Hub miles or Practical?

[KRWOOD]

Which is better?

$ .35 cpm hub miles or
$ .41 cpm practical


Trying to decide my next step. Also the .35 cpm company has better equipment.


Thanks for the insight!

[Mr. Ford95]

I would go hub but that's my personal opinion, that way you get paid for every single mile you put in. Practical only pays you mileage for whatever route the computer spits out. If you run into a backup and have to get around it, your not getting paid for any extra mileage you have to put on. Or you know a better route than the computer, it's further in miles by say 30 miles but you will save 30 minutes by going that longer route. Hub will pay that extra 30 miles, practical will not.

[Colts Fan]

So what is the difference between Practical Miles and HHG?

[lucky13]

I would go hub but that's my personal opinion, that way you get paid for every single mile you put in. Practical only pays you mileage for whatever route the computer spits out. If you run into a backup and have to get around it, your not getting paid for any extra mileage you have to put on. Or you know a better route than the computer, it's further in miles by say 30 miles but you will save 30 minutes by going that longer route. Hub will pay that extra 30 miles, practical will not.

The one problem with hub miles is the one driver that abuses it,I work for a company that pays hub and we have one driver (a real good friend of double r who posts here) and he does alot of out of the way driving and puts on miles that he doesnt need to and as we all know it takes just one to mess it all up and start getting paid hmg or practical!

[Mr. Ford95]

Go to mapquest or something similar and type in your location and another location say 1,000 miles away and click on "quickest route," that is what they call Practical miles. Take those same locations and click on "shortest route," that is HHG.

Practical is better than HHG, but Hub is better than Practical, but Hourly is better than Hub.

That's exactly the problem lucky. One driver can screw it up by saying, "Ha, watch me make a load of money on this run, I'm going to run a total of 500 miles on a run that is normally 250." That is why very few pay Hub miles. It's an honor system deal.

[Skywalker]

A lot of times...practical miles are based on "zipcode to zipcode". You can make in the run in fewer miles than the paid mileage, and on the other hand maybe drive a few more than paid.

Hub can be straight hub...all miles driven, or "portal to portal" / "gate to gate". That will depend on the company.

The 41 cpm can offset any differential, but that would depend on what part of the country you are in, and where you are going..... In the NE....running N to S usually comes pretty close on practical, but I found that if you were having to run S before going W, or vice versa...you could come up short.

The others are right though....if you are getting true hub, you will get paid for every mile you run.

Either of them beat the pants off of HHG....

[KRWOOD]

I found another company. This one pays $17.39 hr and hauls mail. They state that they pay aprox 60 hrs a week.


Anybody know anything about hauling mail?

[silvan]

I found another company. This one pays $17.39 hr and hauls mail. They state that they pay aprox 60 hrs a week.


Anybody know anything about hauling mail?

Nope, but I'd jump all over that in a heartbeat. I make less than that per hour worked running on practical miles with negligible loading/unloading time (less than two hours a day usually, including pre- and post-trip.) That sounds like a deal unless you live in a high rent area.

As far as the broader question, .35 on hub miles, or .45 on practical, I'd say it really depends, but hub probably wins. Let me take my own situation for example, and see how it would shake out.

Practical miles means I drive 500 or more and get paid for no more than 440 of them. (I had to drive 60 miles round trip out of the way to go take a random drug test Friday, so that was 560 miles, or 120 miles or roughly two hours for absolutely free.)

440 * .45 = $154
500 * .35 = $175
560 * .35 = $196

I run the same route every day, so I can't say how this would scale out in the world of random pickups and random deliveries. In my situation, hub miles would clearly kick ass.

(When they switched from HHG to practical miles, it didn't make any difference on this route.)

(Looking at the base pay of $154 a day, I sure am glad I get stop-off and trailer move pay, or I would go broke fast just on miles alone.)

[greg3564]

I found another company. This one pays $17.39 hr and hauls mail. They state that they pay aprox 60 hrs a week.


Anybody know anything about hauling mail?

Mail drivers do tons of night driving.

[Double R]

I would go hub but that's my personal opinion, that way you get paid for every single mile you put in. Practical only pays you mileage for whatever route the computer spits out. If you run into a backup and have to get around it, your not getting paid for any extra mileage you have to put on. Or you know a better route than the computer, it's further in miles by say 30 miles but you will save 30 minutes by going that longer route. Hub will pay that extra 30 miles, practical will not.

The one problem with hub miles is the one driver that abuses it,I work for a company that pays hub and we have one driver (a real good friend of double r who posts here) and he does alot of out of the way driving and puts on miles that he doesnt need to and as we all know it takes just one to mess it all up and start getting paid hmg or practical!

