Does Your Employer Use Your Cell Phone???

My husband's old company gave them $25.00 cell phone allowance

 

i strictly comunicate with my fleet manager thru qualcom, i seldom have to call in. i do use my phone for comdata and the ocasional break down but nothing to the point that i go over my minutes. take the tax deductable

 

I've used my cell on the job ever since I first got one. Yes, it does benefit the company, but most of all, it benefits ME. That's why I got it. For MY convenience.

Of course it would be nice if your employer would help you out with it, but if they don't, so what?

 

Because we haul Haz-Mat, the company provides us a cell phone. We have 1000 anytime minutes and any call to any another Verizon cell is free. What bothers me is companies that do not reimburse drivers for calls made while in the service of the company. The reason you use a cell phone is to find the best way, hours of operation and special instructions for a particular company. Not only does this save you time, the company benefits as well. You might even be ready to get that next load quicker thus making more money for you and the company. This just seems to be a way for the company to make more money off of the backs of their drivers.

Drive safe

 

Very well said............And driver wonder why companies walk all over them.

Most companies try to nickle and dime everything, why give them something for free. As for communicating with companies I would much rather have the record that the QCom keeps encase of something unforeseen. My company does have my cell, but they only call when they need an answer very fast.

Mark

 

If it doesn't cost you or potentially cost you later, you shouldn't worry about using your own phone to gather information that benefits you. If using your own cell is gonna cost you money, I'd not worry about it if it's not that much. One shouldn't incur that much in phone bills simply by calling for directions. Somewhere down the line you'll get that back piddling amount back somehow. Call it Karma.

If your company wants you to use your own phone to make calls that add up for YOU, then make them reimburse you or provide you with a special phone card. This is especially true for you guys who drive for outfits that don't use Q-Comm. Companies shouldn't expect you to foot their costs of doing business, and most won't. However, I know many outfits will try sneaky ways to stick drivers with costs to make leeching stockholders happy, so you gotta make sure your backbone is strong and speak up if your pocket is being picked.

Again, if the cost is low (which it should be), don't worry about it. If you're being bled, then you need to 'call' them on it and demand reimbursements.

 

Lots easier at tax time to deduct every penny you spent on a cell phone than have to remember how much you were reimbursed.

By the time you pay your CPA to add and subtract, you've lost more than you would have saved.

 

Principles ARE worth the cost.

Like the principle of having that cell phone. To stay in contact with family and friends, and to save you time and money. It's win-win all the way around.

And that's a good principle to stick to. Just don't try to stick it to your employer.

I don't even have a landline at home any more. It's pointless.

$90 a month for 2 cells phones. $80 a month for one landline. A no brainer for me to pull the plug on my landline.

 

As I understand it, IF a company REQUIRES you to have a cell phone, they're obligated to reimburse at least part of the bill.
IF the company has your cell number, but it isn't required by the company, and the company calls you on said cell phone, I guess they consider it a convenience -- which it is -- for both you, the driver, and them.

IF a company calls you at home over the wires, would y'all expect the company to pay part of your home phone bill as well?

IF you're not using all of your alloted minutes, I don't see a problem. The convenience factor figured in, I think it'd be worth it, especially if y'all have a plan with roll-over minutes, or a plan like AT&T has where all calls to AT&T and Cingulair subscribers are not billed -- even to the wired house phones.

In the world of Big truck truckin' there WILL be give-and-take situations. I see this as one of them.

When it's 20 degrees below zero, finding and standing in a phone booth is something I'd prefer to avoid.