoing level, you get charged rates higher than local gas pumps to bring it up to par. Otherwise you end up with gas in the tank that you need not have bought. Of course, if everyone erred this way, the tank would ultimately be returned full by one leaser, and then the cycle would start all over again, with the rental company skimming a nice little profit from some drivers.

(2) The truck was delivered to me at 1/16 full, so my first fill-up consumed almost a full tank of gas that I had not burned.

(3) Because I filled up in Clarenville on the last day, and didn’t need to return the truck to Clarenville, I left the truck with three-quarters of gas I didn’t use.

(4) February 3rd I was supposed to have just two hours driving, but drove through three 50-kilometre-wide blizzards at speeds of 20 to 40 mph, with all six wheels shoveling snow out of the way, and probably two hundred changes in speed through the mountains between Port aux Basque and Corner Brook. This is very inefficient driving, to say the least.

Driving three thousand kilometres is driving from Perth through Adelaide to the Victorian border, or San Diego to St Louis, or Paris to Moscow,

To Visit Me in Bonavista BY AIR

If you like spending two hours in an aeroplane, fly Air Canada from Toronto to St John’s.

If you prefer to spend eight hours in an aeroplane, fly Porter Airlines from Toronto to St John’s via Montreal and Halifax.

Take a flat-rate $30 cab from the airport to Enterprise Car Rental on Kenmount road across from the Avalon Mall. Do NOT rent from the airport or you will be paying a 15% surcharge every day of your visit.

Drive along the TCH to Clarenville – two hours. Take the far exit on Highway 230 rather than the village-tour on Highway 230A. Whichever, route you take, follow the signs for Bonavista for ninety minutes. Stop when you reach the Atlantic Ocean

As you crest the rise with the panoramic view of Bonavista, you’ll see the twin water towers; that’s where I live.

You will pass Lancaster Inn (on your right) and what used to be Discount Auto Plaza on your. Discount Autos is now out of business, but Derek is still around here somewhere!). Continue on #230 towards the twin water towers after popping in to the Foodland Supermarket and buying two two-litre bricks of Chapman’s Butterscotch Ripple ice-cream. If it is on Special, feel free to purchase four bricks. I will make room in my freezer.

Continue on #230 towards the twin water towers, up a slight rise, turn left and drive past the water towers. Canon Bayley Road is the first street on the left. Number 60. Opposite the Lone Pine Swamp. I won’t be in. I’ll be around the back in my vegetable-and-fruit garden.