Newbie actual first year pay

You're working for the WRONG company!!!!!

 

I run on the national van division, and have been alternating between 36 days out, then 7 off, then 24 days out, then 5 off, and repeating.

The gross pay to date that I put up, and I didn't think about this with my first post, does actually include my time as a trainee, which was $57.00 a day average for 3 weeks. You can look at that two ways: I actually made less than the numbers show, or I would have made more than I reported. I do not however include my training time in the six months of driving. I started earning mileage pay on April 1st. That's when I started counting the 6 months and how I calculated my weekly/monthly averages.

I can plan, I'm safe, I have a good work ethic, and I don't know how many more ways I can spell out "I want to run miles!" to them before I'm blue in the face.

Maybe freight is spotty now. I also think my planner might have partial brain damage considering the way I've been run. My FM seems to be doing very little to help me achieve my expectations, and maintain a standard of which they know I'm capable.

I started at .30 and moved up to .32 automatically after 3 months. Will be at .33 at 9 months as a company driver, and after 1 year automatically move to .34. If I meet idle goals, have no service failures or accidents, and run at least 116,000 miles in the year, I qualify for an additional .02 increase to be at .36 after 1 year.

 

A bit off topic, or maybe not, but do US companies not pay for anything other than mileage? ie. loading, unloading, switching trailers, safety bonus, fuel mileage bonus, detention etc. Though the miles I drive are the biggest part of my earnings those other things are significant on payday.

 

Wow. These numbers are shocking! How do you guys make it? You give up your lives to sit in these trucks and get paid squat to do it. It's shameful, really. And out of that money you pay for your own expenses? Food ect.? Wow.
So what does the top dog make? What is the potential?
FYI. My top driver grossed $11,600 last month for 24 days work.

 

I've been to Canada. Everything is more expensive... everything. According to a conversation I had with a dock worker in Mississauga, taxes are a lot higher, and there are more of them too.

Here's another interesting point. Ever hear of Power Distance? In the U.S., the difference between what, say, middle management in a retail store makes and what their direct supervisor on the corporate level makes is ridiculous. It works like that all the way up the line. Compare that to Japan where, when a company is in trouble, the first people to take pay cuts are the CEO's. There's a reason people in this country love to say "The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer."

With my lifestyle, earning starter pay in this industry, I have enough money to afford to pay for a new car, buy myself some of the 'toys' I want, take time off and go on trips, take my girlfriend out to nice dinners once in a while. I eat well, sleep comfortably, and enjoy plenty of... what would you say... "perks". This is all with what is considered "less than ideal pay" as a newbie in this industry.

I'm 32 with no kids and no mortgage. Maybe the guy who just turned to trucking because he got laid off in his mid 40's or 50's with a house payment, three young kids, a stay at home wife will have a different story.

As *%#$ed up as I think this country is, I still think it's the best place to be in the world for reasonably intelligent people with a skill set and a good work ethic.

Canada is pretty, though.

 

My company has all of those things. Let me go down the list.

They typically don't want us loading or unloading, so we pay for lumpers and are reimbursed. If we do choose to touch freight, the pay is ok at best. In my 6 months, there's only one place where I was required to stand on the dock for 3.5 hours tagging stuff that came off the truck and that was in Canada. lol I got paid $50 for that, but not after calling the company twice asking where the money was.

A flat fee paid to the driver for a drop and hook is something I'd love to see implemented industry wide. On trips where I have to hook a trailer, then drive 1300 miles, hell even 800 miles, I don't mind. But then there's weeks where I'm doing a drop and hook once or twice a day. It's like telling an office worker, ok you're gonna get paid for using the computer, but not for answering the phone, or a construction worker they'll get paid for putting the boards in place, but not for hammering them in.

My company does have a safety bonus, which I'm on track to make, and it comes in the form of .01cpm for all the miles you ran during the year, or something like that. Don't quote me on that but it amounts to, not a whole lot, but hey... it's something.

Fuel mileage bonus... haha. Well, that one kinda makes me laugh. "Hey you saved us $2500 in fuel over the quarter, here's $50" Nevertheless, the standard is set to the best performing trucks in the fleet, so my 2005 with 650k miles on it won't come close to that on my best days.

Detention. Thankfully it doesn't happen TOO often in my experience thus far. But yes, we get it. I believe even if the customer denies it, the driver will get it if they did everything according to company policy, ie: arrived on time, got bills notated, sent the right messages, etc... Still, I've had to follow up on a couple of those too.

One of my trainers said it best: "You don't just have to do your job, you have to do your dispatchers job, planners, and payroll too." It's one thing to trust a time clock that you punch every day and not look over your paycheck at the end of the week, but you better believe I'm analyzing every stub I get out here.

It's not that I don't trust big companies, it's just that you can't trust any of them.

 

Not many oil patches in SC, where I live. Pat your boy on the back for an income well earned.

 

Yea, these guys are spoiled. They have no idea how good they have it. We have a hard time getting young guys to move there ##### and show up on time for $30.00 an hour. Then there are men out there on the road every day busting there ##### for way less because they have to.
I would hope that some day the highway drivers get what they are actually worth. You guys keep this continent moving! Without your dedication and hard work we would all be ######## about not having what we need, when we need it.
Anyone willing to give the Alberta oil patch a go? If you are, let me know. I'll steer you in the right direction.

 

I would have sent this through PM, but I need 7 posts to be able to do that. I will just do it here:

I'm very interested. However I'm don't currently live in Canada, and I don't know if your post was only directed towards those who live in that area. I would greatly appreciate it if you can give me a few tips on how to get started in the Alberta oil industry.

 

Would love to do that. Unfortunately I can't get a passport due to child support issues. Ironically, I could clear those issues up quickly making that kind of money...