Yes, he is my best friend. Tell him I said hi(not)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hub miles. Like someone said, if you get caught in a back-up and go around, you get paid for thos eextra miles. If your looking for a place to park in a truck stop, you get paid to circle around it(don't abuse that one though). Now, getting paid by the hour, that is the best way to do it .

[KRWOOD]

update:


The .35cpm is not hub miles it is pc miler 2% and with an apu


I'm waiting for more details on the hourly gig.

[Sheepdancer]

Wouldnt it depend on which jobs pay better weekly. Example, most of my jobs over here at JB are rand mcnally miles. However, occasionally I will get jobs open that pay hub miles. The rand mcnally miles job might pay more weekly, so wouldnt that be the better job? Im really surprised sometimes that some drivers would rather be able to get on the CB and brag that they are making hub miles than making more money. I say this because I see it happen. I swear if one of those hub miles job is open, I sometimes just say "this job is hub miles" and the driver will say, "I will take it" without even hearing what it pays weekly.
My point is that not all the best paying jobs are hub miles. And more than likely if a job is really easy for us to fill. It wont be the highest paying job.
Really after years of doing this job, Im convinced that if big companies like us switched to hub miles for every job and lowered our pay 10cpm, we would get more hires, even though those drivers would be making less money yearly.

Wouldnt it depend on which jobs pay better weekly. Example, most of my jobs over here at JB are rand mcnally miles. However, occasionally I will get jobs open that pay hub miles. The rand mcnally miles job might pay more weekly, so wouldnt that be the better job?

In order to be paid for 3,000 miles, a driver operating under HHG pyramid scheme must actually run 3,300. A driver paid off the hub will drive 3,000 miles and get paid for each and every one of those 3,000.

Thus, the HHG driver is working 10% more than the hub driver for the same pay. Only in trucking is this considered a good deal. Everywhere else, it's known as a HOSE JOB.

Really after years of doing this job, Im convinced that if big companies like us switched to hub miles for every job and lowered our pay 10cpm, we would get more hires, even though those drivers would be making less money yearly.

Why not just switch to hub and give your drivers what they rightfully deserve? Why is it always pay-cuts with you McMega haulers?

[DBW]

The entire pay by mileage system sucks to be honest. Just about every other occupation is compensated on an hourly basis. If shippers were obligated to pay shipping charges based on a federal mandate that uses hourly wages as a basis, chances are there would be very few holding drivers at their docks for hours on end. But I'm just a dumb driver so what do I know. :sad:

[Sheepdancer]

Why not just switch to hub and give your drivers what they rightfully deserve? Why is it always pay-cuts with you McMega haulers?

Im just a recruiter, I dont make company policy. But I am smart enough to know why we pay rand mcnally miles. Because that is how we charge the customers. Its about compitition for freight. Say "company A" bids for a customers freight. They bid 1.45 per mile @ 1000 Rand Mcnally miles. And then say Company B bids for the same freight at 1100 hub miles....Who do you think gets that customer?
Here is a great idea for you Cold. Since you are so smart and know a better way to run a trucking company than us. Why dont you get busy, start your own company, become a "mega carrier" and pay all your drivers 50cpm at hub miles? If that is a better way run a company, you should knock us off the top pretty quickly.

[VitoCorleone99]

Hourly pay for OTR would never work. "Sorry boss, conditions were just unsafe. It took me an extra three hours to get there."

Hub miles can work if you're running fixed lanes, but the guy who decides to cruise into a neighboring town so he can hit on the waitress at Applebee's would screw it up for everyone else anyway. "Just trying to avoid the construction boss."

I agree with Sheepdancer in the sense that the only number that matters is the number on the paycheck. There is a point at which the job is worth doing, and that point is different for every driver. If my pay fell below a level that I felt was worth my time, I would seek employment elsewhere. Whether that was a matter of my hourly overtime pay becoming insufficient, my cents per mile becoming insufficient, my miles driven becoming insufficient, or my load percentage pay becoming insufficient is entirely irrelevant in my opinion.

People constantly carp about how underpaid OTR drivers are. Sure, it would be great to make $500,000 a year with a free oriental massage at the end of each shift, but if the economics were behind it, we would all start trucking companies and become millionaires. As for me, this is the easiest job I've ever had and the money is fine. The day that changes, I'll move along.

In terms of the actual question - .35 hub or .41 HHG, you just have to do the math and see what makes you most comfortable. If .41 is the HHG pay, that's your starting point.

So, to boil it down, you get a 1,000 mile HHG dispatch. 1000*.41=$410.

To make the same $410 on the .35 hub pay, you would need to do run 1,171 miles (1171*.35=$409.85). If it actually only took you 1,100 miles, you would earn more by taking the HHG pay. If it actually took you 1,200 miles, you would make more being paid by the hub. Of course you could just take the hub pay and make sure you always go way out of route, but your employer would probably catch on quickly if they have any clue what they're doing.

