Originally Posted by cdswans:
It's easy to watch the financial performance of every publicly traded company. The first result of a Google search of the company name will (usually) produce the stock symbol, recent headlines which are almost always financial and from there, you can go as deep as you'd care to. I'm sure a lot of people already know this but for those who didn't, it might provide a little insight as to what their company is saying versus how the company is doing.

I bring this up because, while a lot of Driver's were belly-aching about new idle restrictions, etc., as diesel prices were shooting through the roof, I was watching "big trucking" financial performance. I kind of got the sense that, while it's always good business to "empower" everyone to help keep costs low, the dire consequences being foretold weren't exactly keeping step with the truth. The bottom line was your boss was asking you to sacrifice and laughing all the way to the bank.

Since . . I think Yellow was first, then Schneider and so on . . cutting pay and 401k contributions has become so fashionable, I can't help but wonder if that sacrifice is truly necessary for every employer that is doing it. Remember when Flying J filed for bankruptcy? One brilliant poster (Stan . . was that you?) noted that perhaps they filed because they could. What better time to do it than when everyone else is doing it?

It seems to me that the last thing you want to do is cut someones pay. Cutting hours and/or laying people off at least sends a clear message. Cutting benefits with a promise to repay seems a little muddled to me. Attrition is still high in this business and the larger companies still bleed and regurgitate Drivers. I have to believe that it wouldn't take too long for any company to trim their fleet to an appropriate, financially prudent level.

How about you . . what do you think?



Swift is a privately held company and it's financial information is a closely guarded secret.

I would agree. with so much fear and lack of jobs it has benefited the company's. they can cut bonuses and what have you and not worry as much about people leaving. five even two years ago they couldn't do that because people would just leave and find another job.

a lot of companies will take advantage of this time to better themselves so that when the tides change and it becomes an employees market again they will be able to leverage again and not effect their bottom line.

Originally Posted by Flydragon:
You know it may just sound pollyannish, but if cutting me a penny/mile keeps everyone else in a job that's ok. That kind of cut itsn't going to make or break me. And it just might keep someone else from a really hard time. I've been there before, as I would imagine most of us have, and it's not pretty.

If it all comes back when things pick up then it will have been worth it. It reminds me of that scene in Peter Pan... "Just think happy thoughts." I'm working on it, dammit. I'm working on it.

Flydragon, I wouldn't mind the cut if it meant others were able to keep their jobs during an economic downturn... The problem comes in when things get better and the pay does not return to where it was before the downturn (which is usual in trucking).. For Swift and many other companies, the pay was already a lot lower than it should have been (counting for inflation over the years) - now, they're dropping it. I would not hold my breath... the cpm will probably not return. If it does, it will be a miracle.

An Arctic driver stopped me the other day and asked about the cpm for my company. He said the company dropped theirs .02.

I'm really not as naive as my post might suggest. I don't expect pay to be returned to its previous level at a given company. However, if it does not then the attrition will begin to climb again. Drivers will always see greener grass somewhere else when they're not happy. The easiest thing for a driver to notice is that he's not paid as well as he might be with another company.

I expect Swift to crank up their CDL mill when freight picks up. I'm thinking that someone is thinking ahead and trying to have human resources in place when the up-tick does come. That's why they're trying so hard not to lay people off. Dropping the CPM by only a penny will simply push unhappy drivers to make their move to another carrier. But the question I have is, where would you go? I'm at Swift for one simple reason; when I returned to OTR no one was hiring but Swift, Prime and Werner. Some choices, eh?

If your avg. miles per week are down, then I would call that a pay cut.

Originally Posted by AmEagleDrvr:
If your avg. miles per week are down, then I would call that a pay cut.

So what would you call losing both CPM AND average miles per week? Everyone I know is getting less miles. Not everyone has had a cut in pay on top of it.

Originally Posted by Flydragon:
So what would you call losing both CPM AND average miles per week? Everyone I know is getting less miles. Not everyone has had a cut in pay on top of it.

Well, I'm not sure what is happening around the OTR scene, but the local scene around here isn't doing to good.

The energy companies are cutting back on how much gas are being produced because the price has dropped drastically, from over $15 per unit, to under $3.75 per unit. So their are a lot of local water haulers who are laid off, or just plainly fired. There are a couple of companies that have flat out fired everyone over $13/hr, and replaced them with temp drivers at $10/hr. Understand, these are water hauling companies that haul water from the well site to the disposal. And other companies have cut the hiring of local drivers, or have just gotten so picky about what they want for a driver.

