Time For A Posative Change
 

Well we all know the Feds want onboard recorders, Black Boxes on all trucks,,Their excuse is to make sure drivers are abiding by Hours of Service regs.
It is time to change the way all truck drivers are paid. Time that all truck driver employers pay drivers an hourly wage and pay time and a half for all hours on duty after hours in a day. With drivers paid hourly there will be no incentive for drivers to speed. Most drivers are not paid for all the miles they drive and seldom paid for on duty hours associated with other duties. If carriers had to pay for all on duty hours,,waiting time at loading docks as well as other time requiring a driver to be on duty drivers will slow down and carriers not paying for hours over the max limit in the regs drivers will not excced legal on duty hours..
An other good change would be to only require black boxes on vehicles that transport passgengers, haz mat loads and carriers with serious safety records such as those with serious driver at fault accidents,,
Good carriers with good hourly pay will attrack good drivers and will grow while those with substandard wages will go out of business,,
It is time that truck drivers stop being second class citizens under the present pay standards that exist now,,
I meet drivers all the time that are getting paid 30 cents per mile or more while there are many carriers paying 48 cents per mile or more. Carriers are again crying that there is a driver shortage,,many have extremely high driver turn over rates. There is no driver shortage only carrier that have such low pay programs that require a driver to work 70 or more hours in 8 consecutive days and keep them on the road driving over 3,000 hours per year with little quality home time..
At $15/hour a driver working 3,000 hours per year should be making $52,000 per year or more with out having to race down the road and shave hours off his log book for time spent working other than driving.
You are a driver and every driver should copy this message and send it to all their congreesmen..Will they do it? I doubt it,, drivers all bitch about low pay and long hours away from home and most want someone else to do something about it..

Figure it out

Like other professions, drivers are usually paid a lower wage starting out. You have no skills and no experience. You can't expect to earn top wages without bringing something to the table. You can earn over $50,000 after a few years of experience. One reason some drivers are paid less less is because they don't stick with any carrier long enough to build up some seniority. There is little incentive for a carrier to pay a driver top wages when they know that he will only stick around for a short time. Some drivers would like to see carriers pay them from the time they leave home, until they get back. They want to be paid for eating, going to the toilet and to take a shower. It won't happen. I agree that there are some issues that should be addressed, but for the most part, drivers are fairly compensated. When people start with any company, you will usually start at minimum wage or a little over. As you gain experience and your skill improve, you will be paid a higher wage. If you stick with a carrier, you will get raises and earn a higher wage. I would not expect to change jobs every few months and the company pay me their highest rate.

There are ways in which you can earn more money. You can buy your own truck and become an owner operator. You can also get your own authority and be just like all the other carriers. There are opportunities, but you have to earn them. You have to prove your worth in this business. If carriers paid an hourly wage, you would have too many drivers sitting around playing video games and not working. Since drivers are paid mileage or percentage, for the most part, it is fair for both the driver and carrier. I agree that detention should be handled differently, but it needs to be addressed as an industry. I don't see that happening. Of course, the feds could become involved, but that could be problematic, as well. My advice is that if you don't like the pay you need to buy your own truck, get your authority and set your own terms and rates. Or, find another career. I don't think you will find another career that will pay you as much as trucking with so little training.

You missed the major points
 

Drivers drive more miles than they are paid for,,drivers should be paid hub miles not computer or book miles,,paying drivers an hourly wage with over time will improve highway safety,,there will be less incentive for carriers to run drivers the max each week and drivers being paid hourly will drive at safer slower speeds.. I have for 29 years run with my own authority,, I quit as a tractor trailer driver with UPS 35 years ago because I was treated as a comodity,,unions are basicly labor brokers and I just did not like being a robot run by the company and controlled by a union that was only interested in making money off my labor. This past 2 1/2 weeks I ran 5000 miles,,1100 of it was empty miles,,My truck earned $17,500 after every imaginable business expense I made $10K profit,,before the recession the same run paid about 25% more,,now too many big carriers and other drivers are willing to worlk for less or arre affraid to ask for what they are worth,, The way most carriers operate today and the way they run their drivers I would not work for 99% of them,,
There are carriers that have very low driver turn over rates,, Wal-Mart is one,,many that never advertise for drivers are the same,,If you were to look at any driver magazine that had ads for drivers 20-30 years ago you will find the same ones looking for drivers today,, There is something wrong if for the past 30 years the same carriers can not keep most of their drivers,,Again one of the main points of my posting was that if drivers were paid hourly with overtime pay,,driver retention would be much lower and the highways much safer.

