Driver trainer pay question

I want to incentivize my drivers to train new hires to make sure they get acclimated to the job, and help them get Hazmat/tanker endorsements. Trying to get an idea of what other companies pay their driver trainers? I've heard some carriers pay extra per mile, or flat rate. How do your companies pay drivers to train newbies? Thanks!

 

Well the way it works at some megas is the trainer gets a few extra cpm AND all the miles. The Trainee just get's a flat amount each week while being "trained." Example: Stevens Transport pays the trainee 500.00 per week for the 260 hours or training. I don't have the CPM for the trainer on me at the moment.

 

We run as a "solo" truck, so I get paid all the miles, plus $60 a day. Then for 5 months I can get a $15/month safety and $15/month retention bonus. When you do the math I make $50-100 a guy, not, compared to what I make by myself. And the wonder why I'm not taking a lot of guys right now.

If you want it done right, you're going to need to pony up about $100 a day while the student is on the truck - above what your guy would make by himself.

 

are you an hourly driver or cpm? Cuz if you are CPM you should be making much more than 50-100 a day. I used to drive at least 400 miles a day when I was training. At the contractor rate of 1.04 CPM a mile that's over 400.00 extra a day for my trainer. Not even counting the increase in CPM. It's like a team operation with just the trainer benefiting.

 

But I don't run teams. If my guy is driving, I'm in the jump seat. If he is backing, then I'm out watching. If he's pretripping then I'm walking along behind him. If I'm driving, he's doing soft skills work - trip planning, scaling exercises, etc. We are both working on the same 14 hour clock. He gets 7 days on the truck, then he needs to be ready to go on his own. I don't think much of "team" training. He is either good to do the job unsupervised, or not.

When I run by myself, I have no problem hitting a 500 mile per day average, usually shutting down with almost 2 hours left on the 14. With a trainee, I average just under 450 a day, and run 13 hour days. So the daily training pay covers the loss of revenue and the extra time/effort, with about $10-15 'extra' a day.

 

One of my trainers sat on the bunk, looking over my shoulder. He said he preferred it because he could see what I was seeing. You, could be running team. Putting yourself in sleeper. We ran no more than 19 hours. So it's a matter of proper clock management. Also all that you are indicating you are doing was done by my trainers. Still being able to work together up to 19 hours.

 

Even if it wasn't company policy, I still wouldn't. I don't find that method of training is effective. Beyond that it is questionable in regards to HOS.

Regardless of the training structure I stand by my statement that training should be paying a trainer at least $100 a day above their 'normal ' earnings.

 

This makes sense. Did y'all run teams at Stevens? I am curious, however, on what the extra CPM the trainer gets. I know it can be a lot of extra responsibility (depending on the experience of the trainee) so I want to make sure they're properly compensated. One of my drivers that just came from McLane said one of the reasons he quit was because they just gave him drivers with no experience and expected him to train.

 

My suggestion is to combine a bit of both mine info and @gentleroger 's info. Set up clear guidelines. Stevens has a 260 hour orientation training program. During "week 1" the total on duty time for trainer and trainee is max 15 hours, weeks 2-3 is 17 hours, and weeks 4-6 are 19 hours. This is to keep the trainer from treating it as strictly a "team driver" scenario. Making sure they actually train the trainee. As outlined above by gentle.

 

When I did tanker, if the trainee stayed at the company, had no incidents, the trainer also got extra $200/month for up to 6 months, even after the trainee was put out on their own.
That way the trainers actually showed something, and could make extra.