[golfhobo]

JohhnyLightning boasted:

Well I found a company that will compensate most of my driver needs.

Good for you. But, you did say MOST, right?

BTW inmate 1577 when loading and unload or on breakdown, surfing the net or taking nap, i will be doing the same thing, But getting paid here

Really?

Terminal Wayfreighting

These rates apply whenever making an enroute drop or pick up at a Terminal location and you continue on to your final destination with the same trailer

$21.87 per hour - minimum ½ hour

And if the dispatcher finds a way for you NOT to continue with the same trailer?

MECHANICAL BREAKDOWNS
The driver will be entitled to be compensated for a delay incurred that is a direct result of a mechanical breakdown of the equipment. The compensation will be as follows;

Per hour rate payable from time of breakdown - $15.00 per hour
Maximum of 8 hours per 24 hours

And for the 16 hours that come AFTER the maximum of 8 hours??

OTHER HOURLY COMPENSATION:
Pick up and delivery Delay:
Drivers performing live pick ups and drops will be compensated after 4hrs at a rate of $15.00 per hour.

Then, the first 4 hours are free, right??

If you fail to contact central, you will not be compensated.

"Sorry driver, I didn't get your call. Can you prove otherwise?"

Excessive Terminal Delay:
Any delay at a terminal that exceeds 12 hours will be paid at a rate of $15.00 per hour for each hour until dispatched.

First 12 hours are your GIFT to the company??

NOTE:
None of the delay payments are applicable if the cause of delay can be considered "ACT OF GOD".
Example: Extreme weather, power failures.

God is a dispatcher!

LAYOVER ALLOWANCE
USA Layovers:
Driver will be compensated a flat rate of $150.00 if you do not receive a dispatch within 12 hours from time you are empty and available for reload.

All loads are automatically dispatched at the elapsed time of 11 hours and 59 minutes!

BORDER CROSSINGS:
Drivers will be paid an allowance as follows for clearing loads at the Canada/USA border.

Southbound-$5.00 per shipment Maximum $50.00 per load.
Northbound-$5.00 per shipment Maximum $50.00 per load.

But it can sometimes take a DAY to clear customs... or so I've been told.

NY CITY BONUS:
Drivers dispatched into one of the five (5) boroughs of New York City will receive an allowance of $150.00.
The five (5) boroughs are Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island.

That's why so many DC's are located in Elizabeth, NJ. J-u-s-t a b-i-t outside!

SAFETY BONUS:
Each driver is entitled to receive a $0.02/mile quarterly bonus on all paid miles.
To receive this bonus, the driver must comply with the following:

Have no preventable accidents for the quarter.
Comply with the company uniform policy for the quarter.

Good luck on that one! They're betting on the odds which are in their favor. :lol:

I'm not trying to burst your bubble Johhny. I hope you do well! And I'm CERTAINLY not joining sides with CFM!!

Just make SURE you keep good records, (paperwork?) and remember that it is the dispatcher's JOB to screw you out of pay, and save the company money!

[NevadaJim]

Originally Posted by GMAN

If you want to be paid for every single minute you are on the job, then you need to work by the hour. When you go to work for a company for mileage or percentage, then that is what you are paid. The main area where I see that a driver should be paid is for loading/unloading or excessive waiting. If drivers either assist or unload a truck they are not usually paid the same wage as a lumper. I feel that if a carrier is willing to pay a lumper $200 for unloading a truck then the driver should be paid the same. Unfortunately, they are usually only paid about $50 for doing the same work. In reality, lumper fees should not even come into play. It is the responsibility of the receiver or shipper to load or unload their freight, not the driver. It should not take long to do paperwork. It is part of the job and is required by the Federal government.

Most salesmen are not paid for travel time, paperwork, etc., They are paid for performance. They are paid a commission on what they sell. It is the same for OTR drivers. They are either paid a percentage of what the carrier receives or mileage, which is also usually a percentage of what the carrier receives. The more miles he drives, the bigger his paycheck. Most OTR drivers do well financially once they get some experience. No company will pay top wages to a worker until they gain experience. The more proficient and experienced a driver becomes the higher his wages. It is the same with a salesman. The more sales he closes, the bigger his paycheck.

If you want to stay in this business and want to earn more money, you can save your money and buy your own truck, get your authority and start your own trucking company. Once you have your own company, you can run it anyway you wish. If you want to charge for sitting, just put it in the contract you have with the broker or shipper from whom you received the load.