I agree that drivers should be paid hub or practical miles. It isn't right to pay HHG miles. It is not fair to the driver. Carriers are still often paid HHG miles by brokers and/or carriers. I always run the miles to keep the broker/shipper honest. Since I usually go with PC Miler when I am looking at rates, I find that it is close. Paying a driver hourly rather than mileage or percentage won't result in safer drivers. I have never seen any statistics what would support that view. Drivers decide for themselves whether they are going to drive safely or not. The load is on a schedule from the time the truck picks up until the load is delivered. Paying hourly won't make the driver safer. Whether any of us want to believe it or not, drivers are a commodity. Unions extort the drivers and company to make a profit. While some may benefit in the short term, the members really lose in the long run. The big union carriers are in trouble. They can no longer pay the unrealistic benefits and through the roof wages that unions keep demanding. I believe that most people should be paid upon performance. There are some carriers that include safety in compensating drivers by paying them a bonus on top of their usual wage rate.

If you ran 5000 this past week, I hope you were running team. There is no way you could have ran that many miles legally as a solo driver. You would have had to average 75 mph.

I have become more convinced that a salary type of pay would be a good way to go. You get a salary each week, month, year. Doesn't matter how long you have to wait around at a shipper/recv, how long it takes to get the next load, and you still will not drive over HOS guidelines. It would take away all the stress of getting the next load and running the one you have. If folks had some sort of certainty in what they are bringing home each week or two, it would take a lot of stress off of them. No more of this per mile rot, or even an hourly thing that can be manipulated in that, you sat for 30 hrs waiting for dispatch to get the next load, so we will not pay because you weren't actually working kind of stuff. Straight salary. This would make a world of difference in how recruitment is done and how a potential driver could make an informed decision regarding going with a carrier. Home time would not be so stressful in that you have to get moving or you will not be able to make the mortgage payment. It might help carriers with their CSA scores as well. And it might cause them to be more efficient in how they run the trucks. They would still have a payroll to meet regardless of how much freight the trucks move. They would have a greater motivation to plan loads right and keep trucks loaded and rolling. And they wouldn't have too much equipment and drivers for the freight they have to cover. Their might be some form of problem in doing this, but fewer than a by the mile or by the hour old school thing.

I just want to know where I sign up to make $4.48 cpm in this economy. I have a few trucks I'm going to move this year anyways.

over here we mainly on hourly rate ,dont trust god squad (our truck cops) they could gps ur trailer any time ,cant use it in court but gives them the info to watch you

Paying drivers could actually make driving more stressful for drivers. If carriers are paying by the hour, they will have performance expectations. The carrier may expect that a driver average 50 or 60 miles per hour or even more, regardless of road conditions or what is going on with them. If a driver is caught in traffic or there is an accident, the driver may push to make up the lost time. Some drivers will speed and push the envelope, regardless of how they are paid. Being paid by the hour will result in some only doing the minimum to get by. If I were a company driver I would prefer to be paid percentage. My second choice would be to be paid mileage. My last choice would be hourly. I don't see hourly pay for otr drivers as being practical. As I stated, if drivers are paid hourly, there will be high expectations. Would you want to be paid hourly if you had to commit to driving a minimum number of miles each hour?

