Truck Driving Jobs

heavyhaulerss · #21 04-18-2008, 04:11 PM

we were all employees at one time. like myself most of you remember what is what like when you needed a job, bad, & at that interview, you would agree to do almost anything to get the job in order to pay yours bills & support your family. you would try & impress the hell out of the person interviewing you. ovetime? no prob, work wknd ? no prob, work swing shift ? no prob. you were glad if & when you got hired & you really felt proud that you can continue on with life because someone gave you a chance to prove your worth. now we hear there has to be an incentive. thats o.k. but how about a weeks work for a weeks pay ? if i wanted a driver to drive 63 mph i would not consider how to bribe, or beg him to do it. just do it!!

when i aksed for work at a local gas co 20 years ago. i told my boss.. if he hired me just give me 2 weeks at low pay & let me prove myself, & i told him if i cannot be an asset to his co i will leave voluntarily. however if i perform well we will then sit down & negociate my new pay. within a few months after learning my functions, i went on to learn all aspects of the co. i was able to do so many other peoples job. i made myself so valuable to the co that they would do just about anything to make me stay. it's called work ethic. honesty, integrity, charachter, proffessionalism. pride!! lets get that additude back in the workforce.

one peice of advice for any newbies reading.. even if you get paid $5.00 an hour.. you should work just as hard as the guy next to you doing the same thing. even if he is making $10.00 an hour. if you accept a job & agree to it's duties, then do your best to fulfill that obligation, until you have enough experience to climb the ladder of success or move on to a more rewarding job.

Justruckin · #22 04-18-2008, 04:30 PM

Heavy,

All that I can say is this...

AMEN BROTHER!!!!!!!

If only... Never mind.

On second thought...

I was never a good babysitter, and there sure seems to be allot of babies out here that need a good spanking. The unfortunate thing is the fact that most of these babies have babies at home, a wife and BILLS!

Vote democrat, and vote often, that seems to be the mantra now a days. Looking for the easy way, hand outs, etc., very sad. Like you said, no work ethics, but a good public school education, ala the democrats. A sad state of affairs. But what the hell is one to expect? Touchy feely will only get you so far! It will not put food on your table. Go figure?

Mike

DD60 · #23 04-20-2008, 06:02 AM

He did like 1000 + miles without sleeping. I tried to tell him to slow down and take it easy but he "needs to make money".

How do you hide that in a safety audit? :shock:

rank · #24 04-20-2008, 11:10 PM

They don't care about a safety audit.
They don't care about fuel.
They don't care about repair bills.

They only care about what affects them, and since they are paid by the mile they are piece workers....they get paid to drive as many miles as they can. If you want to change that, you need to change the pay structure or there will be hard feelings. Next thing you know, he'll be missing appointments because you told him to drive slow and save fuel. Gotta keep your eye on the big picture.

IMO, if you have a driver that doesn't sell fuel, doesn't tear up the equipment and gets to the appointments on time, you have a driver with potential. Then you can work on the other stuff.

And be careful about what you post here. He may be reading.

sidman82 · #25 04-21-2008, 12:29 AM

I,ve said this already. Put him on a salary that you are both happy with. Add a performance bonus and fuel bonus.

This is something you will have to determine what that will be. It is just a suggestion, take it with a grain of salt.

I am sure you will work something out.

GMAN · #26 04-21-2008, 01:46 AM

I think that I would sit down with him and try to work things out. If your only problem with him is the idle time, you are indeed lucky. If you keep putting drivers in your truck you will eventually deal with much more serious problems. If he won't do things the way you want and you feel that is something which you will not compromise on then you will need to decide whether to live with it or find another driver.

merrick4 · #27 04-21-2008, 05:46 AM

Thanks for all the advice. As I've mentioned, he's not my driver, he is only in there for a couple of weeks. He's doing bad on fuel mileage but other than that this guy isn't bad at all.

I will never find someone to care for the truck like me, I have to realize that. I kind of wish now I could keep him.

The guy I am going to put in there is not going to do too well on fuel either I suspect but I know how he takes care of a truck.

This guy now drives with the door shut. You're probably right Rank they don't care about anything safety included, but he actually stopped in California and said all the bills were timestamped and he wouldn't move til he could do it legal (not that I pushed him either, which I didn't). He's a grown man, he fuels at the Flying J and he's he's made his stops on time so I leave him be.

I don't see how salary could work Sideman82. What if there's an issue and he can't run, then I'm screwed. For instance the truck needs to go in the shop for a few days. I don't want him out there for free either, but this salary could be bad for me and only me. I don't see a downside to him for that.

sidman82 · #28 04-21-2008, 12:24 PM

The upside is when he is making the truck lets say, $6000 for the week he gets his (example) $900 a week salary. When he makes $6500 for the week he gets his $900. when he makes $4400 he gets $900.

Where as your minimum pay for the truck would be, (example) $3900 to be able to pay him $900 for the week and not lose anything. Anything above that is yours, which in most cases should be all the time except down time like you mentioned.

If you need $3700 to pay him a set salary and the truck is making $4000 a week or more on a regular basis, your making your 3 beans a week on that truck.

Most guys will say, hey my boss is alright, he pays me when I do nothing. Mean while it keeps him happy and you are making more money if you keep the truck rolling. If you are unable to keep the truck moving then it will not be worth it. I mean on a regular basis, not just sitting every once in a while. That really should not effect you.

no_worries · #29 04-21-2008, 11:10 PM

You need to be able to forecast fairly consistently to do the salary thing. I don't think Merrick's there yet. But that's how I would do it too. Salary and a performance bonus. But only if I had a pretty good idea what to expect freight-wise. Tough market for that right now...especially if you're fairly new and relying on brokers.

BigDiesel · #30 04-22-2008, 12:40 AM

I have my driver on a salary plus performance bonuses. I will do the same with the new driver for truck #3. I get the crumbs left over as my wife is the CFO..... :lol: I also have been toying with the idea of paying percentage of the load and have the drivers run the truck as a O/O would. But not sure about that yet.