One thing you should keep in mind, however. There is only so much money to go around. Unless a carrier collects money from the shipper or receiver for sitting or unloading, etc., he cannot afford to pay the driver.

Comparing driving to a salesperson just doesn't fly, GMan. Salespeople have the opportnity to make as much money as they possibly can. Whether it be good sales techniques, or making up for the lack of, with hard work. The door is open to salespeople to produce as much as possible. An OTR driver doesn't have control over his potential earnings when companies play silly games. The door doesn't seem to be open to an OTR driver. Too many variables are out of an OTR drivers hands to max out their potential earnings. Pretty much just shut up and color with alot of the TL companies.

[WildK9]

Originally Posted by golfhobo

And I'm CERTAINLY not joining sides with CFM!!

Amen, and again I say Amen!!! :lol: :P

[Sheepdancer]

An OTR driver doesn't have control over his potential earnings when companies play silly games

Everyone has control over their potential earnings. Say you have two drivers working for the same company and on the same job. One made 70 grand, the other made 40 grand. I guarantee the one who made 70 grand did something different to make it happen. Happens all the time. In fact just last week, they brought in a few of our top earning drivers last year to corporarte. Our CO brought them up to recruiting and allowed us to ask them questions. One of the questions was "What was your secret to making more than everyone else" He gave us a pretty detailed answer of some of the things he did to do so well, but really it came down to this. He ran smarter than everyone else. Basically it did what it took to make that much. I find that funny that if you ask the top drivers anywhere that question. They will always answer the same way....THEY DID WHAT IT TOOK and on the other side of the coin if you ask the drivers on the bottom end of the payscale what they didnt do to succeed, they will ALWAYS say it wasnt their fault.
Dont fall into that trap where you convince yourself that you dont control your pay. Thats exactly what the people at the bottom want you to think. People like to bring others down to their level. It helps them deal with where they are in life. When you start thinking that way and you fall into that trap, you have lost.

[NevadaJim]

Originally Posted by Sheepdancer

Everyone has control over their potential earnings. Say you have two drivers working for the same company and on the same job. One made 70 grand, the other made 40 grand. I guarantee the one who made 70 grand did something different to make it happen. Happens all the time. In fact just last week, they brought in a few of our top earning drivers last year to corporarte. Our CO brought them up to recruiting and allowed us to ask them questions. One of the questions was "What was your secret to making more than everyone else" He gave us a pretty detailed answer of some of the things he did to do so well, but really it came down to this. He ran smarter than everyone else. Basically it did what it took to make that much. I find that funny that if you ask the top drivers anywhere that question. They will always answer the same way....THEY DID WHAT IT TOOK and on the other side of the coin if you ask the drivers on the bottom end of the payscale what they didnt do to succeed, they will ALWAYS say it wasnt their fault.
Dont fall into that trap where you convince yourself that you dont control your pay. Thats exactly what the people at the bottom want you to think. People like to bring others down to their level. It helps them deal with where they are in life. When you start thinking that way and you fall into that trap, you have lost.

I definitley subscribe to that theory. After spending 23 years in the military it's easy to understand how those with the WIT (Whatever It Takes) attitude usually rise to the top. What's confusing/conflicting with that theory is the number of drivers that complain about their company or the industry as a whole. Reading these forums it seems there are more disgruntled drivers than happy. Is it really possible that all these folks complaining are NOT doing what they need to do to be successful? I find that a little hard to believe.

[Sheepdancer]

Reading these forums it seems there are more disgruntled drivers than happy. Is it really possible that all these folks complaining are NOT doing what they need to do to be successful? I find that a little hard to believe.

