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vikingdrummer
Joined: 13 Sep 2005
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 12:18 pm Post subject: Need some advice from someone w/ experience! |
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I got a job offer w/ a steel hauler and they say they pay 21% of the load, and that I'd be home like once a week and every weekend... I don't know if this is true of course. I got another offer with a local building supply company for $14.00 an hour 50 hours a week.
My first question would be Does anyone know how much a "load" averages?? I'm trying to figure this out and nobody seems to know.
Second... which job is better.. the hourly job or the per load job?
Any info would be AWESOME! Thanks. |
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formertrucker
Joined: 07 Aug 2005
Posts: 296
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:06 pm Post subject: Re: Need some advice from someone w/ experience! |
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vikingdrummer wrote: I got a job offer w/ a steel hauler and they say they pay 21% of the load, and that I'd be home like once a week and every weekend... I don't know if this is true of course. I got another offer with a local building supply company for $14.00 an hour 50 hours a week.
My first question would be Does anyone know how much a "load" averages?? I'm trying to figure this out and nobody seems to know.
Second... which job is better.. the hourly job or the per load job?
Any info would be AWESOME! Thanks.
The thing here is whether you want to be home or not, I can see from here that you get paid pretty good for doing local work and you will make it pretty good doing OTR, but it all boils down to family (if you have one) or being one with the truck. |
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hard2explain18
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 46
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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| I would honestly take the hourly job. What area are you in? Here in Western Pennsylvania the steel loads don't pay well and the wait to get loaded is sometimes too long. When I was with TMC, I preferred to haul building supplies like drywall and shingles instead off steel. Steel usually pays by the hundred weight and when its all said and done usually only grosses between $1.00 to $1.25 per mile. Figure a 400 mile run is going to net the truck $500 or $2500 per week. At 21% thats only $525 per week and the waiting and tarping kills your free time. Even if you gross $3000 per week, thats only $630 per week. The rate of 21% is very low. I know guys from TMC that are getting 30% and not hauling all steel. At $14 per hour and 50 hours per week, that gives you a gross pay of $700. You would have to do $3350 a week to the truck hauling steel to make that. In reality that would probably mean 70 hours per week between waiting, loading, chaining and tarping, driving and unloading. At least if you're waiting on the hourly job you're getting paid. |
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fireman932003
Joined: 28 Dec 2003
Posts: 948
Location: Chandler Indiana
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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hard2explain18 wrote: I would honestly take the hourly job. What area are you in? Here in Western Pennsylvania the steel loads don't pay well and the wait to get loaded is sometimes too long. When I was with TMC, I preferred to haul building supplies like drywall and shingles instead off steel. Steel usually pays by the hundred weight and when its all said and done usually only grosses between $1.00 to $1.25 per mile. Figure a 400 mile run is going to net the truck $500 or $2500 per week. At 21% thats only $525 per week and the waiting and tarping kills your free time. Even if you gross $3000 per week, thats only $630 per week. The rate of 21% is very low. I know guys from TMC that are getting 30% and not hauling all steel. At $14 per hour and 50 hours per week, that gives you a gross pay of $700. You would have to do $3350 a week to the truck hauling steel to make that. In reality that would probably mean 70 hours per week between waiting, loading, chaining and tarping, driving and unloading. At least if you're waiting on the hourly job you're getting paid.
I would have to agree. The hourly that has been offered to you seems much better. I have hauled loads that paid by the % and I have done hourly. It always seemed to me that I made more on the hourly. That is just mt 2 cents worth. |
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bulldog2036
Joined: 13 Aug 2005
Posts: 568
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Actually, at $14.00 hr for 50 hrs its $770.00 per week when you factor in the overtime: 14x40=560 and 10x21= 210 for OT totals $770.00, so your best bet this point would be to drive local and go home every night. |
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hard2explain18
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 46
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:03 pm Post subject: |
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True but alot of local companies don't pay overtime. Its a sad fact but they don't have to pay overtime. Just figure all hours at the normal hourly rate and consider any extra pay as a bonus.
