asking for/demanding full scale pay ??

Our shop is 50 cents every six months untill you hit scale, your starting pay is whatever you and mgmt agree to.

 

I think different starting pay is more common in the OTR world. LTL companies tend to have different traditions and cultures.

I have heard of some LTL companies putting a driver on at the 1 year payscale if they have prior experience with the exact type of job working at a competitor. Not just say 10 years driving experience, but 10 years doing P&D or linehaul for another LTL. But that can cause drama and animosity between drivers if one guy gets a better deal starting out than another with similar experience based on when he was hired and how desperate they were to attract a driver at that time. For that reason, most companies seem to be consistent about forcing drivers through the established pay progression.

If it's a good enough gig, you'll put the time in and be extra grateful when you reach top scale.

 

@Bob Dobalina my thoughts exactly. OTR is pretty negotiable. I would be pissed if I swapped to OTR (with my 12 years of accident free driving experience) and started out at 31 CPM like a recent CDL grad.

But with LTL, they know they pay better and get you home daily, so they can write their own rules. My carrier doesn't care who you are and where you've been. Your experience will land you a job, but not leverage any higher starting pay. It keeps the peace.

 

I was offered a job at Martin Milk Company for a whopping .26 per mile. In 2008. I laughed in their faces. I'd thought I might go from LTL back to the road, but after this, I just said screw it, and retired.

 

I started at Viking Freight System in 1995 at $9.50/hr (they were hiring me with less than their required 2 years experience). They had a fairly aggressive pay raise schedule back then, .75 every 90 days as long as you got a decent performance review. I was at top of scale in about two years.

 

So you topped out at $16 an hour or so? Not bad for mid 90's pay.

 

Can't remember for sure, that's a lot of years ago. I think it was closer to $18. They started me at $9.50 while I worked the PM dock and did their in house training. After 3 months, when a driver position opened up, they bumped me to $10.50 or something like that.

 

OP...you knew what the deal was when you signed on. Deal with it, one way or the other.

 

Yeah. When you sign on to a company that has a policy to XYZ, you can't expect your terms of ABC to be honored.. especially after the OP signed up. This whole thread feels like a waste of time since the OP opened up his account and only made his initial demand to topping out at corporate pay. Haven't heard much response to any advice that was given to him.

 

Perhaps he didn't see the answer that he wanted, so he took his computer and went home?