I think the keyword here would be when you posted "seems". Yes, people on message boards seem to be mostly complaining. Thats just the nature of message boards. If you created a message board where the rule was everyone had to say nice things about everything, no one would ever show up there. However, people on message boards arent a good represntation of all drivers out there. They are a very small % of the industry. Ive said this before and I will say it again. Ive found that for the most part drivers are happy with their jobs no matter what the company. This is all I do all day. (besides sometimes being a smartass on message boards).....I talk to 100s of drivers about their work. I talk to drivers from all companies. And for the most part most are happy. If most drivers were disgruntled and hated their work....Damn, recruiting would be an easy job. Guess which company I talk to that has the most drivers happy with their job? SWIFT. Why do you suppose that is? Its pretty simple when you think about it. They are the largest, so of course they have the most happy drivers. And of course them being the largest, you would see the most complaints about them on message boards.
I will use us (jb) as an example too. Ive been doing this a long time. Ive hired 100s and 100s of drivers. Everytime one of the drivers Ive hired leaves, I get an email and that email tells me why they left or why they were fired. I always find out why. I also always call them to hear their side of the story. Very rarely does their version of what happened match what really happened. Example: Just last week I had a driver I hired about 7 weeks ago leave us. I got the email saying he was canned for unsatisfactory performance review. He was basically late quite a few times and he had a few "Incidents". Now, i called him and asked him what went wrong. He got real angry and said he quit because he "didnt get no miles". He sounded pretty convincing and might have taken his word for his little rant....however, of course, I knew the true story but just let him vent and even apologized to him. The funny thing was is I had his info pulled and saw that not only was he getting good miles, but way over company average. I have no doubt that driver today is going around telling everyone how JB hunt sucks and he "didnt get no miles".
I think one mistake people make when they hear about huge "driver turnover" at large companies is they think the majority of those drivers quit. Some do.....but the majority of that turnover is people fired.
From my experience of the drivers I hired, I would say it breaks down like this. About 60% of the drivers that I have hired who left were fired for one reason or another. About 20% left because they are just job hoppers and "the grass is always greener" I would say another 20% left because they were just not happy. That 20% that were not happy can sure make a lot of noise on the CB and the message boards. And when you factor in human nature where people dont like to admit their mistakes.....Quite a large portion of those 60% who were fired are going to be on message boards joining the 20% who had gripes.

Think about it this way........Where are all the posts of drivers admitting they did something wrong and were fired?

[merrick4]

Originally Posted by Sheepdancer

I think the keyword here would be when you posted "seems". Yes, people on message boards seem to be mostly complaining. Thats just the nature of message boards. If you created a message board where the rule was everyone had to say nice things about everything, no one would ever show up there. However, people on message boards arent a good represntation of all drivers out there. They are a very small % of the industry. Ive said this before and I will say it again. Ive found that for the most part drivers are happy with their jobs no matter what the company. This is all I do all day. (besides sometimes being a smartass on message boards).....I talk to 100s of drivers about their work. I talk to drivers from all companies. And for the most part most are happy. If most drivers were disgruntled and hated their work....Damn, recruiting would be an easy job. Guess which company I talk to that has the most drivers happy with their job? SWIFT. Why do you suppose that is? Its pretty simple when you think about it. They are the largest, so of course they have the most happy drivers. And of course them being the largest, you would see the most complaints about them on message boards.
I will use us (jb) as an example too. Ive been doing this a long time. Ive hired 100s and 100s of drivers. Everytime one of the drivers Ive hired leaves, I get an email and that email tells me why they left or why they were fired. I always find out why. I also always call them to hear their side of the story. Very rarely does their version of what happened match what really happened. Example: Just last week I had a driver I hired about 7 weeks ago leave us. I got the email saying he was canned for unsatisfactory performance review. He was basically late quite a few times and he had a few "Incidents". Now, i called him and asked him what went wrong. He got real angry and said he quit because he "didnt get no miles". He sounded pretty convincing and might have taken his word for his little rant....however, of course, I knew the true story but just let him vent and even apologized to him. The funny thing was is I had his info pulled and saw that not only was he getting good miles, but way over company average. I have no doubt that driver today is going around telling everyone how JB hunt sucks and he "didnt get no miles".
I think one mistake people make when they hear about huge "driver turnover" at large companies is they think the majority of those drivers quit. Some do.....but the majority of that turnover is people fired.
From my experience of the drivers I hired, I would say it breaks down like this. About 60% of the drivers that I have hired who left were fired for one reason or another. About 20% left because they are just job hoppers and "the grass is always greener" I would say another 20% left because they were just not happy. That 20% that were not happy can sure make a lot of noise on the CB and the message boards. And when you factor in human nature where people dont like to admit their mistakes.....Quite a large portion of those 60% who were fired are going to be on message boards joining the 20% who had gripes.

Think about it this way........Where are all the posts of drivers admitting they did something wrong and were fired?