I've been off the road for 2 months now and have been making my living investing. I set a goal of $1000 per week and anything else is a bonus. I'm starting to get bored and have been looking for something in the evening. The best offer I had was through New Penn and they paid $22 per hour but no overtime doing local P&D during the day. This doesn't work because I need my days free to trade stocks. Most local evening jobs are offering from $13 to $16 per hour here in Pittsburgh. |
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lzrdlps
Joined: 08 Sep 2005
Posts: 11
Location: Austin, Tx
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Have you ever wrestled with a tarp in subzero weather, guess not, or you wouldn't be asking the question. Stay at home, sleep in your own bed, eat your own food! |
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jamesinge
Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 199
Location: Corn Patch
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:23 pm Post subject: |
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You can NEVER beat an hourly drving job. You get payed from start to finish no ifs ands or buts.
In my opinion every Trucker should be hourly.
Percentage you will be doing alot of free work. You will not get paid ANY empty miles or for any waiting no matter how long. You can deliver a load and have to drive 200 miles deadhead and wait ten hours to get the next load for example. All for free. |
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jamesinge
Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 199
Location: Corn Patch
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Its also the Federal law that you be paid overtime. Anyone who doesnt pay overtime is in for a wolrd of legal hurt. |
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formertrucker
Joined: 07 Aug 2005
Posts: 296
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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jamesinge wrote: You can NEVER beat an hourly drving job. You get payed from start to finish no ifs ands or buts.
In my opinion every Trucker should be hourly.
Percentage you will be doing alot of free work. You will not get paid ANY empty miles or for any waiting no matter how long. You can deliver a load and have to drive 200 miles deadhead and wait ten hours to get the next load for example. All for free.
Thats why you should have a load in your area before you drop off the load and then there wont be that problem, its a matter of planning your loads ahead and not waiting tell you drop off a laod to call dispatch and ask or else you will have that problem so you should for a load. And look ahead 4 or 5 days before that load then you wil ahve your ducks in a row. |
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hard2explain18
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 46
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:35 pm Post subject: |
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Another good thing about the local job is that you're around all of the time if something better comes up. It might be the middle of the week and you might run into a local LTL driver and find out his company is looking for a local driver ASAP. Then you could swing by and apply instead of being OTR and only home on weekends.
Working for a building supply company will probably give you some experience with the overhead boom and and thats something else you can add to your resume. Just be careful and know all of your surroundings!!! You'll be going to jobsites and new home developments and these can get tight sometimes. Just keep your eyes open.
I take it that the steel hauling company that you talked to is PI&I. If thats the case then I'd stay away from them. Thats pretty much the company that all the white trash around here work for. They make McDonalds workers look glorious. |
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wanderingson
Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 451
Location: Beertown, USA
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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jamesinge wrote: Its also the Federal law that you be paid overtime. Anyone who doesnt pay overtime is in for a wolrd of legal hurt.
Not true in the trucking industry. Wish it was! |
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hard2explain18
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 46
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Some of you guys really amaze me when you don't know the laws regarding the industry in which you're employed. Its not federal law to pay truck drivers overtime. Even though it would be nice. There aren't many companies that pay overtime. I have a friend that does local work for a union carrier and he gets straight time for the 50 or so hours he puts in per week. Maybe some contracts are different, but he is paid straight time. I've heard of a few companies that claim to pay overtime after 40 hours per week, but if a guy works 10 hours a day monday through thursday, they just give him friday off. If you want to believe that its a federal law to pay truck drivers overtime, then you must be the guy who calls the Federal Marshall when the scalehouse asks for your logbook. |
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GMAN
Joined: 13 Feb 2005
Posts: 9398
Location: Tennessee
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 9:54 pm Post subject: |
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| 21% is a little low for percentage. You should be getting a minimum of 25%. Some of us pay as much as 30% for flat bed. You are usually paid by the hundred weight. And if you are only getting $1.25 for pulling out of Pennsylvania, you are with the wrong company. A friend of mine pulls out of Pennsylvania and averages well over $1.50/mile. In fact he has been getting as high as $1.90 for some runs. It all depends on who you run for and where you go. I would talk to other drivers with the same company. They can give you a better idea of what rates they are running under and how many miles or weight. 8) |
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yoopr
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 12866
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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jamesinge wrote: Its also the Federal law that you be paid overtime. Anyone who doesnt pay overtime is in for a wolrd of legal hurt.
sorry but you're Wrong |
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