This is where most pricing goes wrong. A vehicle does not rent 30 days a month. Between
turnaround, maintenance, and simple lack of demand, a realistic figure for a small operator is
12 to 18 days a month, and lower in the rainy season.
So:
Break-even daily rate = (fixed monthly cost ÷ realistic rented days per month)
+ variable cost per day
If your fixed cost is ₱18,000 a month and you realistically rent 15 days, that is ₱1,200 a day
just to stand still, before fuel, cleaning, or a single peso of profit. An operator pricing
against a competitor at ₱1,500 without doing this arithmetic thinks they have a ₱1,500 margin.
They have ₱300.
Track your actual utilisation. It is the number that most changes whether the business
works, and almost nobody measures it.