You're something else. You talk about drivers blaming everyone but themselves, but I don't see anywhere in your calculations that drivers left because of issues that put JB Hunt at fault. The closest you came was the 20% that just weren't happy but failed to specify why they weren't happy.

I never worked for JB and have no first hand knowledge of them, but they have a bad reputation. You claim that drivers only come on here to gripe, well it's funny I read nothing but bad things about JB and almost nothing but good things about Crete, KllM, Maverick, TMC, Melton, Heartland Express to name a few.

By the way I don't work for any of the above companies but I do talk with the drivers as well as read about the companies here.

[Sheepdancer]

Ive seen complaints about every one of those companies on message boards.
Wouldnt simple math tell you that if a company has 3 times the drivers as another company you would hear 3 times as many complaints?
I was not saying that no big company or small company hasnt done something to a driver that could be considered as wrong. I was just pointing out that the majority of drivers who leave a company didnt quit, they were let go. And I was also pointing out that you never see drivers on message boards telling people that they were fired. I can go through my email and look at all the people I hired that left the company in the last 7 days. There were 7 of them. These are the reasons. 3 Failed a random drug test. ( which is happening alot lately now that we are doing hair drug tests), 2 were let go because performance review, 1 had a family emergency and 1 left because he wanted to be home more and we didnt have a dedicated job in his area open. So out of those 7 drivers who left here, 2 actually quit. Now, lets do the math. I hired 5 drivers in the last 7 days and 7 left. So this week I as a recruiter had a 140% turnover rate. Sounds terrible huh? However when you break it down and look at the reasons, it wasnt bad at all. And I would bet those 5 drivers who were canned are right now blaming the company and even blaming me as a recruiter. That is not exclusive to drivers, nor am I insinuating that. That is just human nature to pass the blame. It happens in any industry at any job.
That was all I was trying to point out.

[coastie]

Originally Posted by Sheepdancer

Ive seen complaints about every one of those companies on message boards.
Wouldnt simple math tell you that if a company has 3 times the drivers as another company you would hear 3 times as many complaints?
I was not saying that no big company or small company hasnt done something to a driver that could be considered as wrong. I was just pointing out that the majority of drivers who leave a company didnt quit, they were let go. And I was also pointing out that you never see drivers on message boards telling people that they were fired. I can go through my email and look at all the people I hired that left the company in the last 7 days. There were 7 of them. These are the reasons. 3 Failed a random drug test. ( which is happening alot lately now that we are doing hair drug tests), 2 were let go because performance review, 1 had a family emergency and 1 left because he wanted to be home more and we didnt have a dedicated job in his area open. So out of those 7 drivers who left here, 2 actually quit. Now, lets do the math. I hired 5 drivers in the last 7 days and 7 left. So this week I as a recruiter had a 140% turnover rate. Sounds terrible huh? However when you break it down and look at the reasons, it wasnt bad at all. And I would bet those 5 drivers who were canned are right now blaming the company and even blaming me as a recruiter. That is not exclusive to drivers, nor am I insinuating that. That is just human nature to pass the blame. It happens in any industry at any job.
That was all I was trying to point out.

I have to agree. For I am Guilty as charge of that same thing. But it took me going to the lowest point of my life to see it.

I been out of work for the last 7 years due to my health. But I rather been working, but when I lost my last job, I went to an all time lowest point of my life. It took that to show me not all were the companies fault.

But if you look at every Company that people complain about, you'll see many drivers that's been with them for years. In order to have that you must be doing something right. 50% of the battle is Attitude. Nothing comes out and get's you, you do have to go out and get it. It's all your self.

[ben45750]

Originally Posted by johnnylightning

Professional OTR Drivers should be compensate for all the work for they do.
Here a list some Carriers don't pay there employees for:

Loading and unloading
Waiting for a load
Maintenance and break downs (flat tire etc..)
Paper work
Gridlock

Here is a list that we could also improve on

Sickness benefits (W I Weekly indemnity)

I think it's a real simple fix, don't do it. Go work for someone that will pay you for what you do. Thats what I did so I can't complain.

People whine and complain about not being paid for what they do but they really don't do anything about it. They just go to work and do what they are told to do. No one is holding a gun to your head saying you have to do all this work and not get paid for it, and if you don't you will never work again in this industry.

So seriously, why are you complaining?