Is My Math Correct or Am I Missing Something???

Yep, beginning pay scale with the mega carriers is not going to get you rich. Once you have a year in then the doors start opening for better opportunities, by two years most doors are open, and after three years or so you can apply for most anything except a select few jobs. It sucks, but that's the way the industry is set up. Better paying jobs are available for newbies, but not enough to absorb them all. Mega carriers will stay in business because they have the most job openings available for newbies.

An essential skill that any trucker should have. I've heard the idiots at the schools and orientation drilling the "Never downshift on a downgrade" crap and it's dead wrong. If you can't downshift on a downgrade then you end up smoking your brakes if you miscalculate the gear and jake setting that will hold you. Every time down a grade is different, depending on load weight, wind, and road conditions. I pick a gear and jake setting and go with it, if it won't hold I downshift. Not that big a deal.

 

That's a joke. I got 26 cpm on all miles while with my trainer (he was in the passenger seat the whole time). We ran hard and my very first mileage paycheck was 900 gross which two years later is ridiculous compared to what I make now but back then it wasn't bad at all for being a clueless noob.

Training was through after 7500 miles and all it took was a little over 2 weeks.

 

I get paid hourly and I run Otr. $20 a hour for driving and $12 for all line 4. Only gettin paid mileage is a scam and equals a lot of free work on the drivers side of things. Don't believe the "it's all figured into the mileage pay" bs you hear. It's not. All line 4 work is free if you are only getting paid for miles you drive plain and simple.

 

Yes sir, your math is indeed incorrect. You are way over estimating per hour wage for the average truck driver:

First, by your own accounts: (3,200 miles/2 drivers x $.25)/70 hours. = $5.71 an hour. You will fill out most your log book hours working for CPM mega crap.

Next consideration, all unions, most states, and most other occupations require overtime of 1.5 times base rate after 40 hours or so: (3200 miles/2 drivers x $.25)/ (40 hours+ 1.5(70 hours-40 hours)) = $4.70 an hour.

Furthermore, as you should know by now most all log books, including ebor, are fictional. In order to save 'hours' for the freight planners to abuse, truck drivers often minimize or eliminate time that should be logged and paid: All time spent waiting for loads, trip planning, waiting for dispatch, correcting dispatch, communicating on qualcom, doing paperwork, handling paperwork, scanning paperwork, waiting for paperwork, in safety training, in company meetings or discussions, cleaning truck or trailers, working on truck or trailers, waiting for mechanical work to be done, writing work orders, waiting to get loaded or unloaded, getting loaded or unload, throwing snow chains, in route, pre, or post-trips inspections, company inspections, handling lumper business like checks, taking care of claims, taking care of OSD problems, securing loads, tarping loads, scaling loads, hitching trailers, spotting trailers, looking for trailers, and customer service are all required to be logged and should be paid. Since they are not, the blood-sucking megas will just assume that you will not also log all the time spent at dispatch window, waiting for a truck, waiting for service, waiting at the shipper's office, waiting at claims desk, waiting at parts window, waiting for a trailer, waiting at the lumpers desk, waiting at the security office, waiting at front gate, waiting at the service desk, waiting on the reciever's office/desk. With no pay for the truck driver the mega-crap has no incentive to reduce their inefficiencies. For example take the phone; how long does a phone call take to dispatch, claims, service, permits, OSD, or any terminal take. I have seen truckers spend hours on hold. That time should be logged but it is not because it is not paid. If we underestimate that time to be 30 hours for the 1600 miles our total worked (or donated) hours becomes 100 and our equation is thus:
(3200 miles /2 drivers x $.25)/ (40 hours + 1.5(70 hours - 40 hours + 30 hours (unlogged))) = $3.08 an hour!

Just for fun. I think Covenant pays $.18cpm. so
(3200 miles /2 drivers x $.18) / (40 hours + 1.5(70 hours - 40 hours + 30 hours))) = $2.21 an hour.

Burgers and fries look even better when you often get a free lunch from those employers. There is no free lunch in trucking. These people will even make you pay for their equipment.

 

Stop working for a crappy company. I get paid for all that and then some. I went and bought tools to adjust the brakes on a trailer the other week and got reimbursed by the company.
You can't blame the companies because it's the driver that are agreeing to work for slave wages and the cpm scam. All the cpm does it force drivers to work for free so they have more time in order to drive so they can make more money. I normally have about 20+ hours on line 4 all paid every week. So you figure the normal trucker is working 20+ hours a week for free. Would you go to work at a normal job if they told you that 20 hours a week you were gonna just work for free? Hell no you wouldn't. So why do it as a trucker? Oh that's right- that's how it was done in the old days and nothing new is ever good. Stupid way of thinking and until it changes people will continue working for free. And please for all that is holy don't try and spew that "it's figured into the cpm pay plan" garbage I've heard before because I can guarantee you it is not. I've been paid mileage, percentage and now hourly and hourly is the most money I've ever made because I'm actually being paid for the work I'm doing. Work smarter not harder folks. You may be using your full 70 to drive but your forgetting the 20+ hours extra your puttin in every week. So I'm getting paid more for less work.

 

Good for you. All jobs should pay a living wage. Living wage is not minimum wage and is not even close to what the Mega's are paying.

 

A normal trucking company you can gross $1000 a week starting out. That is about $14 a hour for your 70 hour work week. You can't count sleeping cause you have to sleep even at home. Trucking isn't gonna make you rich. Most guys do it cause they love driving, like me. I wake up everyday and get to do something I love. That's worth a lot right there. I been driving 6 years and every time I switch companies it's for either better home time or better pay. Gotta have experience before someone is gonna pay you like a professional. Just because you have a cdl don't mean anything. Companies pay for experience. Plain and simple.

 

You are wrong about one thing. People do get paid for phone calls and talking on the phone - but it's the dispatcher who gets paid the truck driver doesn't. The truck driver is working for free talking to the dispatcher about loads but the dispatcher is getting paid while he is talking to you! It's crazy.

 

$1000/$.25cpm = 4000 miles/ 60 mph = 66.66 hours. That is if you did nothing but drive. That is impossible! That is mega-crap, recruiter, dispatch BS.

$1000/$25cpm = 4000 miles/ 50 mph = 80 hours that cannot happen. It will not happen when planning with the realistic 50 mph trip speed of a mega crap 60 mph truck.

The point of this thread is cut past the recruiter, dispatch, Mega-crap BS. It is a shame so many drivers accept it.

The OP was on the right track. Just being new to the industry I am sure he was not aware of how bad it really is.

I am not counting sleeping although some companies like Wal-Mart do!

Just because you enjoy what you do does not mean you should not get paid for it! You should get paid for it.

My numbers are good.

 

I get .50 for every call I make that has to do with my job. Comdata, dispatch, customers, road service... Only downside would be sitting on hold for an hour or more and still getting only .50.