That is the main reason I suggested a salary pay. Not based on any mileage thing. No matter how one gets paid, the carrier will always try to "push" someone to do something. That has always been. How a driver deals with that is another issue. Personally, I have not ever had any problem when a carrier tired to "push" me. I just would never let them. I will do the very best I can, knowing that a customer is paying for a service and I was hired to provide that service, but I will not be played for a fool or a lackey. We either work as adults, or I take a hike. And with so many carriers screaming about driver shortages and such, I see no reason for any driver putting up with being "pushed". You either set the ground rules going in or suffer because you did not have the starch to stand up and say no to stupid stuff.

With a salary situation, the driver would not have to push themselves to make a living. And the threat of CSA scores is going to keep most carriers from forcing a driver to operate when it is unsafe, and be able to "starve out" a driver who doesn't play a silly game. The driver, if detained somewhere, will not have to "press it" to make up for the any thing they may have lost in miles. A carrier could still use legitimate criteria for letting a driver go, but then, with recruiting costs and so-called driver shortages, that is not going to be the first thing they do. If the carrier wanted maximum productivity, which I have no problem with, then they will have to learn to be more efficient in load planning and booking freight. And that would benefit them in the long run. A salary type of pay system would benefit everyone.

But, like I stated before, it is not likely to happen any time soon on a large scale. Carriers and drivers will continue to think like it's 1980 and do things in an archaic manner and fail to catch up to the 21st century until they are led kicking an screaming to do so. And I agree, Gman, that hourly pay will not work well in OTR either. I contend that even that is so "old school" in it's thinking, and still leaves the driver at a disadvantage. Hourly pays would be manipulated and challenged right and left. A salary eliminates that.

I do not see salaries or hourly working. How am I going to pay one team per driver $1200 a week that trashes around at every truck stop or that wants to take short loads that averages 4500 miles a week vs a team driver that keeps the door shut and runs whatever and averages 5500 miles a week. Our arrival and dispatch times are time specific. Lets say you go to Rialto California their dispatch times are between 6:00am and 10:00 am if the team that doesn't trash around gets there at 8:00am they will get a load of the team that trashes around gets there at 10:30 they won't get a load till the next day. Both loads made it by sort time but because there is no motivation for the team to run miles since they are getting paid salary they just don't care. You can't fire them because technically they weren't late because the trailer was due for a midday sort.

Hourly wont work because you can't keep track. I would have to go off of driver logs for payroll. I don't think they will accurately project the true hours they actually worked. Then why should driver a get paid the same as driver b if driver b averages 55-60 mph when driver a averages 45-50. Most runs that we have delivery times are averaged at 45-51 mph. So what is stoping them from averaging a slower speed even if they can average a faster speed. 5-10 mph results in 3-6 more hours on a 1900 mile run. A team does 6000 miles a week that's a 10 to 20 hour a week difference at straight pay of $12.00 per hour that's $120-$240 a week for doing less work at straight time would be more if they hit overtime. So how is that going to work? Kinda looks like rewarding laziness to me.

Drivers that don't like their pay should look for a different company. If you refuse to drive for a crappy company they will go out of business because they will have no one to run their freight. They will not be able to cover their agreements with their customers therefore loosing them. Don't blame the companies blame the idiots that work for them. My drivers average $60,000 a year being paid by the mile and I am not the only one that pays like that.

I'm not really paid by the hour but close to it. I'm paid by the trip,each night is the same as the last. your right as far as high expectations go. Alot is expected of me but then again I hit them up with what I wanted and we settled in the middle. Its great knowing how much my check will be every week! This works well for me, my company and the customer but wouldn't for OTR.
I could see alot of drivers sitting around truckstops and such while on the clock.
I do like the idea, I just don't think it would work.

