How much should an OTR driver earn? Here's my opinion!

There is no doubt that there are some carriers who don't treat drivers well. I think that most do attempt to treat drivers fairly and try to get them home when they need to be there. It can be difficult at times, especially with the economy for the last couple of years. It can also be a challenge depending on where you live. It helps when the driver keeps the lines of communications open. I don't know of any carriers who put 70 driver under one dispatcher. If that is true, then that is too many. I find it interesting that you think you can manage yourself better than your company, yet you are still a company driver. I have had drivers who seemed to feel the same thing. A couple of them come to mind. The only problem is that both of them lost their trucks and apparently could not manage themselves very well. Both told me that they made more working for me than they did running their own truck. Not too bad for a bottom feeder company, eh? I figure that if someone can do a better job then they would be doing it rather than working for someone else. I have some drivers whom I have encouraged to choose their own loads. Most prefer that I make the decision for them. It may sound good for a driver to pick his own loads, but inevitably he will put himself in a bad area and wind up making less than if he had someone dispatch him. That isn't always the case, but it happens more frequently than the opposite. When a driver is paid percentage it can make a big difference in his income. If you are paid mileage or by the hour it should not make any difference where you run since you are paid the same regardless.

 

Yes I paid fairly. I owned a small company and had very very little turnover. 2 drivers in 5 years. I hired owner ops and yes they were paid percentage. But I offered a minimum percentage. There were numerous times I paid out over 100% of the load. They got paid higher percentage for certain loads and a standard 100% on certain items. And no I did not go under. I sold to a larger company who really wanted to get into my market segment and I sold it at a big premium.

 

If you look at the sentence that where I highlighted the word "team." That is where I got the idea that they ran teams. They could have been talking about building a "team" operation, but it sounded to me as though they probably ran teams.

 

You said you had 2 drivers in 5 years? Did you pay them by the hour or were you talking about owner operators? If you regularly paid them over 100% on loads then I can understand why you could not afford to stay in business. You also previously stated that you managed several other trucking companies. Did you pay them hourly?

If you got such a premium out of your other business then why don't you start a new company and pay drivers by the hour exactly as you outlined in your previous posts and then let us know how it works out for you? You seem very passionate about drivers being paid from the time they pick up their truck until they get back home. You could even pay them to babysit your truck and to sleep. You also think that drivers should be paid over time for the time they are on the road, too. You could do whatever you wish when it is your money. I would love to know how it works out for you. Who knows, you could start a new trend.

 

I never work 24/7. It is illegal, even if I wanted to work that much. I have NEVER known of any otr driver who worked 24/7. If you are counting your time as 24 hours per day then I can understand why you think you are only being paid $6/hour. If you feel that you have to work 24/7 to earn a decent living in this business, then you need to work on your time management skills. When I first started in this business most otr drivers were making between $0.10-0.14/mile. According to you post you are making $1,000/week. That is over $50,000/year. Most people would consider that a pretty decent paycheck.

You can't pay drivers by the hour in hopes that shippers and brokers will raise rates. That isn't the way it works. Rates will need to come up higher than they are today and stay at a higher level for drivers to be paid a higher rate. This is truly a supply and demand industry. There is way too much competition for rates to stay very high for an extended time. I wish that were not the case. Rates are up in some segments, but level in others. Carriers cannot give significant raises to drivers or change the way they are paid in anticipation of higher rates. All businesses are subject to market forces.

One problem that those of you who feel they should be paid hourly from the time you leave until you get back is the feds. The IRS would require that you be paid at least minimum wage. Then you would need to be paid over time for hours over 40. The feds will not allow drivers to work more than 70 hours in 8 days. If you are being paid for 24 hours per day and 7 days per week, then you would be in violation of the hos rules after about 3 days. That means that you would be in violation of the hos for the next 8 days. And you could not legally do a reset because you are on duty for 24 hours per day for the entire time you are away and in the truck. In fact, you would be running illegally after 3 days until you get back home. That could get a bit pricey if you were to get caught. If you are being paid then you are legally on duty. I would love to hear you explain that to the DOT.

 

What colour is the the sky in your world? Driver pay will come up when it absolutely has to in order to fill the all the positions and not a minute before. Shippers rates can go up, and they do all the time and yet driver pays stays the same. So do you give your drivers a percentage increase?

I could afford to stay in business. But once I was out I wanted to stay out.

And by the way, my current hourly pay job requires me to go on call every third weekend. And guess what? I get paid an on-call rate as well as OT if I do have to go in to work.

And to just try to put a few facts into the equation.

If the dispatchers gets up from his desk to take a dump, do you require them to punch out then back in once they are done? You must, since this is such a big concern of yours. But everywhere else in the real world, if you need to relieve yourself during your shift you do get paid. So I guess everybody gets paid to drop a loaf.

When a driver is at a t/s having a shower then grabbing some dinner, is he on line 1 or line 4 of his log? As I have stated already three times, no pay for line 1. Maybe I should write it out in crayon for you to understand on your level.

Arguing this with you has become non-sensical. The more you post the more ridiculous you become.

 

Most of this is untrue. Trucking companies that pay hourly DO NOT have to pay overtime.

And plenty of local outfits offer pay for the occasional layover, it's ridiculous to say that if you are being paid then you are legally on duty. They can pay you for line 1 or 2.

 

The entire premise is ridiculous. I understand if you don't want to answer about whether you paid your drivers by the hour while they were away from home.

 

What about my statement is not true? Some of you have stated that you want otr trucking companies to pay by the hour and time and a half for anything over 40 hours. You also want to be paid for every minute you are away from home. You all stated that you want to be paid for babysitting the truck. That means that you are on duty, whether you are sleeping, driving or doing anything else. If you are babysitting and being paid, then you are on duty, not driving. If you want to be paid for every minute then you will need to log it as being on duty according to your own definition. That means that if you log it legally as being on duty not driving that you will be past your legal logging time around the third day. And you might be interested to know that most of the LTL carriers do pay time and a half.

 

I never said that I should be paid for every minute that I am away from home. What I said was that I should be paid hourly for all driving and on duty time. I also never said that I should be paid for line 1-off duty, but I should be paid to sleep in the back of the truck. I wouldn't expect to be paid the same rate for staying with the truck as when on duty or driving, perhaps $50 per night.

If you're getting paid to stay in the sleeper, you're still in the sleeper, and not on duty, so you would log it on line 2. Why is this so hard for you to understand? Don't know if they still do it, but Kennedy Transportation used to advertise "$25 for every night you're in our truck".

I know about LTL getting OT pay, I get it after 8. But you said OT pay is required by the feds, which, unfortunately for truckers, is not true.