Rum's Rants

Yes but the way Roehl looks at it is....If a new driver is doing just as good a job or better than a ten year vet, than he should be able to make just as much money. I like that way of thinking myself

 

As long as the evaluation criteria are objectively measurable and within the driver's control, it's a win-win. Where these systems sometimes fall down is when the performance rating is based on subjective judgements, for example whether the person doing the rating "likes" the employee or not, or when that person evaluates based not on what's best for the company but what happens to be best for the evaluator personally. My experience with this kind of system is within the IT industry rather than the trucking industry, so I hope it works better in this industry than I've seen in IT (where the criteria are usually fairly subjective and where I've seen people get hosed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time).

For example, if MPG were part of the evaluation but without accounting for what kind of loads and terrain the employee was running as compared to others, that would do more harm than good. I asked my recruiter about this and was told that they do not use MPG at this time and they believe more study is needed before they'd consider that. I viewed this as a positive.

 

So is it a bunch of bonus based stuff you have to meet to get to that high rate of pay? I would rather have a bird in hand than two in the bush myself. It sounds like a pretty good deal for new guy but not for the experienced guy. I started out at 23 cpm pulling a flat and was getting 42 cpm twelve years later. I wouldn't be too happy if a brand new guy was making as much as me after only one year. I wouldn't bet too much on making 48 cpm if it is all based on bonuses. I'm going to guess you are going to have to be perfect and very lucky to get it. They will look for any excuse they can not to pay for things if they don't have to.

 

I wouldn't say its bonus based, its primarily based on safety, and service failures, ie...missing appt. times. but as far as that goes if you know your going to be late and inform your FM ASAP they won't ding you on it as long as it is because of something beyond your controle...(traffic weather) leaving your house late or sleeping in on the other hand are not viable reasons for missing your appt.

 

And that's where the problem is....the new pay system is based on a lot of different things and one of them is miles driven. The driver can't control how many miles they get dispatched on, so, IMO, that's not totally fair. If you do everything right as far as deliveries go, don't have an accident, no cargo claims, but your miles are low in quarter (broke down truck, freight is slow), you don't go up a pay grade.

If they put MPG into it, there are a few drivers that will never make it to the next pay grade. Chris spent most of his time in PA, NY & WV, so his MPG was always low...He was lucky to get a 3 on his score card each month for it.

 

They do get money for taking on inexperienced drivers. I know this from when I was SNI, and I was told about just again today by a guy in the training department.

I don't know how long a trainee is out with a trainer, and if they team drive at all, but they also could be raking in some cheap team driving.

 

Nah, we're not allowed to team drive with students.


Joe

 

I'd have to agree with that. If any of the criteria are beyond the driver's control then the system is likely to worsen morale and retention rather than help it. I'll definitely have to look into this more. Ultimately I'd hope the company would evaluate how the system is working over time and adjust it if it's having a different outcome than planned.

 

I think a lot of companies abuse the driver trainer portion of training, and I'm glad to hear Roehl doesn't participate in that.

 

The new pay system is garbage. I do what I got to do to get the job done but all it will take is my FM to put the screws to me in the mileage dept and boom down quarter. How is that fair? It isn't. If they ever decide to bring in the MPG criteria well you can forget pay raises unless you only get light loads or running on flat terrain all the time.