Percentage pay-how does it work?

you should look at work like you're getting screwed. its just a matter of how you wanna get screwed. unless you work for yourself, then you're just screwing yourself lol

 

Varies. When flat rates are good you can make a lot more off of % if you have high dollar freight. You have to make sure no one is skimming your freight rate tho. You have to factor in how far the bounce is 30% of bouncing 200 miles is nothing. Some co's pay the same loaded or empty per mile. Some don't. It is a flip of the coin in which is better. I would say a new driver would probably do better cpm. If you can make 40 cpm and up on all miles that is decent.

 

Percentage is what it means.
You get a percentage of what the freight rate pays.
To make it even simpler is if the freight rate is $100 and you get 50% then you get $50 in pay.

Not real hard to figure with a half way decent calculator or if you know how to figure it.

NOW: The hard part:

How do you know you're not betting bent by an unscruplious owner or company?

In other words how do you know that BFI isn't paying you 50% of nothing or 50% of $500 and the real rate was $1000. You actually got 25% of $1000!
Yes, They do this to you and will absolutely refuse to show you the contract!
That's the ONLY way you know that you are getting the actual percentage of the freight rate, is you seeing the real rate sheet!
That is the FIRST question you ask them ON THE PHONE NOT after you've done the greyhound trip to nowhere! ASK them on the phone while you are interviewing this company if they show you the rate sheets or the contract for the load. If they say no I really hope you hang up! If not, it's your fault for taking the job!

The last time I was paid a percentage was when I did flatbed and that was way back in 1990 and we all knew we were getting the correct rate as the owner charged $1.10 a mile so we could do that math pretty easily and we were paid as soon as we walked into the office! Hand the bills to the brother who did the books, he looked them over pulled out the HHG book got the miles and wrote us our checks and it was a done deal!

But this was when a mans word stood for something, not like it is today where they tell you craploa like "depressed freight rates" when they aren't or will lie to your face about what the rate is and pad their pockets or a per diem being good for you and the myriad of other bull that falls off their lips like lease deals are great and you're an O/O right out the door! ROFLMAO!

I would think maybe 90% of the companies are into the drivers pockets as not a one of those 90% could be trusted if their lips moved and if they go to shake your hand look at the other one for the knife! Yes, most have no trust anymore and their word as a man is worthless!

Now that I've done that rant there are other things to think about with a percentage pay.

How many deadhead, miles do they run on average?
This is important as with percentage you are only making loaded miles so when you figure the percentage to cents per mile you must add those empty miles into the equation. If it's better than cut throat pay then you might be doing pretty good but in a lot of cases the percentage pay is figured out on a CPM pay and the turned into a percentage pay.

If they are paying a percentage pay of better than 25% it just might be an ok deal.I don't deal in flatbed freight so I couldn't tell you if 25% is good. I DO deal in reefer and when the average rate of produce from Salinas, CA to NYC is as of last week $5800 (down due to seasonal) for PC Miler practical of 3010 miles then 25% of that is $.48 a mile. That's good pay!Even with a few hundred MT miles in there and extra picks which almost most produce loads consist of!

Did this help??

I get the USDA report on freight rates here: http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/wa_fv190.txt Brokers hate it when I post this!!! It makes them play nice!

 

I worked for a company that hauled shingles out of Chicago a few years ago. The owner paid 30% of the load to the driver. You got the bills from the shipper on each load that showed what the load paid, you figured your pay off that.
I made decent money, but if they do a lot of sitting, or waiting, you probably won't do as well. We kept moving, for the most part.

 

I'm a regional driver that part of my pay is a percentage of what the company charges the broker/forwarder, anything within 100 air miles is hourly, beyond that is percentage. Depending on what your starting rate is, and the distance travelled you can either make a killing or go broke.

When I started I was at 22%, I'm now topped out at about 30%. Some loads it pays very very good, there are still a few shorts that are paid percentage that I would still make beter pay getting paid hourly, but there are only 4 or 5 of those.

 

I pull a mix of oversize and legal open deck freight and I get paid 23% of the load minus the fuel surcharge. That sounds like a low number as compared to some places but it breaks down to about .63 cpm for the year. That is all miles, loaded and empty. Third year OTR with no prior OTR experience. I just pulled a oversize load two weeks ago that went 12 miles. The line haul bill was $1248.00. I got my 23% of that plus 5 hours detention (Company charges $100/hr and we also get 23% of that=$23/hour) because it wasnt ready when they said it would be.

 

Sometimes, deadhead is built into the percentage rate. But he's correct, for the O/O it is often not built in.