What is the fairest way to be paid?

[LandShark]

I get paid percentage and it breaks down to $23.00 by the hour or 47cpm of course the faster I turn the trip the better for me.

[indycolts]

I would say by the hour if I was an employee. I drive better and take less chances.

By the load if I was a business owner. Why pay someone to fuel, pre trip, post trip, sit at dock, D/H or any of the other duties of a driver? There are plenty of people out there willing to do it for free. Take advantage of the downturn of the economy and line your pockets.

[Safeclean Services]

I have worked percentage,hourly,and by the mile.My last mileage job was in 1986 and it was $.35 a mile and $15.75 an hour if you worked local.That was in 1986. It depends on where you live as to what is a fair wage,and what type of driver you want to attract ,keep ,and respect and value his job. I have worked as a supervisor for UPS,driver,owner operator and company driver.I'm a hustler(in a good way)I will find where the money is at in any situation and always work as if I am working for myself and technically we all are.The key to attracting good safe drivers is offering them a career that they plan to retire from,drivers who won't run your equipment into the ground because they "don't want to lose a load" when they hear that funny noise coming from the engine,or run that flat tire on the inside,and now the outside blows"because they don't want to lose a load". Drivers who drive like an animal to get that extra load in .If your thinking long term,good safe drivers who aren't totally stressed out worrying about "losing a load" pay them by the hour but have safeguards in place to weed out the slackers.The industry attracts what they now call drivers because of the low pay per hour when you break down all the hours many drivers spend earning a living who work by the mile they are lucky they are making any hourly wage that was poor 20 years ago.The wages that many companies offer today when you break it down by the hour are deplorable and that is why you see the quality of drivers you see.The never ending cheap labor from third world countries doesn't help either.I cringe when I see what some companies will put in a truck and send out to represent them to the public and their customers,it makes me embarrassed to say I'm a truck driver to someone in the general public. .It's the a$$es in seats mentality of weeding through the bottom feeders to hopefully find a few decent drivers who can do the job safely and honor your commitments to your customers.I see people take shots at Union companies and somethings are true and some not.My father worked as a Union driver and equipment operator and busted his ### working 6 to 7 days a week,many double shifts and in sub zero weather,he earned every dime of his pay.He also made great money,had excellent benefits,sick days,and 4 weeks vacation.He retired after 35 years on the job at 57 with full
benefits and $60k a year pension .He busted his ### those 35 years and protected his job because he had a job he valued and supported his family in a respectable way and when a slacker did show up on the job he was one of the first to straighten them out and let them know they were not going to run his job into the ground and run the company broke.

[074344]

Sorry for the late response

THERE IS NO INCENTIVE TO WORK MORE EFFICIENTLY WHEN PAID BY THE HOUR!

No but there is an incentive work safely. You paint your statement with a broad brush. You act like all those individuals, who are paid by the hour, somehow cheat the company? That would equate to me stating that for all other forms of compensation other than hourly, you are required to cheat on your logs, skip showers and pee in a bottle in order to make any money.

Which is precisely why I would NEVER offer "hourly" pay to an employee who had no direct oversight by myself or another member of management. It is too easy to milk the clock and get paid for time they don't spend working, which is a form of stealing.

If you did offer hourly pay, there are many devices out there that can track your employee's every minute of the day. I know, I have one.

The FAIREST way to pay is by the load.

No. You are wrong. Hourly is the only fair way to pay a driver. At least they will be compensated for all of their on duty time.

The load pays $XXX.XX to the driver. That amount should be enough so that if the driver did his job efficiently, it would average out to a decent hourly wage for the time he actually spent working.

And what do you consider to be a decent hourly wage? Please tell me. This I've got to see!

If you screw around, though, you'll average less per hour. Find ways to improve your efficiency and you can earn more...because you're doing the same amount of work in less time....leaving more available hours to haul another load.

The incentive to cheat on logs, skip showers and pee in bottles. All in the name of efficiency. Where does the next idiot sign up for this?

Mileage pay can be skewed either way...the company can pay HHG or shortest miles, which typically shorts the driver....or the driver can be paid hub miles, in which case the company will have to pay for OOR miles and "extra" miles the employee might drive when he gets lost.

Hub miles is the only way to be paid for mileage. That's just common sense! But if you like to give your time to the company, feel free to settle for less.

Personally, I prefer working on percentage...and percentage is the only way I would consider paying a driver. The rate includes loading, driving, unloading, and any other item associated with hauling the load.

No it doesn't. It can't. Nobody has a crystal ball to predict how long it will take to load/unload. Traffic could be an issue along with a breakdown or a DOT inspection. How are any of these delays factored in? They're not! Driver looses again

What a lot of folks don't realize is that those items (loading, driving, unloading, and any other item associated with hauling the load) is included in what you get paid no matter WHICH method of payment you operate under. This is why the mileage pay for flatbeds is higher than the mileage pay for dry vans...because the driver is responsible for more "non-driving" tasks in order to haul the load. It is also why a lot of companies will have increased per-mile rates for shorter hauls, because the "non-driving" tasks take up a larger portion of the driver's time.

Stop trying to baffle drivers with BS. It's pathetic at best.

