Percentage or Mileage

Okay, before I get into some of the rules and info regarding percentage, let me pose one simple basic question that immediately leapt into my mind reading your question. If you are sure that this company did you dirty before when you worked for them on percentage, then why do you think that they will treat you correctly now on a mileage plan? If they were dishonest before, then it's an endemic problem of the entire company, not something they only do to drivers working on one specific pay program. if they screw their precentage drivers, then they are also screwing their mileage drivers, just using some other method of calculation to do so. Think about that before jumping back aboard their ship.

Companies love mileage programs, because they are very simple to administrate, and there are so many different ways to calculate mileage, most of which tend to be shorter than the numbers that appear on the trucks odometer. They look up in the book or the software the distance between two points, or zip codes, or city boundaries, or whatever, and they simply pay you for that distance, regardless of how far your truck rolled, or how logical their route is. And, your effort is not tied in to the income of the truck. If they can wring more money out of a shipper, they are not bound to share it with you in any way. Every so often, with big fanfare and announcements in the recruiting ads in the truckstop magazines, they will announce a penny a mile increase, which raises your pay somewhere between 20-25 dollars a week.

And drivers respond to the mile system, because every driver out there figures that he will run harder and faster this week, and make more money since the more miles he can drive, the more he can make. In actuality, as long as you are on a cpm basis, your pay is limited. Since you can only work so many hours, there is finite limit to how many miles you can possibly or legally drive, and a definite cap on your possible earnings for the week. You can't get around that 70 hours in 8 days rule, and it becomes a limiter on how much you can make in any given week.

With percentage, there is technically no limit on income, since if someone pays your boss a million dollars to haul a load, then you get your % of that million dollars. In truth, there are no million dollar loads, but if your truck is productive and makes enough money in a certain week, so do you.

As I said in the other thread, the keys to working on percentage are to keep the truck loaded, and not to haul cheap freight. 25% of a junk rate is junk. 25% of a good rate can be decent money. And the importance of keeping the truck loaded can't be overstessed, because you are only getting paid for the loaded miles. Empty ones are free, so it is in your best interest, as well as your boeese, to keep the truck loaded and rolling with good paying freight.

You have to work for someone honest if you haul by percentage. The law requires the boss to show you what the rates are, and it has to be the original billing documents. Granted, an unscrupulous owner can still make under the table agreements, do self brokering, or a myriad of other tricks that will cut down your income. But an honest one has no reason to do that, since he has already assured that his share is big enough to take care of his needs, and that your share takes care of yours.

I work on percentage, and I make a darn fine living by doing so. I don;t have to check the money that our loads pay, but on occasion I have come across the numbers enough times to know that they are paying me what they have agreed to. I know what our per mile rate is, and when I get a load I match those miles up with our rate, and figure the gross, and then figure my % of that. And invariably, I come out right with what i am supposed to be getting. I work for someone who doesn't haul cheap freight, and who keeps my truck loaded and rolling.

So, to answer your questions, yes, there is less opportunity for a company to screw with your pay when you run on mileage. You and the company have agreed on a formula that is very simple to check on, and base your pay off of.

But at the same time, you have limited possibility for the money to increase since it is tied to the physical act of piling up miles.

With percentage, there is a chance that an unscrupulous owner will take advantage of you by making under the table deals or not telling you the ful rate. But, if the owner is honest, then if he lucks into a pile of money on a load, you also luck into that same pile of money.

In some ways it depends on how much you like to gamble and how much you are willing to bet on the boss's honesty. I placed my bet and won, but I can't swear that the same applies elsewhere. It does in my part of trucking, but there are many other forms of trucking where it doesn't apply.

 

you will get no sympathy from me, i drive a 97 cabover to make $1000 takehome a week and weekends off, and many nights at the house....


K

 

The LAW is that the company has to show you the actual invoice that was billed to the company. You have to ask during regular business hours and be polite, don't go in with an attitude and accusations. IF you find that they didn't pay you correctly based on the invoiced amount then I'd suspect that none of the loads that you were paid a percentage of were accurate and try to resolve it. Be prepared to be fired because some companies are offended when you ask to see the billable account invoices.

 

I know this is an old thread but it looks like the appropriate place to pose this question. Do all trucking companies short change you on the mileage? I just realized that the company I work for pays about 5% less on each trip than the actual mileage. Sometimes it's up to 8%. Some short runs in the same city, they don't even pay for.

 

Not as a company driver...........................................

Mark