I've even read ads in the Dallas News for OTR companies who will only hire newbies to be trained -- after calling, I find out that they are not hiring experience drivers.

I guess this is so they can cut cost of wages even lower..

It's no wonder that many are going back to college..... I'll be heading that way shortly.

the whole industry needs an enema.

Originally Posted by Syncrosonix:
the whole industry needs an enema.

Trying to think of anything to add to that... nope, that pretty well sums it up.

Looking forward to things picking back up in about, oh maybe 5-10 years from now, and watching carriers fight over drivers again. It's pretty easy to treat your people like ca-ca when you know they have nowhere else to go.

Just hope I don't have to wait that long to get out of this business.

Originally Posted by Syncrosonix:
the whole industry needs an enema.

I stick really big ones up Rohl, Prime, Crete, Even bigger ones up Knight, Schneider, US Xpress, and USA, and EVEN BIGGER ones up Hunt, and Swift!

:moon::moon:

Originally Posted by matcat:
I stick really big ones up Rohl, Prime, Crete, Even bigger ones up Knight, Schneider, US Xpress, and USA, and EVEN BIGGER ones up Hunt, and Swift!

:moon::moon:

Is anybody here employed by Rohl?

Originally Posted by Flydragon:
Trying to think of anything to add to that... nope, that pretty well sums it up.

Looking forward to things picking back up in about, oh maybe 5-10 years from now, and watching carriers fight over drivers again. It's pretty easy to treat your people like ca-ca when you know they have nowhere else to go.

Just hope I don't have to wait that long to get out of this business.

once you're at the *ULTRA HIGH* pay rate of 34cpm, things may or may not quickly go downhill for you. when richard stockings took over, that's when all the sudden lame changes began without notice, and things were flattened by a landslide of bullchit, and i eventually got starved out until i quit. i put up with it for long as i could.

what made me finally give notice is that after arguing with people in payroll, threatening a lawsuit to be paid for all the unpaid detention, layover, and breakdown. i received all of that the following pay period. i got a load that only went 200 miles. they tried short-changing me on that deal by paying me as if i had done a 300+mi run. another call to the payroll department and another argument ensued. suddenly i found myself sitting an entire week. they screwed me on layover by sending me an impossible load that needed to go from the south-east to the pacific northwest in 2 1/2 days. once you decline a load, your layover pay stops.

all these companies want to do is keep the wages low by only hiring trainees. fly, get out while you're still young and/or intelligent enough to do so.

Originally Posted by Syncrosonix:
once you're at the *ULTRA HIGH* pay rate of 34cpm, things may or may not quickly go downhill for you. when richard stockings took over, that's when all the sudden lame changes began without notice, and things were flattened by a landslide of bullchit, and i eventually got starved out until i quit. i put up with it for long as i could.

what made me finally give notice is that after arguing with people in payroll, threatening a lawsuit to be paid for all the unpaid detention, layover, and breakdown. i received all of that the following pay period. i got a load that only went 200 miles. they tried short-changing me on that deal by paying me as if i had done a 300+mi run. another call to the payroll department and another argument ensued. suddenly i found myself sitting an entire week. they screwed me on layover by sending me an impossible load that needed to go from the south-east to the pacific northwest in 2 1/2 days. once you decline a load, your layover pay stops.

all these companies want to do is keep the wages low by only hiring trainees. fly, get out while you're still young and/or intelligent enough to do so.

Uh oh. I'm already at 32cpm, and that's after they took a penny away from me. I've noticed that layover pay depends on whether or not my dm got laid that week. If I thought it would help I'd send my ex over to help him out.

Unfortunately, I'm not young anymore (50's) and as for intelligence... what does it say when I'm still in this biz after all these years? In any case, I'm now looking for a local gig like I had before I moved. LTL is good for old geezers like me because we hump freight around in the back of our trucks and it keeps us in shape. But no one is hiring right now. I just gotta tough it out until things come back and I can get back to those single-screw day-cabs pulling 28 foot pups, even if they're doubles or triples. Home every night and weekends, too. It's a lot better than this OTR bit of being out 2,3,4 weeks at a time.

We received a one cent increase in April of this year, but we don't work for a scum outfit such as Swift.