No matter HOW you are paid,

I guess that means any other way than hourly pay?

you are being paid to haul the freight from point A to point B...which includes everything necessary to successfully complete that haul. You aren't doing "unpaid" work.

Unless you are paid by the hour, you are doing unpaid work. Again, that's just common sense.

It is already factored into whatever method of payment the company you work for is using. Let's use $20/hour, for example, to look at a hypothetical 1200 mile haul. At a 60 mph average speed, that brings you $0.333/mile. A 15 minute fuel stop is $5...which is necessary every 900 miles...so that would be $0.005/mile. Add a 15 minute post trip per 600 mile day for another $0.008/mile. 30 minutes to load, and 30 minutes to unload...another hour in time for a 1200 mile load....so that's another $0.016/mile. So, that's a whopping $0.362/mile.

That's what all of the non hourly paid crowd says. It's already factored in. What a bunch of garbage!

Whether the company spells it out for you or not, you ARE getting paid for the time....ALL of the time....

Yes and depending on the delay's, your hourly wage could end up as less than minimum wage.

that it SHOULD take you to haul the load. If there are delays which extend that time, most decent companies have auxiliary methods of payment in place (i.e. detention) which will pay you for that extra time.

And how much free time will you give the company if you are extended beyond the time that the load "SHOULD" take? You're going to loose every time.

Welcome to working for a junk OTR company.

[Truck-N-Tech]

I love this topic. So much info. most of it fails to see the big picture. Who cares if you are being paid by the hour, or the load, or the mile? The focus should be on how much money can you make in a week, considering how hard you work, and how long it takes you to make it.

Have a guy telling me one day "If you ain't gett'n paid by the hour, your getting the shaft"

He was making $18.00 per hour, driving about 50 hours a week. Gee wizz, a whopping $900 a week. And that was for flatbed work.

I was working for a flat rate, per load. By what he said, I was getting screwed. But I was pulling dry bulk tanks out of Philly's rail yards, going 30 miles down the road, and coming back. It took me 3 hours to do one round, which paid me $110. I was working an average day of 10 hours, making $310 a day.

So fat-boy flatbedder was busting his hump for $18 an hour, but he considered my $31.00 per hour "getting screwed", because it was paid "per load" instead of per hour. Go figure.

[Wooly Rhino]

No matter what you think everyone gets paid per load. "The Company" is only a name on the letterhead. If you are working in any business you are sharing in the profits of that business. If one group takes too large of a cut the business dies and everyone is out of a job. Paying someone encourages them to maximize their paycheck. If you pay by the you encourage your employee to take the most number of hours. They drive slow, take lots of breaks, and sit as much as possible. Paying by the mile you drive as fast as you can. Safety goes out the window and equipment is destroyed. Insurance rates go up. And fuel goes go through the roof. Percentage pay give the driver reasons to do his job as best he can. If you share in the profits, there will be profits.

[Truck-N-Tech]

Actually Rhino, percentage pay would be my first choice as a driver also. If the boss gets a higher paying customer, and gives me the account, because I am the best driver, I get the same percentage of a larger number. Both me and my boss win.

My last post was just the situation I was in at the time, not the one I would prefer. My point was that every way of getting paid can be high paying, if the price is right.

[WideSkyND]

No go to percentage or mileage, unless credible day rate kicks in when delayed for weather, equipment failures..etc..and I've seen what that is before, and it's wrapped in loopholes so huge that it'd make you wonder if it could get any more clever. Useless to the driver unless it pays, thats why for anything other than driving the truck, fuel stops, ..etc ..I get paid hrly...weather..unscheduled overnights..I get paid based on hrly and with no extended wait jargon..example: 1hr wait at border...on hrly..paperwork completion?Hrly.. its all or nothing,..these guys have had it so wrapped for so long..and thats another reason why the big carriers are in a panic,..cause they see this old style pay system disappearing for good..no more exemptions..pay to play ..it was always that simple..they made it work on your backs..
I have seen ads lately where carriers are offering pay for play.. all over the place..once you stop the truck.its hrly..don't accept anything less..

[Ezrider_48501]

i would say if you are operating within 100 mi air radius you should be paid hourly.

[Adkhunter]

I haul fuel and get paid hourly plus mileage. It works out to be a really good paycheck every week. We also get paid for pre and post trip, load and unload and if loading or unloading takes longer than 45 mins we get paid the extra time for it(load/unload is paid at 45 mins based on our hourly wage). We also get paid hourly detention time after 15 mins excluding traffic unless its serious and your stuck sitting still for a few hours. I think we get paid fair and I don't know of anyone I work with that takes advantage of it. Everyone busts their ### to get done faster and be efficient. We could all drag the day out to 14 hours everyday but everyone tries to get done earlier than that. Everyone I work with has families and we all wanna get home to see them. Do we have a few guys that are a little slower than others? Sure we do but I don't think anyone is taking 10 union breaks a day just because we are paid hourly. Paying guys a good wage so they can make a good living makes drivers happy. When you have happy drivers you will have drivers doing a good job and not making mistakes and being profitable for the company so everyone is happy! I like where I'm at...good trucks, good wages and good people that work hard and don't grumble about not being paid enough to do a good job. If a driver is happy he will also be more saftey conscious.