Some OTR wisdom....

God bless the American trucker! Let me start by saying although I may have not been over the road a long time, I've been in long enough for a fair evaluation of this segment of the industry. I'm not an owner operator, recruiter or company egghead.

First let me start by reiterating that although I'm not a recruiter, recruiter's have a job. They are paid to bring in potential applicants and early on determine if they meet the company's criteria. They don't lie most of the time but they do tell half truths or omit important information sometimes on purpose. With that said, you better be ready to ask a lot of questions, especially one that pertain to your style of driving. Examples would be how fast the trucks are set, do they allow inverters, what are your idle and speed reduction penalties, what is your mileage based on, (HHG, Zip to Zip, etc) or how is your mileage paid, (sliding scale, short mile, etc)?

Be sure you understand the main point here. Trucking companies are out to make money, not make you money! Sure you get compensated for your efforts but it's never to a degree of fairness, why? It's a business and with that let me explain.

The first and foremost expense is the driver. The company has to pay insurance, workers comp, wages and payroll tax. Well, costs are always out the wazzu, so the only thing to do is control the wage. We all know there will always be some dumb cluck happy to roll out of their bunk for 25-30 some cents per mile.

The second expense is and will always be is FUEL! The company's only means of control to some degree is with bulk fleet buying. Next they go the more stringent route. They do it by reducing mpg consumption (slower trucks), ridiculous idle restrictions (don't care you freeze, or sweat your butt off) and cruise speed reduction penalties due to violations of idle restriction perimeters.

Third, freight goes where is goes and until you become an Owner Operator with your own trailer to haul what you want, where you want it, and for how much to haul it, we are all slaves to the man who puts the crap on your back! In general, home time should be looked at as a perk, only to be afforded as one mission dictates. They will get you home, but depending on the profit of the freight and it's timing you could have to wait as much as a week longer. I was turned down to go home from 50 miles away, forced to stay at that truck stop over the weekend because the company MIGHT have a pre-plan in the other direction for Monday.

My personal opinion is that the majority of drivers in this type of trucking are not going to make a very good living. There are some companies out there that can actually have you earn a good paycheck for your needs, and that is if your financial situation dictates but unfortunately most do not! The majority of companies trim the costs of doing business through many diseavable pratices at the driver level. Most try to avoid or minimize detention time by claiming you didn't fill your log in right or tell you the customer is a great customer and we don't charge demurrage! That might be OK for them, but my time is my money!! I'm pretty sure the companies are charging demurrage payments for detained trucks! If you are an owner operator you can set and contract rates. Another driver cheat is low or no tarp pay when they probably collect a couple of hundred to the customer for putting the tarp on. If you get a load aready tarpped you still have to take it off and fold it....at your expense. Remember your time is worth money!! Companies also can enjoy the big tax breaks they get from buying new equipment which tends to sit in yards because of the lack of drivers, mostly because they're paying low wages...an endless cycle!

But all in all it's the mileage pay system that cheats the drivers most. All companies, unless they pay hub miles use this system, 99% do not and blame driver abuses on this. Crock! That what GPS is for, duh! The miles on trips they assign drivers is never accurate either! If the route or load changes they try to pay you as if you drove direct and not the intended route for say a different load you re-powered. Companies have now started "charging" drivers for late loads, bogus out of so called route miles, improper fueling stops, excessive idle the list goes on.

So what do we do as truckers next to just not going into the business of driving trucks? Well, we could could complain to the agencies in Washington (good that will do) and force them to legislate the trucking industry to start paying with a fair hourly wage for all services including hanging around the docks to get loaded and unloaded. We could demand trucking companies to start paying accurate miles for trips. In this day of GPS, address 1 to address 2 would be standard for the shipper, hauler and driver. There would be no BS excuse route thing called Household Mover's, Zip to Zip or so called practical mile!

After about 2 years OTR I made a choice... To find an hourly trucking job that keeps me home, pays me well, runs safe and most of all be content in my work! I don't work for dirt wages but I will haul dirt for livable wages! If you're the type to be independent and travel as you with for junk change and video game money and selling your old XXX DVD's to eat then go ahead and do so if that makes you happy. Then please please....DON"T BI##H!

Good luck in all your endeavors!