Is "Internal Resources Only" Actually Cheaper? Run the Numbers First.

The directive comes down from above and it sounds reasonable.

Budget's tight. Use what we have. Internal resources only.

It's not a wrong instinct. It comes from a real place — the company owns trucks, employs drivers and the logic of "why pay someone else when we already have the equipment" makes sense on a whiteboard.

But there's a number nobody's running when that directive goes out. And it's the only number that actually answers the question.

What "internal resources" actually costs

When a truck leaves the yard to make a delivery run, it isn't free. The cost just doesn't show up on an invoice — which makes it easy to ignore.

Here's what's actually on the clock the moment that truck pulls out.

Driver time. Your driver is on the payroll for every hour of that run — drive time, loading, unloading, traffic, the return trip. On a 60-mile delivery, you're looking at half a day minimum. That's half a day of labor cost that doesn't show up as a line item on the delivery but is absolutely real.

Fuel. A pickup with a trailer doing highway miles burns more than people estimate, especially loaded. Round trip adds up fast.

Vehicle wear. Miles on your equipment are miles on your equipment. Maintenance, tires, depreciation — all of it accumulates.

The job that truck isn't on. This is the one that usually gets missed entirely. If that truck is making a run to Casa Grande, it isn't on a job generating revenue. That opportunity cost is real even if it's invisible.

Add it up and the "free" delivery has a cost. The question is whether that cost is more or less than the alternative.

The calculator does the math you're not doing

FERO built a cost calculator for exactly this situation — not to tell you to use FERO, but to give you a real number to compare against.

Plug in the distance. Get a price. That's what the run costs on FERO — upfront, before you commit.

Now compare that to what you calculated above for the internal run. Driver time at your labor rate, fuel, the opportunity cost of the truck being off a job.

Sometimes internal is cheaper. Sometimes it isn't. The calculator doesn't make that call — it just gives you the number you need to make the right call yourself.

That's the conversation worth having before the next management meeting, not after three more runs that nobody truly added up.

When "internal resources only" makes sense

To be clear: there are absolutely situations where using your own truck is the right answer. Short runs. Light loads. Drivers with downtime. Jobs where the truck is already staged nearby.

The directive isn't wrong. The problem is applying it as a blanket rule without running the numbers on each situation. A policy that makes sense for a 10-mile run to a nearby supplier might not make sense for a 90-mile equipment move to a remote jobsite.

The calculator makes the distinction easy. Run the numbers on the specific job, not the general policy.

How to use it

The calculator is live at feronow.com/shippers/calculator. It takes less than two minutes to run a scenario.

If you're in a budget conversation and need to make the case either way — internal or outsourced — the calculator gives you something to put in front of management that isn't a gut feeling. It's a number.

Your Strategic Account Manager can also run specific scenarios with you if the job has variables the online tool doesn't allow you to adjust. Reach out at sales@feronow.com or (866) 982-2073.

The next time the "internal resources only" bell rings, run the numbers first. The answer might be the same. Or it might not. Either way, you'll know.