Schneider National Carriers - Green Bay, Wi.

Isn't limiting a driver's mileage when they're paid by the mile cutting their earning potential as a by-product?

If, with the saving of fuel, (money), the companies used that savings to bump a driver's pay up enough to cover the lost mileage potential, I'd give 'em a pat on the back.

Or provide consistently good miles with little or no sitting, waiting for the next load would be another way to keep a driver's cash flow flowing in, rather than out.

 

Here's my issue with that.

Well not really an issue, but...I haven't seen anything that shows actual factual proof of drivers earning less because their mileage drops.

Everybody says that if you have 11 hours to drive each day, and you can run at 67, and then drop down to 60, you LOSE x miles. Well that's IF you run max hours every single friggen day. And, that's IF you drive without stopping, and get in the truck at 6 am and drive straight through without stopping for anything at all until 5pm.

The fact is there are TONS of factors almost too many to count that determine your miles you drive each day, and ONLY one of them is speed.

Schneider aside, I dont know of any company out there that has upped their pay to their drivers in relation to going slower.

 

Speaking from a solo driver point of view Schneider's Decision to slow their trucks down has not had a significant impact on my paycheck. My truck was one of the first trucks to be slowed down as I had my truck in the shop the weekend after the decision was made. If you figured out the numbers its really not all that bad on a per week basis. The truck's cruise speed was at 63 mph. The truck's current cruising speed is now 60 mph. I average about 8 - 10 hours of driving per day. IF and that's a big IF because you don't spend 100% of your time on the interstate doing 60 mph, you are on a 10 hour day only losing the potential of 30 miles (10 hours x 3 mph). At $0.35/mile (Canadian Driver wage at 7 months) that is only a loss of $3.50 a day. Now I am sure on a daily basis you spend atleast $3.50 on stuff that you could cut back (i.e. a chocolate bar, sodas, coffee, etc....) Some good advice quit yer b****h'n about the slower speed and maybe complain about something worth complaining about like how our runs have been cut in length and how we don't get to drive a lot of 10 hour days because we end up doing a pickup and delivery in the same day. Long haul solo runs right now for us up here in the Canadian division are pretty much unheard of right now When we get a run of 450 miles or more that's a good length of haul right now.

 

Eventually trucking will drop back to 55 mph. Probably real soon.

 

I do'nt care if they cut SCH back to 50. I'm out here in the L lane in WY doing 80. GOSH, look at the money I'm making and the cops do'nt even bother me. I haul better freight and make more/mi than Schneider, and about $40000.00/year more and I'm haveing the time of my life, fuel surcharges and all. 10 MPH, 10 hrs/day, 10,800 mi/mo. 3 weeks on 1 week off. I'm just easing along, 5 MPH over the limit and never get tickets.

 

Cutting your speed when you get paid by the mile mrziggystyles is cutting your pay. Were you born dum?

 

1.7 million miles? I ain't no newbie. I own my own Hood! My bro is doing great at the new job. Has a Pete 379 and gets it washed once a week and its purty. Got a 600, pulls fly ash and iron in a dump Erie-Pittsburg-Buffalo.

 

Don't matter how fast you fly down the road now. What I'm talk'n about is the possibility of a nation wide 55 mph law like the one in the 1970's. That will clip our wings. I don't want it or agree with it but it may be on it's way.

I argee with you fly, fly fly. Fly, fly, fly.

 

If I was born dumb, I would misspell dumb.

Cutting your speed when you get paid by the mile does NOT cut your pay. If you fall into this trap that you need to go faster in order to get more miles, that's just silly.

Everybody that tries to defend their argument of driving faster equals more miles...relies on many flawed facts. Such as:
*"Well you are allowed to drive 11 hours a day, that means that if you drove 70, 70 times 11 is 770miles a day you can drive, and then if you dropped to 60, you would only be able to drive 660 miles, so you lose 110 miles a day...blah blah blah"

First, the maximum we are allowed to drive each day is 11 hours. However, you don't drive at x mph hours exactly for the entire time. Second, you don't drive for 11 hours straight. The average driver also does not put in 11 hour days 7 days a week. You can't drive past 60/70 hours of work in 7/8 days. The only way to avoid a restart is to average 8.75 hours a day of work. The average speed of a truck is nowhere near 70.

In order to compare running at 70mph to 60mph; the ONLY way to make an accurate comparison would be to have two trucks starting at the same point heading towards the same destination. There are so many factors involved in transporting goods, that speed is just one minor contributor to the whole game.


But yeah, just for the fun of it, show me the potential mileage of a 70mph running max hours and a 60 mph truck running 8.75 hour days over the course of a week. Super trucker is going to run out of hours and have to sit, while the slow poke runs slow days and keeps on running.

 

Also, any Owner Op worth his weight knows that slowing down saves fuel. If you slowed down to 60 from 80, you would gain quite a bit in fuel savings, and would make quite a bit extra per hour just pocketing what you save instead of spending on fuel.
Lets say you are running 5.5 (eek)on average mph at 80. And just for easyness, say you drove 10k miles a month. Thats about 1818 gallons of fuel, at about 4.75 a gallon. $8636 in fuel for that month.

Drop it down to 60ish, maybe gain 1mph...6.5mph. 10k miles. Thats 1538 gallons - 7307 in fuel. You just pocketed an extra $1,300 that month, or about 15.6k extra a year for slowing down.

Now just for kicks, lets say by some miracle of God, you brought it up to 7mph. 10k miles a month. 1428 gallons. $6783 fuel cost. Thats saving $1853 a month, or over 22 grand a year in fuel. And its not just saving, but pocketing an extra 22 grand a year.

Sure, you might have to put in a few more hours. So lets see, you drive, according to your numbers 3600 miles a week. divided by 80mph is 45 hours of driving. So if you drop down to 60mph, it would take you 60 hours total. But if you went from 5.5 to 7mph, and are saving about 600 extra a week in fuel, you are making about oh.....an additional 40 bucks an hour for the extra driving, at slower speeds.

But what do I know...Im just a geek with common sense.