[Cluggy619]

Why not just switch to hub and give your drivers what they rightfully deserve? Why is it always pay-cuts with you McMega haulers?

Im just a recruiter, I dont make company policy. But I am smart enough to know why we pay rand mcnally miles. Because that is how we charge the customers. Its about compitition for freight. Say "company A" bids for a customers freight. They bid 1.45 per mile @ 1000 Rand Mcnally miles. And then say Company B bids for the same freight at 1100 hub miles....Who do you think gets that customer?
Here is a great idea for you Cold. Since you are so smart and know a better way to run a trucking company than us. Why dont you get busy, start your own company, become a "mega carrier" and pay all your drivers 50cpm at hub miles? If that is a better way run a company, you should knock us off the top pretty quickly.

Let me get this right.

After admitting that your sales department for your company SHAVES off the miles in order to get the contract, anotherwords, screwing the driver out of pay, you go and make yet another snide remark just because he doesn't agree with drivers being cheated out of pay? How about we start shaving what you get paid by 10%.....let's see how your ***** would like it then. Oh yea, go ahead and lie by saying you would do it, and be happy. Just another comment proving your full of *****.

Oh yea, JB does uses hub miles. The driver has to log the beginning miles and the ending miles for every trip, and is told that if he is over that 10% varience, they can be written up, and even terminated for it. So a driver for JB get screwed both ways. He drives more miles then paid for, then written up when he goes over their varience....which most of the time is already out by at least 10% before he moves the truck.

But it must be the drivers fault, right sheepdancer? Must be nice to live in your world.

[Sheepdancer]

After admitting that your sales department for your company SHAVES off the miles in order to get the contract, anotherwords, screwing the driver of pay, you go and make yet another snide remark just because he doesn't agree with drivers being cheated out of pay? How about we start shaving what you get paid by 10%.....let's see how your ***** would like it then. Oh yea, go ahead and lie by saying you would do it, and be happy. Just another comment proving your full of *****.

My pay goes up and down all the time. Im a commissioned employee. Sometimes my commissions go up, sometimes they go down. And sometimes I do work for here for NO MONEY AT ALL. Example: That thread "ode to sheepdancer". I spent quite a bit of time helping that driver and didnt make one cent. Why am I not griping about being "cheated"? Because the big picture is "DOING WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE THIS COMPANY PROFIT MORE AND MAKING THE STOCK GO UP" Just a few more years of working here and I will have aquired enough company stock that I will most likely be making more money from that than recruiting commissions.
The purpose of every single trucking company is one thing....TO KEEP THE CUSTOMER HAPPY AND KEEP THE FREIGHT COMING. A company that pays hub miles but cant get the freight because they are being undercut by other companies DOESNT DO ANYONE ANY GOOD, INCLUDING THE DRIVERS.
I will suggest the same thing to you that I did ColdFrosty. If you think you know a better way to run a trucking company...GET BUSY AND DO IT. What you are doing now is like the coach of a last place JR high football team trying to tell the coach of the superbowl champions how to play football. It just doesnt fly.

[Cluggy619]

After admitting that your sales department for your company SHAVES off the miles in order to get the contract, anotherwords, screwing the driver of pay, you go and make yet another snide remark just because he doesn't agree with drivers being cheated out of pay? How about we start shaving what you get paid by 10%.....let's see how your ***** would like it then. Oh yea, go ahead and lie by saying you would do it, and be happy. Just another comment proving your full of *****.

My pay goes up and down all the time. Im a commissioned employee. Sometimes my commissions go up, sometimes they go down. And sometimes I do work for here for NO MONEY AT ALL. Example: That thread "ode to sheepdancer". I spent quite a bit of time helping that driver and didnt make one cent. Why am I not griping about being "cheated"? Because the big picture is "DOING WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE THIS COMPANY PROFIT MORE AND MAKING THE STOCK GO UP" Just a few more years of working here and I will have aquired enough company stock that I will most likely be making more money from that than recruiting commissions.
The purpose of every single trucking company is one thing....TO KEEP THE CUSTOMER HAPPY AND KEEP THE FREIGHT COMING. A company that pays hub miles but cant get the freight because they are being undercut by other companies DOESNT DO ANYONE ANY GOOD, INCLUDING THE DRIVERS.
I will suggest the same thing to you that I did ColdFrosty. If you think you know a better way to run a trucking company...GET BUSY AND DO IT. What you are doing now is like the coach of a last place JR high football team trying to tell the coach of the superbowl champions how to play football. It just doesnt fly.

Like I said before. Your posting speaks more and louder about you than I ever could.

[garyavp]

$17.00/.34=50 so fifty or so miles