Raise Driver Pay

This had been linked to in the Canadian driver forum but was, for whatever reason, removed. I e-mailed Truck News and was pleasantly surprised when they used my rant as a letter to the editor. The time for action is now, drivers. We've given too much for too long and have reached a breaking point. Time to start treating professional drivers as professional drivers or there will be no more professional drivers.

 

Good letter

 

Well put Torino Bob. You summed it all up in just a few paragraphs.

 

Most companies went with them because the writing is on the wall. It's going to be mandated sooner than later. All the judge did was reject it to be rewritten he didn't stop it.

The last company I worked for after going to elogs they started paying the drivers more detention pay and also charged the shipper and receivers when we had to wait. It caused most of them to change the time it took to get us loaded. We would be in and out while the other companies not on elogs would just sit. If a company knows you will not be able to fudge the line and will not get the load delivered ontime they will change.

 

I just finished reading the whole thread. I agree that it's sad that driver pay is so low but it's a commodity industry and until the rates are there, you have to watch the bottom line. We started our company 14 months ago and I posted on here, asking what good pay should be. Our drivers this year earned on average between $.42 and $.51 cpm. We provide unlimited iPhones, APU's, refrigerators, paid on ALL miles, never ran anyone more than a couple weeks out, the average was 4.1 days per week worked. Everyone got a week or two off at one point or another. All in all, we paid our 4 drivers over $45,000 total for miles not driven because they received a base pay of $875 per week. Happy? They still whined about just about everything. "I broke my new refrigerator and need another", "I need the wifi app on my free iPhone", "How come he got 4 days off last week, paid, and I only got 3" and the list goes on. On an annual basis, we paid $50K plus in salary and additionals and all we asked was they treat our trucks like o/o's treat theirs. Nope, they just got spoiled and got lazier on us. 2012 is a new year. My wife made $15K gross last year to run the dispatching, I took nothing for pay. This year, we're going with what good companies pay and nothing more so that we can make money too. Drivers are like anyone else and can complain about a free hand job. Part of why I think the industry is the way it is, is because the work ethic of drivers has changed. I dream of the day I can find a bunch of drivers with o/o ethics! I'll buy 'em new Pete's and pay 'em top money just so I don't have to baby sit them.

 

You can't win in this industry.....Might as well hire illegals and give em .10CPM. It's where this industry is heading, might as well beat em' to the punch. Hell, they'd probably do it for the iPhone......Don't even gotta pay em'

 

Or, hire me....You offer bennies?

 

Why not go to north Dakota and work in the oil field? Trucks there make over 80k yr