[Musicman]

I haven't been in a company truck for 14 years and haven't been leased to anybody for 8 years, so I'm a little out of touch with what company drivers are actually being paid. I see the advertisements, but we all they are BS. What are the REAL numbers like at these companies? So those of you company drivers out there with a couple minutes to spare, please answer the following questions and help me out.

1) Are you giving me team or solo info?
2) How many days / weeks are you out and how much home time?
3) While everybody talks about pay per mile and miles per week, that really doesn't matter all that much as a company driver. What does is what you put in your pocket. What are your earnings in a typical week?
4) What kind of benefits are available to you?

[GAnthony]

sadly i cannot help you as i am on a dedicated run and i get a salary.

but yes, all the recruiters lie. they tell you what you "can make" or what you "could make". but they almost never tell you the exact miles you will run or the amounts of waiting times.

hopefully, someone will come along and tell you.

good luck to you

[repete]

I also am on a dedicated run so these numbers should be lower than OTR but I figure average for most.
I run 5 days a week starting Sunday @1500 and end Friday morning about 0300, I'm home daily (by luck, if the Co. knew when they offered me this gig they would've offered less money). Weekends off but when the warehouse workers want Mothers/fathers day or super bowl sunday off I have to work Friday night. That makes for a long week of trimming time to complete the week under 70hrs.
I do NOT have sick days or paid holidays, I do get breakdown pay and if the shipper cancels the load due to weather or other unforeseen reasons I still get paid. I get paid by the run and each run is about 12hrs.(includes .5hr break!) and I gross in the low $50's yr.
If I could run the same miles going OTR I would make about 10-15,000 more.
I forgot, I get 2 weeks vacation and soon to be 3 weeks
healthcare has gone up to $92.00 per week for family plan, thanks obama!
Dental and vision is still offered and affordable
401K with 3% (IIRC)
and profit sharing
Damn! I kinda forgot how good I have it!

[Copperhead]

Originally Posted by GAnthony

sadly i cannot help you as i am on a dedicated run and i get a salary.

but yes, all the recruiters lie. they tell you what you "can make" or what you "could make". but they almost never tell you the exact miles you will run or the amounts of waiting times.

hopefully, someone will come along and tell you.

good luck to you

Well now, we do have to be a little more fair about all of this. There is no way anyone can guarantee a consistent level of miles. Freight movements and demands change all the time. Customer requirements for trucks change all the time. Accounts are gained and lost. Even dedicated route jobs can change. Anyone with a modicum of business sense knows that there are no constants in business. A recruiter can give a person a general idea of the average number of miles a driver can expect to get, but that is an average. There will be good weeks and dry weeks.

And wait times can be fluid also. A shipper/receiver may have other things that came up or are short staffed due to several employees getting sick, or any number of other scenarios that can disrupt the expected smooth flow of thing. A carrier should make a reasonable compensation to the driver for those wait times, and many do, and they outline that as part of what they pay for. if they don't, then you know that is a carrier you might not want to link up with. All of this is on the driver to find these things out ahead of time. They should be in writing as company policy.

[Mr. Ford95]

Well if you listen to US Express.........they say 75K a year..........I ran the numbers and called BS quickly on that! In my lookings arounds I've used 2,000 miles a week whereas companies are telling folks your doing 5-600 miles everyday. To get their money figures, you'd have to do 500-600 miles everyday and never be home the entire year to get 75K at 0.40 a mile. But but but, they run the Northeast............you ain't doing no 500-600 everyday!

[GMAN]

I can't give you first hand numbers, but I have seen driver rates as high as $0.50/mile locally. For the most part, I don't think driver pay has risen much over 10 years ago. However, some carriers are now in the mid $0.40/mile to around $0.50. I still see some carriers paying in the low to mi $0.30/mile. I would still think that the annual average miles is around 2,500/week. It would be interesting to know whether these numbers are true nationally.

[repete]

Originally Posted by Mr. Ford95

Well if you listen to US Express.........they say 75K a year..........I ran the numbers and called BS quickly on that! In my lookings arounds I've used 2,000 miles a week whereas companies are telling folks your doing 5-600 miles everyday. To get their money figures, you'd have to do 500-600 miles everyday and never be home the entire year to get 75K at 0.40 a mile. But but but, they run the Northeast............you ain't doing no 500-600 everyday!

Crete is paying .49 CPM and Schaffer (reefer division) is IIRC paying .51 CPM.
I don't get to hang out and talk with many of the other drivers but did talk with a couple recently. One was pretty upset that his miles were down and he was getting a lot of short runs, he did admit that it was a recent problem and he seemed to be stuck in the NE (that does happen). Another filled in for me a few times while I'm on vacation and he's more than happy with the miles. I also talked with a driver that just quit because of low miles and poor treatment. It quickly became obvious that he was a chronic complainer and will find problem wherever he goes.
Mr Ford, you might want to check with Crete they pull cans out of the ports and IIRC they also have some dedicaited stuff near you. I can check for you if you want just let me know.

[VPIDarkAngel]

Since I started a new job in August, I'll give you some slightly obsolete information. Last year with Werner Enterprises (my last full year with them), I grossed $57,xxx. I was home an average of one day per week (one time, I was out for three weeks, I got Thanksgiving off, and I got two days for Christmas), not counting the two weeks of paid vacation I took. Last year, I had seven years seniority with the company (#7 out of 80ish drivers at that particular dedicated site) and with the account, which was Dollar General out of South Boston, VA.
The payscale was as follows:
$0.48/mi - all miles
+$0.02/mi - all miles during each week of accident free driving with no driver chargeable late loads
$40/trailer - driver unload fee
$16.50/stop - all deliveries and vendor pickups
$10/live load - any vendor pickup that required a live load
Insurance (single) cost me $122.10/month through Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
Company matched 401(k) $0.50 on the dollar up to 1.5% of gross earnings.

I've not put in a solid year with the new job yet, and I'm not sure how to view my gross earnings at a glance yet. I will say that the new gig has MUCH better hometime.