If you were running another form of business, how would you handle an employee that seem to always sluff off and go out of smoke breaks or wastes time talking with other employees about Monday night football or discussing the new chick working at Hooters? See, this makes my point. Folks are so tied up in their minds to the mileage thing, that they cannot think outside the box and look at productivity and cost/performance ratios in general. There is an HOS standard you can use to your advantage and see how time is being managed. Folks in trucking are sooooo afraid to use a productivity standard on drivers that doesn't involve miles. One could have one driver that burns up the road and racks up the miles... all at a measly 5.5 mpg and increased wear and tear on equipment and tires. Then you could have another driver who doesn't rack up near the miles the first one does, drives more moderately, but is getting over 7 mpg, gets 30-40% longer tire life, and equipment lasts longer. Which is actually more profitable to the company? And which one would deserve the most pay? Driver a may turn over 140,000 miles in a year, while driver B only turns 120,000 miles a year. But just in fuel, the first driver costs you 69 cents a mile while the second driver costs you 54 cents a mile in fuel. So, driver B is not turning as many miles, but is saving you 15 cents a mile in fuel cost alone. And if a driver is showing a record of not showing up on time for pickups or deliveries, the that is a productivity standard also.

Productivity is not rewarded effectively. For instance, a carrier may pay a measly 3 cents a mile bonus for getting good fuel mileage. No heavy duty incentive there. Now lets look at our previous two drivers. The second one is saving 15 cents a mile in fuel. So pay him half of that, 7 or 8 cents a mile extra. The carrier is still 4-5 cents a mile ahead compared to the first driver.

You know, you can always establish base line standards. If you want the truck at Rialto, CA at 0800, then specify that! Is that so difficult? You actually can specify when a driver has to be somewhere at a minimum. They can still manage their time without having to nanny them. Instead, by your method, there is not standards set, the costs per mile are higher, and you have no minimum standard in which to terminate or reward a driver.

And we all wonder why trucking has such a hard time getting and retaining good drivers. What incentive is there to be a more productive driver that also has a concern for the carrier's operating costs when there is just a one size fits all per mile pay package? I know that it is not the prevailing thought among trucking owners and executives, but to have professional drivers, you have to make them feel like professionals, in that they need to feel more like they have a vested interest in things. And rewarding them for how profitable they are to the carrier is the best way to fit that. Instead, carriers set up a standard per mile pay package that forces the drivers who would be great drivers to carry the dead wood of those that are mediocre at best. And those best drivers suffer also when they have to take an extra day off to go to the doctor or something. Whereas if they were compensated properly, it would not have a detrimental effect and you would have a more motivated driver.

I has been shown in business, that a salaried employee, rewarded for going above and beyond, is a more motivated and profitable employee. Trucking, in general, could learn a few things from other businesses. And maybe a few classes in micro economics would help. But you are right about one thing, Drivers who don't like their pay will go elsewhere.

I don't know about the whole loosing and retaining drivers part. Out of 23 drivers that we retain I have only lost 2 this year. One that was layed off at YRC and got called back. The other fell in love with a girl from another state and decided to chase after her. Here they are paid milage plus a safety bonus plus a performance bonus. They all do very well as far as pay goes and do not gripe about it. They have very well maintained equipment and can get ahold of me with any problems they have. They also know I am in their corner. I am a very up front person sometimes I am called a butthole for lack of better words. Yet my drivers never have to worry about what I am thinking. If its on my mind I will say it. If I have a problem I will say it if I am appreciative I will say it. There is no guessing with me and they all like it.

All of our trucks are governed. So there really is no burning up the road with us. There is staying in the saddle and getting the miles done. The majority of the trucks are automatics now and I can put any driver I have in any of those and the same fuel milage is achieved. It takes the driver out of the equation. I can't say the same for the manual trucks as the speed is the same but the rpm changes aren't when they shift the gears.

I have teams that can routinely arrive before others and the speed is not the factor. The factor is the amount of stops and the length of stops. One husband and wide team drives pretty much the speed limit everywhere they go (unless the governed speed is less than the speed limit) they will arrive before almost every other team that I have. It is because they don't stop all the time. They keep the doors shut and roll down the road. They plan their stops. I can call them at the beginning of a shift and they know where they are stopping and when. They don't stop at truck stops that are always packed and hard to get in and out of. They preplan their trip for optimal timing. So why should this team make less money than a slower team when they are doing their job to the fullest capability.