Just an Thought About The Turnover Rate
#41
06-24-2008, 03:39 AM
[quote="bigtimba"]
Originally Posted by GMAN
Originally Posted by kc0iv
Originally Posted by bigtimba
Piece work is against the law in this Country in every single industry except one. Care to take a guess?
Piece work was outlawed and replaced with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1936, from which truck Drivers were exempted. Now comes managements call. Do they pay to keep you onsite and ready to go? It's the only way they can expect you to stay. How much is that going to cost short term? They can't kick you off the clock but expect you to hang around. How much would it cost in the long term, especially if this kind of thing happens a lot? Would you be tempted to look elsewhere if they did? I don't have the luxury of choice and I don't know if it's going to take 15 minutes or 15 hours to resolve the problem. Regardless, I am expected to "stay on the line" and be ready to roll just as soon as the Qualcomm beeps and we restart the line. Where is the incentive for management to step it up and get me rolling? When my piece rate stalls, there is no fall back position. The pay clock stops. The cost of the truck doesn't change (unless I happen to be idling to stay comfortably unpaid.) The rest of my "team" is still on the clock. Why not pay me, too, moving or not? You'd see some real urgency on everyones part to get that truck moving. The point of this thread is retention and attrition. How can any company expect to keep it's best people if we don't know from one day to the next if or how we're going to get paid? The only two things we know for certain are . . 1. If I screw up it's going to effect my pay. 2. If somebody else screws up it's going to effect my pay and not theirs. The slant of this thread was leaning toward "unpredictable and unreliable drivers in search of greener pastures." I say balogna. Even those you don't like, the unwise, unkept, unwashed, vagabonds and job hoppers know when they're getting screwed. They reach their breaking point and, rather than shoot the place up, move along. I love what I do. But I'm becoming a little annoyed myself with getting screwed without my permission. Give me predictable work, predictable pay, realistic incentives and I'll stay. Open your mind . . just a little. The fact that this rotten system has been in place as long as it has does not mean it has to stay that way. Companies do what they do because the law says they can get away with it. It works for them. Who the heck can blame them? The rules can be changed and can be changed equitably. To be fair to everyone, the law needs to change. The last day of the Driver subsidised trucking company will be the last day of artificially low freight rates. I'm all for productivity pay. When it works, it works for everyone . . except when I'm the producer and I don't get to participate. One reason some companies don't pre-plan their drivers too far ahead is because things can happen to delay them along the way. Carriers are much more likely to have another load waiting on you once they get used to how you work. It isn't good business to commit to a load and then have to cancel it due to the driver not being able to make the pick up on time. Whether it is the fault of the driver, shipper, traffic, or any other factor, the load can't be picked up. Everyone loses in this type of situation. And as far as management is concerned, most have their compensation tied to profits. They don't get their bonus unless the company makes a profit. It is in their best interest to see that the trucks keep moving. The thing is that when you work for someone you need to do things the way that they want. If you want everything your own way then you need to start your own business. Companies have rules. Companies must make a profit or they will cease to exist. Profits are tied to market forces. Shippers are only willing to pay a certain amount for your services. Carriers must continue to be competitive or they will not be able to maintain their customer base. No customers means no business. No business means no need for drivers. Margins are thin in this industry. The cost of entry is high. It is up to everyone to do their part to keep the company viable. There are inequities, but the business has been successful for many decades operating pretty much as it is today. Certainly there could be some changes. One change is in detention time. I think it would be good to have detention time tied to every load. That would create pressure on the shipper to get the trucks in and out in a timely manner. Paying drivers on mileage or percentage seems to be the most fair way of compensation for the otr drivers. It affords the driver to earn what he is worth. Granted there will be times when things happen out of his control, but for the most part, it works. If you want to be paid fairly then I suggest you look for an owner operator or company who will pay you a flat percentage of what the truck makes. You would no longer need to worry about how many miles you drive. You know that when you compete your run that you will have a certain amount of money. The faster you deliver the faster you get paid. If you want to take your time, then your pay will reflect that as well.
#42
06-24-2008, 03:47 AM
I use my sleeper's side vents whenever I can, and in moderate climates that and my bunk fan will keep me comfy. For cold weather I have a Webasto bunk heater. My average idle time for this month is right around 34%, mostly because of a trip down to Fort Worth a few weeks ago. There was a high pressure system over the entire midwest at that time, and I had the truck running every minute I was in it (almost, anyway) from the time I hit Oklahoma until I got back north. In Detroit I didn't have to idle it so much, but it was still muggy enough that It ran a few hours that night. I rarely idle the truck if I'm not in it, though. When I'm sliding tandems and have to get out to flip the bar, check position, that sort of thing. I would never even consider running the truck while I'm sitting in a truck stop eating dinner.
In theory, I like the screens you can put in your driver and passenger side windows. In practice, they're an invitation to parking lot vermin to break into your truck in the wee hours. Even with the plastic "security" grid, it wouldn't take more than a minute with a pair of side cutters to open up a nice big hole in that screen. On my sailboat, I can open ports and hatches to get good ventilation down below even in very hot weather, and I'm in the process of insulating the cabin top -- but trucks don't have roof vents and mine, at least, is insulated about as well as a steel lunchbox. There are a lot of "passive" techniques that could be employed to make our trucks more comfortable, which would use no energy at all, but mine has few of them at best.
