Walmart here I come!

Love the biblical quote, Tom.

 

Thanks Nick. Since I change it occasionally, I will reference Ephesians 6:7 (NLT) for anyone who may search this thread in the future.

 

Oh, thanks for all the great info, Matt, Tall Mike, middleoftheroad, SKYTREE and x_purposes !!! We live 160 miles from the New Hampshire DC, so he'll be commuting -- leaving me without our truck!!! My Mom lives with us, though, and in a pinch I can use her car, I guess.

 

Well, HE DID IT !!! Yup, they said that Brian's orientation will be scheduled for sometime late in February
He was very impressed by the DC -- particularly the drivers room. Fridge loaded with free bottled water and milk, on the house.

He asked me to check on a couple of things with you guys for him, though, please. They told him the pay is .43/mile, which we both feel is low. But he feels that will probably be offset by stuff like overnight in-the-bunk pay, and wants to know how much that is.

Also, since you are paid for so many of the small things (including overnight pay) other than driving, are you guys still able to claim the standard per diem deduction (80% of $59 per day) on your taxes?

 

Congratulations to Brian for making it through the process thus far. Orientation is always scheduled at the beginning of a payroll cycle, so if he goes to orientation in late February, it would likely start Monday February 23rd.

On the surface it would look like the mileage pay is low because so much of your pay here is based on other activity pay. I look at how much I am making per day, not by the mile, because many days I would drive less than 400 miles and still make $350-400 a day. Brian will quickly reprogram his mind from what he is used to elsewhere to a different pay structure here at Walmart. Anyone making less than $80K in their first year here is doing something wrong.

As for taking the deductible for standard meal allowance, yes, you can take it for all days away from home, which would usually be an allowable deductible for 4.5 to 5.5 days per week depending on how many nights away from home you spend.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you sooooooooooo much, TOM !!!

Well, when you 'splain it thataway, I can see where we will both have some reprogramming to do!

He took everyone's advice right to heart, and did a very good job! He pre-tripped until the guy told him to stop, LOL. But he still missed a couple of things -- dates on the fire extinguisher and on maybe a placard? They were dates, anyway.

He was asked to back in between 2 trailers 3 times and did just great until the third shot -- he got a little too close on the right side for the guy's taste. I scolded him when he told me that, he does it to me all the time -- pins me against the vehicle next to us so that I have to really squeeze to get out the door!!!

 

Just to give you a ballpark, he should average about $0.75-0.90 cents a mile, total. That is a simple calculation of pay divided by miles driven.

I even looked back at Rick's green bars from his first year, when his mileage pay was only .4225 (started at .4125 but received a .01 raise (company wide) after there 3 months).

Congratulations !!! It will be the best decision he ever made.

We always get a kick out of the haters who only look at what the drivers make for mileage, without taking into account the rest of the compensation.

 

Thanks much for that, Gloria! You and Tom have been so helpful and have answered my questions so completely!

 

Thanks, Matt !!!

I can't even begin to express how helpful everyone here has been to us ... I would have been totally lost without y'all !!! I'm sure that I'll have more questions to come, and it feels so great to know that I can count of you folks!

I will be sure to remain in touch -- I'll keep this thread marked so that I can hopefully pay it forward and help someone else who needs it