$20/hr minimum

$20 an hour would be a huge pay cut in the ltl world for a road driver, with the exception of Averitt.
If $20 an hour was paid for all the time waiting and even the drive back and forth to work, it would still be a pay cut. $20 an hour would be a cut if I got an extra 6 hours down time each day and we are not the highest paid ltl carrier. $20 an hour was decent money 25 years ago. And no. I wasn't making good money 25 years ago. The military don't pay well.

 

I used to haul logs for $12 and always had more than enough money to do whatever I wanted to do....not everybody NEEDS $20/hour, and in a lot of regions, no company could afford to PAY $20/hour. Where I live, I could get by just fine on $10/hour and a 40 hour week if I needed to...pay all my bills and still set some aside for a rainy day. I'm working towards a point in time when I could pay the bills on half that...just got to get a few more things paid off.

On the other hand, I know people who have a mortgage payment larger than all of my monthly bills combined...and they also have car payments, and have made a bunch of other choices in their life which increases their cost of living up to the point where even $20/hour for a 40 hour week might not suffice. They rely upon overtime or a second job just to make ends meet...but that was THEIR choice. THEY chose to live in the city where 1/2 the home costs 3 times as much. They CHOSE to ride around in that expensive new car instead of a sensible used one. They CHOSE to upgrade their big flatscreen TV for an insanely huge plasma HDTV. Why should their employer be forced to pay a higher wage to the employee who acts irresponsibly with his money?

In most cases, it isn't so much what you earn, but how well you manage your money. Millionaires file for bankruptcy all of the time...sports heroes, rock stars, etc....people who have made the big bucks and blew it all. Others who have earned considerably less, managed their money better and lived their life comfortably without ever going broke. So if you aren't happy with your life, start by looking at your choices. Chances are good that your problem isn't that you don't earn enough....you just aren't very good at choosing what to do with the money you earn.

Personally, if I had employees and (as is the case with truck drivers) I couldn't keep an eye on them to make sure they were actually working during work hours, I wouldn't pay by the hour. In an unsupervised job, performance based pay is the ONLY way to go...either by the amount of work performed (i.e. per mile) or by a percentage of the revenue generated by the work completed. If you want to earn more, you work harder, make wise use of your available time, and complete more work. If you choose to slack off, I'm not going to be paying you for your time spent goofing off.

 

I agree that is what pay should be BUT it's not. Recently I applied to an LTL company in the Chicago area and get this. They offered me $16 an hour straight time (meaning no overtime) and I had to get Hazmat and wear a uniform. Yeah right. I was making $19 an hour 5 years ago with no Hazmat. I walked out of there. These companies really know no shame.

Heck if I was going to ##### myself out for that low pay I'd rather drive a paratransit van for $12.50 an hour, get overtime after 40, and not have the stress of driving a big truck.

 

Pedigreed bulldog needs to learn the difference between "earning more" and "working harder"...

Because he clearly doesn't understand the difference.

 

This is true, but a driver who has demonstrated the ability to be able to run a lot of miles consistently, week after week, is not worth his pay if he's out there trashing the company image, pissing off customers, missing appointments, always complaining to load planners on the qualcomm, trashing the company to anyone who will listen, etc

Carriers need good, productive drivers, and they also need drivers to represent the company in a respectable manner. If the carrier can't earn the respect of the drivers, than the drivers need to leave and go elsewhere and if the driver can't present a quality image for the company, then the carrier needs to show them the door.

 

Actually, I do. As an employee, you are not much more than an investment that the company owner has made. Every dime you are paid...which includes ALL of the costs your employer bears as a result of employing you, from the employment taxes, to health insurance, to paid vacations, and any other "benefit" offered to you...has to be earned as a result of the work that you do with enough left over (profit, ROI, or whatever else you want to call it) to justify making the investment. If you are not producing a profit for your employer, you will not have a job very long. Higher pay or a more expansive benefits package means you have to earn more for the company in order to be just as profitable for the employer to keep you around. If you are not working to accomplish more to EARN that higher pay, you will not continue to receive that higher pay. When you cease to be a profitable investment, your pay will be cut to $0 when the company lets you go. In other words, when you earn more, you need to produce more to justify the higher pay...which typically means working harder to accomplish the same task in less time.

After returning from the war, my grandfather worked at a metals factory. He was paid piecemeal for what he produced. If he wanted to earn more per hour, he would process more pieces per hour. If he wanted to slack off, he would not process as many pieces, and his pay would suffer. Trucking isn't much different. If you are paid by the mile, you have 14 hours per day to work...11 of which can be used for driving...up to 70 working hours per week. If you choose to waste that time, you aren't going to be able to make as much as the person who manages his time wisely.

...and if you cannot manage your time wisely, you'd better be good at managing your money because if you aren't, then the rest of us get to listen to you cry about how you need a ridiculous wage you probably don't deserve just to pay for the dumb choices you have made which increased your cost of living.

If you were actually worth as much as you think you are worth, somebody would be willing to pay it.

 

There is only so much money one can make driving OTR for 30 cents a mile. You are only worth as much or as little as the next driver is willing to hold a steering wheel for. If we all refused to work for peanuts these companies would get with the program about what a fair wage is real quick.

 

Nobody is forcing you to compete against the mega dry box carriers. Acquire a skill...do something in the industry they are either unwilling or unable to do and your wages will no longer be tied to their worth.

 

Yup just as I thought...you're still clueless.

You equate running more miles per week with earning more...typical of someone who's bought into the 'trucker math' bs these companies love to spew.

By the way... I am worth as much as I think...which is why when I walked into my present employer... I interviewed them and told them what they'd be required to pay me to employ my services and 2 months ago, informed them that it was that time of the year again for them to pay the new rate I required in order for them to retain my services.

 

Nope, Bulldog is spot on and he did a good job of explaining his position. You are just emphasizing that there are situations that truckers can produce more and negotiate for a better share of that production.