Drivers ... A simple question here ...

I do a weekly load that starts with a 350 mile deadhead. One pickup and three drops with 750 miles including the deadhead. Pays the truck $2.80 for every single mile. I average close to 7.5 mpg for the run. Anyone want to guess why I do it?

 

You have child support due?

 

Not hardly lol both my kids are grown and OUT of the house.

 

The main thing with a lot of the really big companies that hire students and rookies and felonies isn't as much the TWIC as it is HazMat and you can't run Canada even if you wanted to. Canada is VERY particular about not allowing felony truck drivers across the border. Used to be if you had a DUI/DWI (misdemeanor and in your own car) they'd not let you in and they ran you at the border. It was a big deal because a lot of the major carrier's had contracts to deliver parts to the major US auto manufacturers with assembly plants in Canada. That plus no Haz endorsement cut what you could pull in half for them. Hang tough and get six solid months accident/ incident, ticket, DOT Inspection Violation free w/ PTL and you'll find a ton of doors open.

Empty trailer percent? It's all over the board with the big boys but to a company driver you get paid the same loaded or MT. The key is if not how many MT miles you get but keeping an MT on your back. You WANT an MT. See having an MT opens up more for the load planners for you. Some customers have MT's and can load and drop them on the loaded lot for you to drop and hook but they need you to bring in another so they have one to reload. If you got one, that can be you. If you don't that customer may have a "No Bobtails" flag on them and that load will go to someone even farther away than you but has an MT. (Pepsi in Jax, FL for ex. No MT, no preloaded one out). See what I'm saying? Having an MT after a drop is very important so you can either live load somewhere OR drop and hook anywhere. The ONLY good thing about being bobtail is it's easier to find parking to wait while the load planners search infinity for something for you. LOL.

This just to add to the Texan 'cause he's 100% right. "BT to such and such for MT" (45 miles away - just enough to be annoying - DOT clock tick tocking on the e-log). "Ain't one." "You sure? Computer says there should be three there" "Looked five times before tellin' you - there ain't one". "OK well there's five over at such and such. Go there. it's only 30 miles away" (of all city - catching every light red Grrr). "Ain't none and don't even ask if I'm sure". Two more places and your clock is burned and they say "well go back to where you dropped tomorrow. They may have the one you dropped unloaded by then." "Dude. It's Saturday night. There's nobody there to unload it but the security guard til Monday and I promise the guard ain't gonna unload it. Shoot it maybe, his shoes ain't all pointin the same direction if you get my meaning. Can't I just bobtail to a preload. This ain't making neither of us any money." "OK; Bobtail to shipper X" (164 miles away which we could have done in the first place and I coulda been there already if I hadn't burned my DOT clock chasing ghosts.).

So when it comes to MT's here's my advice: SNAG THE FIRST ONE YOU SEE!! You can swap it for a better one if you find one but at least you'll have one. Look for them on your way IN if it's a drop and hook. Lots of times you are passing by the empty area on the way to the drop area or drop door. Get in the habit of always looking for your company's trailers on the way to deliver. Get good at fast dropping too. Sometimes there's only one and TWO of you needing an MT. Maybe YOU saw it on the way in but HE didn't know to look. Drop, spit out from underneath it, boogie to what you saw and back up TO (but not hooked - it might not be MT) and check while the other guys is still cruising the other side of the lot. You get real lucky a lot of the times and YOU got the MT and HE'LL be the one Ghost Hunting.

Yeah, worry more about getting an MT than how many miles with it. It pays the same and you'll be making miles a LOT faster if you have one. Hope this helps. Have a good one and Happy Hunting.

 

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Company drivers usually get paid the same, loaded or empty, for all dispatched miles.

 

Priceless!!! That's why I push so hard! They lock your tail UP over that. I created a really cool Excel workbook and page one is my pay estimator. It looks a LOT like the pay stub only it has a ton of formulas and look up tables for taxes and my fixed deductions like insurance and child support; stuff like that. It gives me a running net take home after every thing comes out. It starts at a negative number because of deductions. Then each load I get I put the info into the sheet and the negative shrinks and then starts to get to an actual deposit around 825 miles (at that point I'm $2.40 to the good on take home - that's without advances).

It ain't because the company pays bad (they actually pay very well and payroll is actually accurate - a miracle in trucking) or insurance is any more outrageous than anywhere else because Obamacare gave the insurance companies a product the LAW says you HAVE to have - you know; the whole supply and demand thing (mods - I promise that is ALL I have to say about that). No, the big hit is Child Support and not because I'm behind. I'm not and I have no problem supporting my children. They didn't ask to come into this world. I's MY responsibility and I fulfill it gladly. It's just a fact. Kids are expensive and my child expense is payroll deducted straight off the top. I asked for it to be that way. It keeps Animal out of jail! Can't spend what you don't have right? It IS a real motivator (the spreadsheet) though.

[To DM] "Dude. It's Tuesday and I only got three bucks take home so far. My new wife (yeah I didn't learn the first two times. LOL) is gonna kill me if we don't start shakin more freight. You'll be out a driver and I'll be dead. I'm not kiddin'. She's from Texas. She packs big iron and she don't play about bill money. We gotta roll man. What we got? Anything! Let's go, go, go." LOL

 

Running intermodal in Chicago, I would guess I am 50% or more empty. Since I take my truck home nightly once the runs are done.

Mikeeee

 

wow so many with such little deadhead Less than 50 miles wow I think I avg close to 100 per load some more some less But I sit less in a month now than I used to for bigger companies in a week one exception a dedicated Ford run I had at one company.
Since May I bet I have only sat longer than two hrs waiting for a load a dozen times but most loads are less than 500 miles

 

I average 150 miles to get a load per run. i get paid the same either way. Longest i ran empty was mobile al to mid michigan to get a load going to cleveland. 900 miles to go 200. My dm couldnt see why i was planned on it but i still got the run.