#45
06-24-2008, 01:40 PM
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Posts: n/a
Originally Posted by GMAN
We had a good maintenance man on site. He kept the machines running pretty well. If they broke down, then the operator could go into the break room until it was repaired. Anytime it took longer to repair the operator could usually be assigned something else to do while it was repaired.
Same deal with loads. In the factory, there's always work to do. But drivers don't always have loads to run...sometimes they're in a dead area for freight or other times there's a bunch of other trucks ahead of them. So again, why should the driver sit for free?
#46
06-24-2008, 02:18 PM
I don't see otr companies changing the way they compensate drivers anytime in the near future. If you want to be paid for every single thing you do then you should find a local carrier who is unionized. They get paid whether they work or not. I don't see how a company could justify paying otr drivers by the hour. It is simply too difficult to monitor them. I have seen too many otr drivers drop their entire paychecks into video games or slot machines. These guys waste valuable driving time throwing their money away. I can see them doing the same thing while on the clock. No job is perfect. You need to know what the job consists of before coming into the business. There are many other jobs where you are not paid for every minute you are working or on the job. There has been much talk about executive compensation. It might surprise you to learn that most executives don't stop working when they leave the office. Most work well over 40 hours per week. They are also not paid for every minute they spend working. Most will take work home with them. The only place where drivers should be compensated is when they are held up at the shipper or consignee's.
The truth of the matter is that shippers are not willing to pay carriers by the hour to deliver their goods. They want a good check and balance. If they paid carriers by the hour there would be no way to prevent them from taking much longer to deliver their goods. When they pay them by the mile or flat rate, then they can better estimate their costs. They contract with the carrier for a fixed amount of money. The same could be said of the drivers. The carrier contracts with drivers to deliver loads at a fixed rate of compensation. Whether it is mileage or percentage, it is manageable. It is in the best interest of carriers to pay otr drivers by the mile or percentage. I think that there would be too many drivers who would waste their driving time if they were paid by the hour. There is no incentive for them to work. Without supervision too many would abuse the hourly pay rate.
#47
06-24-2008, 03:41 PM
Originally Posted by MommaKay
On my sailboat, I can open ports and hatches to get good ventilation down below even in very hot weather, and I'm in the process of insulating the cabin top -- but trucks don't have roof vents and mine, at least, is insulated about as well as a steel lunchbox. There are a lot of "passive" techniques that could be employed to make our trucks more comfortable, which would use no energy at all, but mine has few of them at best.
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Trucking isn't about trucks; it's about Drivers. Up with Drivers and Up with Pay!
#48
06-24-2008, 04:31 PM
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Posts: n/a
Originally Posted by GMAN
I don't see otr companies changing the way they compensate drivers anytime in the near future.
If you want to be paid for every single thing you do then you should find a local carrier who is unionized. They get paid whether they work or not.
There are many other jobs where you are not paid for every minute you are working or on the job.
It is in the best interest of carriers to pay otr drivers by the mile or percentage.
I think that there would be too many drivers who would waste their driving time if they were paid by the hour.
#49
06-24-2008, 05:27 PM
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Speedway Indiana
Posts: 1,751
Originally Posted by bigtimba
I've been giving some thought to finding a good woman to settle in with. Would you mind giving me a few more details about the boat? Maybe some pictures?
She's mine bigtimba. Back-off! :wink:
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Fuel for free. Pre/Post trip for free. Sit at shipper/receiver for free. "Work 80-100, log 70, get paid for 40." Welcome to OTR coolie carrier truck driving!
#50
06-24-2008, 06:21 PM
GMAN . . wake up and smell Lebron's coffee!
NOT paying the Drivers is a factor in the business plan. It's a huge economic benefit to the employer and just a teency weency economic detrement to the Driver. Read the posts on this board. The best and most productive Drivers across all the companies are making the exact same complaint. "But it's only 20 - 30 - 40 miles a day . . times 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 thousand loads or Drivers a day . . " in my company, alone. Sheeit! That ain't nuthin . . "We can cut this corner because we don't have to pay the Driver. We can cut that corner because we don't have to pay the Driver." It's not an unintended consequence. It's in the business plan. If they had to pay the Driver like every other employer pays their employees, they couldn't offer and survive on the artificially low rates they're able to charge, thanks to the Driver subsidy. Nobody seems to have any problem paying overnight or LTL rates. For Chrissakes, they get there own doors. Can't delay them BECAUSE THEY'RE GETTING PAID. Have you ever been kicked off a door so an LTL carrier could load or offload a pallet or two? Do you know that feeling you get when the fork lift stops running back and forth in your truck but you can feel it rumbling around in the LTL truck? He's making 18 bucks an hour and you're heating up Ramen soup? If there were no artificially low rates, there would be no OOIDA "Say no to cheap freight" campaign. All Driver pay suffers, including yours.
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Trucking isn't about trucks; it's about Drivers. Up with Drivers and Up with Pay! |
