What is acceptable when working as a otr company driver

that's the best you got?

 

Ours work cause if I sit more than 2 hours, somebody will be paying us detention. I can do 3 live loads every day and run out of drive time before the 14 runs out. Every day isn't perfect but most everyone we pick or deliver to gets us in and out before that 2 hour clock runs down because they know we'll charge for our time.

 

How much detention can you get, per hour? What company?
The companies I know have cut their detention and layover pay since I last checked. I doesn't make up for lost time running on the road!

 

$14 an hour for me after two hours. That goes up, I forget when. $16 after I've been here a year. Not as much as driving but it's better than sitting for nothing.

Whatever the company charges the customer for their truck sitting, it's not cheap. I rarely ever sit longer than that 2 hour window. We haven't lost any customers over it that I know of and good riddance if we have. I called in 15 minutes later than I was supposed to once to get the detention time rolling and I think my dispatcher mumbled that we could'a had $75 by now. If that was what he said, then they charge about $300 an hour. That a motivator if it's right.

 

Cubsdad, I see by your profile that you are less than one year in trucking. It would seem to me, that even though you are with a less than stellar outfit right now, you should hang in there a bit until you have at least a full year with them. I know that may be easier to say, than it is to do. But the fact is, you really need that full year of steady employment before you start trying to go elsewhere. You DON'T need to get the reputation of being a "newbie who is a job hopper."

It doesn't really matter how long you were with your last employer prior to trucking. What matters is what you are doing now, within the industry. I think you will be better off if you can tough it out for a bit longer.

OTOH, it never hurts to keep your eyes open. Once in a great while, opportunity knocks a bit earlier than normal. Just don't trade one bad experience for another.

 

When I started I had various companies that I went through for various reasons. Probably the one that best fits this forums example is when I worked for PAM. First issue a truck with partial hole in the roof so when it rained guess what...Secondly truck was filthy, and the first load I got was picking up a trailer in the middle of a field with no paperwork, electrical line was cut on trailer and had a busted brake chamber causing me to sit for 10 hrs before I could get going. I did that company the best favor I could, I left them and got on with my life. In the beginning you will have difficulty, poor loads, sometimes bad miles, idiot dispatchers, idiot shippers and receivers, bad weather and all the other pleasantries of trucking. That's why old timers say this is a job and not a career. If this job isn't worth fighting for, then you will surely die doing it. Best of luck, suck it up and keep the shiny side up!

 

You deserve something better.

 

Report it & the trailer number that he dropped.