Questions about being on the road

Discussion in 'Questions To Truckers From The General Public' started by Greentoad, Dec 22, 2007.

  1. Greentoad

    Greentoad Bobtail Member

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    Dec 22, 2007
    Pottstown, PA
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    I'm currently unemployed and am cosidering a new career in driving. But every site or forum I look at I can't find the answers to some questions.

    1) Who pays for food? Am I responsible for driving for a company and pay my own food or is there a per diem?

    2) How is fuel paid for?

    3) What miles are you actually paid for? Routed miles, crow flys miles or actual recorded miles?

    4) What software do trucks use for GPS units?


    Thanks
     
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  3. RoamingGnome

    RoamingGnome Medium Load Member

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    Dec 1, 2007
    Pennsylavania
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  4. myminpins

    myminpins Road Train Member

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    Sep 20, 2007
    Dartmouth, NS, Canada
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    Hope this answers your questions
     
  5. Greentoad

    Greentoad Bobtail Member

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    Dec 22, 2007
    Pottstown, PA
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    Thanks all who replied. I guess I'll look locally for a driving job. Not really sure I'm into the OTR idea. Young children and all in the house.
     
  6. truckin916

    truckin916 Medium Load Member

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    Sep 7, 2007
    Wild Wild West
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    Keep in mind that though you pay for all your own food, you can deduct up to $54 a day on your taxes at the end of the year. You can actually write off a number of things.

    I use a GPS as a secondary tool to the directions I get from my Qualcomm. The Qualcomm directions are good but the GPS tells me how many miles I have to go and gives me an estimated time of arrival, etc...nice tool to have imo.
     
  7. eckz

    eckz <strong>"Radio Rambo"</strong>

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    Sep 15, 2007
    Detroit, Michigan
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    Careful with those GPS's. Most of them are made for cars, and will put you where you really don't want to be with a big-truck if you're not careful.

    I use mine mainly to keep me awake, and so that i know what lane i'm supposed to be in and all that jazz. It's helpful, even if it is for cars. You just have to watch out.
     
    Working Class Patriot Thanks this.
  8. RoamingGnome

    RoamingGnome Medium Load Member

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    Pennsylavania
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    you are only allowed to deduct that if you are not on the per diem. this is what per diem is meant for, daily expenses.
     
  9. kaydriver1

    kaydriver1 Light Load Member

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    Oct 6, 2007
    monett,missouri
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    I don't think they have it yet, maybe they do I don't know, but a version for otr drivers would be cool. Man, a guy could make a killing off of that. Let's u know what streets u can and can't be on and such, information for trucks only.
     
  10. passingtrucker

    passingtrucker Light Load Member

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    Nov 16, 2007
    Diamond Bar, California
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    Greentoad, you've stumbled on the most controversial question of all. These veteran drivers are careful to answer this question because they're afraid to say anything that will discourage you from becoming an OTR driver. Yahoo or Google "driver shortage" and you'll find some articles citing high driver turnover. People don't quit a job when they're happy and content. The excessively high turnover rate is a clue that something is not right with OTR trucking. Look at your classified ads for hourly-paying local driving jobs, and if you show up in the morning, its not unusual to find a crowd of OTR drivers responding to the ad because they want out of OTR trucking. If you carefully calculate an OTR driver's weekly pay, and factor in time-&-one-half overtime pay for hours over 40, you'd find that OTR drivers are making about or slightly over minimum wage, while local drivers who are paid on a time clock and get overtime pay after 40 hours are starting out at $16 an hour or more. Most veteran drivers insist that to calculate your hourly pay, you take your gross weekly earnings and divide by total hours worked:biggrin_25513:which is totally wrong !! To properly calculate your equivalent hourly pay, you have to use algebra math. The algebraic formula is 40x + 1.5xy = gross pay; where solving for X is your hourly pay, and Y is hours worked beyond 40.

    Say you earned $900 gross and worked 102 hours to earn this, the equation is set up as 40x + (1.5x times 62) = $900. As an hourly-paid local driver, you'd be entitled to 62 hrs overtime pay. Solving whats inside the parenthesis, you have 40x + 93x = $900; add the variables, and you have 113x = $900; divide both sides by 113 to solve for X and you have
    X = $7.96 per hour as the drivers equivalent hourly pay.

    Besides not getting overtime pay for working over 40 hrs in a week, consider that OTR drivers are forced to undergo periods of sleep deprivation to meet tight delivery deadlines. Shippers can take up to 6 hrs (or more) to load or unload a trailer, which you're not paid for. Unless you have your wife or GF with you, they expect truckers to live a life of celibacy, or take your chances with desease-ridden lot lizards (prostitutes), which are common at truck stops and rest areas. Go to any rest area or places where trucks often park and rest, and observe all the urine-filled bottles littering the ground. The delivery deadlines are so tight, OTR drivers don't even have time to park and walk over to use the restroom. When you're caught urinating on the side of your truck, the bears (highway patrol or state trooper) will cite you for indecent exposure, which in some states (like California) qualifies as a sex crime, and now you have to register as a sex offender, just like rapist and child molesters.

    On your question, most companies pay Household Movers Guide miles, which is produced and marketed by Rand McNally, the same company who produces US Road Atlas map books. It generally pays 10% below actual miles. For every 1,000 miles you drive, they pay you 900 (or less), depending on the route you took.

    OTR trucking has a lot of pay and working condition issues, and the turnover rate is a reflection of this. There use to be numerous sites that mentioned this, but seems everybody had taken those sites down. One site that still gives the low side of OTR trucking is (3W) ripoffreport (dot) com; you go there and type "trucking," a whole mess of reports had been filed by OTR drivers who had gotten a bad experience from the company they pulled for. Had to improvise on telling that website, it won't let me post links.

    The federal government had passed NAFTA as a quick solution to the driver shortage problem. These Mexicans can do the job cheaper, which makes them more cost-efficient than hiring American truckers. Increasing pay and improving work conditions will only drive up freight cost, so the Feds implemented NAFTA instead.
     
  11. davey5w

    davey5w Bobtail Member

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    Jan 4, 2008
    cambridge ohio
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    all the local jobs are taken up it seems like..and yea otr driving is crappy...companys lie to get the driver and then treat the driver like crap...then u have to eat food from the truckstops that taste like crap..and its also way more expensive than a descent meal...d.o.t always trying to get your money..nowhere to park at nights to go to sleep .lot of things need to change in the trucking industry its very backwards
     
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