Is 1500-1800 mi/wk acceptable?

And you wonder why the industry is only getting worse for drivers??? Expect little and you be sure to get even less!!!

 

That's the whole problem with the industry now . These "will work for food " people come in and accept rates a sensible person knows you can't make a living on . They keep the pay scale down but they don't last long themselves . But there's thousands of them out there to keep the seats filled at the bottom feeders . With most requiring them operations they can keep the truck rolling when one quits .
90% of the worker bees quit within a few months .

 

Then you wont be disapointed!!

 

Yes he will! Especially if he goes to work for any of the mega-carriers!

 

If he expects little and he receives little, how could he be disapointed?
It's the folks who expect their new job to solve their money problems that will be disapointed.

 

Bottom feeders gotta ' start somewhere! Same as any other industry.
Not to mention, what company is going to pay top dollar to someone with no experience?

 

First off, it's PB&J.

Second, you sound like a moron who wants to put the blame on the business you work for.

We've been in business for ourselves for 6 years now and I know exactly what "goes on behind the scenes". It's not nice and dandy like so many drivers think. There's TONS of trucking companies folding it up right now. Are you blind, deaf, both? In my little 28k town I live in, I know of three OTR companies that have either filed bankruptcy or are on the brink of total meltdown... we're one of them. You can find a customer and get out of here (which don't pay too great to begin with, it's just enough to take it) but the backhauls are killing people. Everyone is doing it for cheap so they can grab another one of these loads that are worth it. You don't sell the trucks because you want to roll with the bad and be ready when things do turn around. The guy who pushes through and suffers now will be the man who benefits the most in the long run... he's going to be the one with the trucks and crew when everyone else folded up. The internet, technology has allowed business to be done with someone 2500 miles across the United States just as easy as it is to do it with someone across the hallway at another desk. This makes too many drivers, too many carriers, too many people struggling... you take what you can and hope for something better the next time.

Don't sit there and act like I'm a puppet with no experience in this business. I'm not putting the entire blame on the economy. I am sure there are tons of carriers who aren't worth a dime and do pocket extra cash. However, it's not as common as you think. I have several inside links to many companies, and it's no better behind the desk, in the office, in the garage, or out in the truck on the road. How was it ten years ago? I remember family vacations, new house, new cars for everyone. You know, it's not like this country has financed a war since 2001 or anything.

Way to make yourself look like a complete idiot.

 

Also, a serious question to anyone who thinks "it's the corporate giants" who make less miles.

How come the driver only receives 1500-1800 miles a week when he can log twice as much? The truck has to move to make money, or am I wrong? Wouldn't you think that the truck would move the miles if there was money involved? It does not make sense to sit there and not make any money, right? If the freight was there, it would go, of course. What I'm asking is: how are the companies making out like bandits from running the truck 1500-1800 miles a week? I get the notion that many think that this is benefiting the company. How come that is a mass thought in the industry... or at least it seems from this board.

 

Logic doesn't apply to the larger companies and some of the smaller ones. Part of the reason so many are folding, like Arrow. They had me sitting a day and a half between every load when there was more freight than they could haul. Cant' tell them anything, though. They know what they're doing.

 

It doesn't benefit the company to keep its drivers sitting, but there's more to it than that.

A lot of the larger companies get huge tax incentives (and/or grants) to hire/train new drivers -- so it's easier for the company to keep its fleet large, even in relatively slow periods. Why would they bother? So they're equipped to take up as much business as they possibly can if/when freight picks up.

Since they're incentivized to keep hiring people, far more even than they could ever hope to use, it's also easier for these companies to pass miles to their least senior (and thus, lowest paid) drivers. In that sense, it can in their interest to keep some drivers sitting.

Also, some of these companies lease their trucks to their drivers. In these cases, the upkeep cost is very much reduced. Sure, you'd rather have the trucks running, but most of the urgency is passed to the driver.

Even if the company in question doesn't lease at all, it already has a certain number of trucks, and in an economy such as this one probably can't rely on selling them off to downsize. So the upkeep is given either way; as long as drivers are only paid for production (miles driven), then, it doesn't really matter to the company whether their trucks are sitting in a truckstop somewhere, or empty in a terminal lot. And as previously noted, as long as you already have the trucks, you might as well have drivers in them just in case you get a sudden influx of business.

I don't claim to be an expert on all the intricacies of the trucking industry, but I don't doubt that certain companies can keep you sitting, especially now. No, it's not intentional; the employers aren't sitting around in an office somewhere and laughing as they willfully deny their drivers freight.

It's just that freight can be slow, and a lot of these companies over-employ for a number of reasons, some of which I probably can't even guess at. If there's any willful attempt to screw the driver, then it's at the moment of recruitment/hiring -- when the driver's potential income might be exaggerated.

And of course, by the time the driver's out there on the road, it's pretty hard to have a sudden change of heart. You can't very well just up and quit, especially with DAC being what it is today. At the very least, you have to wait til you've returned the truck to a company-approved place, and sometimes that isn't easy to do.