Just to play the devils advocate here for debates sake. If you owned a company would you pay your employees more than you had to thus cutting profit and a lower return for the investors?

This isnt just truck driving...This is the same with any job. Its called a "free market". The free market sets the wages for any job.
In a free market system you actually set your own pay. You CHOOSE to accept the job for the pay offered.

 

I think the point here is that if the companies spent more on salaries and benefits then they would not have a high turnover rate and have to pay for recruiters and training. It is very expensive to hire as there are multiple hidden costs; ie: Human Resources personel, etc. Their costs to maintain their equipment would be substantially lower as a driver who respects the company they work for will take better care of his/her truck.

Bottom line - would probably work out about the same dollar for dollar - just much less headache.

 

Everyone thinks they should be paid more in every job. Drivers think recruiters should be paid less....Hell, personally as a recruiter I think it would be great if they paid me more and paid others less. Everyone thinks the people at the top of the corporate ladder should be paid less and the people at the bottom paid more. This is the same in any position in any industry. Reality: In a free market system you are given a job for one reason. You are hired to make more money for those above you and the investors. You are paid according to what skills and experience you have to make those people more money. Your pay is relative to how much money you can generate for those people up top factored with the number of people in the job market that have the same skills you have.
Everyone also has theories on how companies should be run to generate more money. Reality: Corporations are run by the nations best and brightest. Really, if we all knew a better way to run a company and make more profit, we would be at the top running our own companies.

 

I might be unpopular for saying this, but I dont think the high turnover rate has anything to do with pay and benefits. Truck driving has always had a huge turnover rate. I think it just has to do with the toughness of the job and the unpredictable nature of hauling freight added to the factor of being out on the road for long periods of time. As far as benefits....I just dont think drivers care about benefits in general that much. Stange as that might seem. When recruiting, unless I bring the subject of benefits up, drivers almost never ask me about them. Or....I could be talking to a driver making a little less money than im offering and absolutely no benefits and I offer him a little more pay and a lot better benefits.....the driver will say. "Sorry, 1 or 2 cpm is not worth me changing jobs." Even when I try to make him understand that a good benefits package is worth far more than a few CPM. They still dont seem to get it.

 

Yeh but what about miles,you can pay 50cpm and all the benefits included if the miles ain't there you ain't making jack,drivers should get some sort of a guarantee.

 

There, scania, I must disagree.

Remember the saying "If you bought it, a truck brought it!!"

With the exception of seasonal slowdowns, there is no real reason for the miles to not be available for a driver, and a company really can not afford for a truck to sit for too very long.

I do believe that trucking companies should be required to offer some type of compensation for detention, or extended lay-overs in certain circumstances.

 

I agree...in a perfect world there would always be miles as well as pay. Unfortunately we are all controlled by freight. There are slow seasons and busy seasons and those arent always predictable at all. Companies could load up on drivers for a busy season predicted by "industry experts" and poof....consumer spending could be down for some reason and that busy season could end up being a slow season. I can assure you that drivers arent the only ones affected by this. As a recruiter, when freight slows down, my paycheck gets way smaller too.
Now...think about this. If you owned a freight company and freight was a little slow. Which situation do you think would be better. Too much freight and not enough drivers....or too many drivers and not enough freight?
The sad thing for drivers is... the optimal problem out of those two to have would be too many drivers for the freight that you had. Like it or not, we are all in the business to make the customer happy. A company that had too much freight and not enough drivers might seem like a great thing for drivers. And sure, for awhile the drivers would be doing great and getting tons of miles. But long term a company like that would eventually lose its customers because of its inability to handle what the customer wanted and then nobody wins at that company.

 

Sheepdancer: You make some interesting points. Apparently I am in the minority since benefits are very important to me. I can only assume that the reason the benefits in trucking are so poor is for the very reason you stated - the majority don't care. Sad....cause when these truckers need some good medical care - it's not going to be there - or worse - you and I will pay for it through taxes.

 

As a matter of fact, when I owned my three businesses, I did pay my employees more than the prevailing wages in the county and one of my salesmen made more money than I did. In fact I upset a great number of business owners in a three county area because I was constantly used as an example of how a business could afford to pay its employees better, and I even gave all of my employees free (completely free) health insurance.

Also, I had no investors other than myself, therefore I had only myself to satisfy. But even still...to this day, I firmly believe that my profit margins were higher and more consistent because my employees were happy, wanted to work for me and went the extra mile for me. Every employee was "salaried". And I went so far as to not dock someones pay if they took a sick day or took a child to the doctor and needed time off. Why? Because it was the right thing to do. Plus, if I needed something done on a particular project or issue that might require an occasional extra hours or maybe some Saturday hours....I never heard complaints.

My employees knew exactly what I expected of them, and while I was tolerant to a point....if the assigned tasks were not done, there were remedies available to me. Plus, with the steady stream of applicants for jobs....they realized that they could be replaced easily enough. My prime business was not a "general" kind of business. It was specialized and anyone other than secretarial staff had to be trained, schooled and brought up to steam to include factory training to get to where they were competent. It was an expensive process....but I footed the bill and I demanded results and performance. I paid them well, and they performed to my expectations. I had no problem doing this because it got me well trained and loyal employees. My turnover was "zilch"!

There is a grain or two of truth to what you say, however.... if one looks closely enough, there is precious little disparity in the pay scales of the majority of the companies. Its the carrot and stick routine, and in many cases its downright abusive. Indentured servitude is a cruel form of slavery. Because many companies effectively use it that way.

As the other poster said regarding the "subsidies"....it makes one wonder just how long some of these carriers would be around if that money went the way of the dinosaur???? Probably be gone in the blink of an eye, or their payscales would be dramatically improved overnight. :shock: :shock:

 

I too am like kblickster. If my employer doesn't have good health insurance at a reasonable price...our conversation ends rapidly. The same goes for hometime policies and all the rest.

There may be fools out there who don't care....but at some point reality will come crashing down on their heads....then all of the sudden they'll care, and care alot. The value of good health insurance is without measure when you or a family member suffers a catastrophic illness or incident. Lack of health insurance is "complete and total bankruptcy and ruin"...just waiting to happen.

I'd being willing to bet those people are the ones who can't manage payments on a pre-paid Mastercard... :shock: :? 8)