Boyed or decker

Both are good flatbed companies. They do a lot of different things, too. Take your pick but I think I'd go for higher pay. That tarp pay seems very low...

 

I can't give a non-biased answer since Boyd is one of our companies. I like what I see in Boyd, they have a very long list of senior drivers and seem to place a lot of importance on driver retention (keeping drivers happy). As for the pay, my philosophy is if tarp pay is something your worried about then flatbedding may not be for you. I have been doing flatbed off and on for my entire 27 year career and I can't even tell you what my own company pays for tarping. I know what I get on a super-load tarp job because that's hourly but a regular load, don't have a clue.

And CPM, again, 44 cents at 1800 miles a week is less than 41 cents at 2000 miles. So who has the miles, who has the longer length of haul, who has the better benefits, who has the better support. Rate per mile in my opinion should never be the deciding factor. Say you take the job at .44 because they both have the same average miles per week but the insurance is a couple hundred a month more. Well you didn't gain much if anything. Ask to see redacted (personal information blacked out) driver settlements, if the company is honest about everything they will gladly hand them over, if they are trying to "sell" you then they'll use the old car dealers handbook and write a bunch of confusing numbers on the paper and try to get you focused back on the rate per mile.

I have recruited a lot of drivers for my company that start off saying "company XYZ is paying XX more per mile than your company", I don't have the car dealers book any longer so I hand them my last few months settlements and my W2 from last year.

I once quit a $.38 per mile job because I was offered $.46. I lost my ### over that deal. Since then I have a number per month I have to make in order to be satisfied and it has absolutely nothing to do with cents per mile. Hell there are months (actually most) here where I work now that I average dollars per mile, not cents even though my per mile base is $0.36.

Here's one recent settlement, it's very easy to do the calculations and see I make $0.36 per mile yet if you add the advances back in and take out expense reimbursements I made $5622.76 for two weeks or ($1.425 per mile) at a rate of $0.36 per mile. And no, I'm not on some lease scam BS or any of that, I'm just a regular, non-union, OTR company driver.

 

Skip both of them.

Find an open deck work company that pays on percentage. Mileage pay on open deck work is a big screw job.

 

Of the two choices,based on the fact you are in NC. Boyd would be a better choice,

They are more likely to get you to the house. Have a better freight base in the SE region.

Decker is a reasonable company, have not really talked to a lot of their drivers, the few I have seem happy. Then that is the same for Boyd as well.

Also may want to look at P&S transportation out of Birmingham. They are a percentage based pay. Newer equipment, overall a reasonable co.

 

I have a friend who worked for Decker for years and was happy there. Too much tarping for me but they seemed like a good company from what he told me.

 

I spent nearly 12 Years with the same employer as Catalinaflyer, and his figures coincide with my settlement sheets, As a really smart person once told me.."look at the forest not individual trees"