Canadian good and bad trucking companies

I choose to not work under conditions that you speak of. It's a choice I've made, and everyone else can make too. I don't experience much in wait times, and I'm paid decently well for the job I do. I can do 3000miles in 5 days, and make between $62k and $68k, and am home with my family pretty much every weekend. Why? Because I perform well, and as such was able to be employed by a good company, instead of needing to go to the bottom feeders. Life is full of choices. Make the right ones, and good stuff will happen to you. Make bad ones, and you better work in a unionized job, so that you won't get fired.

 

Based on the information you've provided, plus an average time spent with all other on duty activities do you know what your hourly wage is?

3000 miles/ 50mph = 60 hrs driving time + 10 hrs for vehicle inspections , fueling for loading, unloading and you're at your 70 hrs.
That does not include your time spent on duty without compensation waiting for dispatch, phone calls etc.. there's at least another 10 - 15 hrs per week.

80- 85 hrs per week.

Your $62K per year works out to $1291 per week before taxes.

1291/ 80 = $16.13 per hour.
1291 / 85 = $15.18 per hour.

And we both know you do not make 3000 miles each and every week but you still spend as many hours on the road or on duty, just not earning the money.
So that brings your hourly wage down considerably.

Incidently, $15-16 per hour is what these companies were paying drivers 20 years ago.

Do you know what that same wage is today with the cost of living calculated in?

Over $24 per hour.. but you're not making anywhere close to that while your costs of living keep going up..your wages are remaining stagnant and effectively your net income is going down.

 

I would have happily signed the card if they had come by before Challenger shafted me out of a job. Sadly, there is no hope of me ever working there again. Then again, that is not such a bad thing. LOL

 

There's many many more like you!

Lots of money for fancy recruiting coaches and driver simulators that don't do a thing to help improve the working conditions for their drivers though.

 

Everyone is so worried about the dollar per hour way of being paid. That's an old way of looking at things. That way came about around the time of Henry Ford creating his assembly line. He knew to get people to work his assembly line, he would need to pay people for their time, instead of for their results. Before then, people were paid for their results, NOT their time. Lazy people worry about being paid for their time. Those willing to work hard are more than willing to be paid according to the results they produce.

 

You haven't been in this industry for many years have you HealthyDriver?

Being paid by the hour isn't the old way of being paid for OTR work whatsoever.
But it is going to be its future for drivers are leaving this industry en masse due to their being fed up of being ripped off by the mileage pay that when you consider the hours it takes you to perform the work, is not much better that minimum wage.

Only the ignorant aren't concerned about being paid IN FULL for ALL of their work and would promote a practice which allows for themselves to be stolen from.

You mention being paid for results. Ok, would you accept a job where you only get paid if you can get the load from point a to point b on time, with no damages or claims but it will take you 4 days to do. If you succeed, you get paid. If you don't produce, nothing.

 

Thing is, dry van drivers that drop and hook all the time don't have a lot of down time. Deck and reefer drivers have loads of time that we are not paid for. On a per hour rate for ALL hours worked not just per mile is advantageous to us.

 

Been pulling decks for 6 years, which has been long enough to hear enough people whining about their wages, their "per hour" comparison, etc. If you don't like the pay you're getting, either become an o/o, or change careers. I have no issues with my compensation. Many others don't either. If any OTR driver has an issue with his/her compensation, then they can choose to work elsewhere, work for themselves, or work in another career.

As for your idea of not being paid if the load is late, you're trying your best to come up with silly analogies. Being paid for results would mean produce great results, get great compensation. Produce lesser results, receive lesser compensation.

We're just going to have to agree to disagree. You love the idea of being paid for any little thing you do, according to union contract. I, on the other hand, think unions need to be shot.

 

A whole 6 yrs that is impressive. But it would explain why you fail to comprehend how badly you're being raped by the pimps who love to abuse drivers like you.

Ignorance is not your friend Monsieur Healthy Driver.

You do realize you're being raped right?
You are working for the same wages drivers made 20 years ago.

Do you honestly think that you'll be making much more 20 years from now if nothing is done to prevent companies from continuing to prostitute your services for 20 yr old wage rates?

And becoming an O/O does not make the pay any better whatsoever. Anyone with any knowledge of this industry can tell you that.
I suggest you open your eyes and mind. Your anti-union bias is seriously holding you back from seeing the light of just how badly you've been abused and helping to improve working conditions for ALL drivers.
You're clearly a victim, you have my sympathy.