LA TIMES: Why paying truckers by the mile is unfair and dangerous

We should be paid by the hour. With that being said......here's everyone else on how that can't possibly work:

 

Your not alone- and I think many other drivers will agree. Once speed limiters and electronic logging devices become law... paying drivers by the hour may be the only way to go.

Trucking companies (and ATA of course) are going to fight this tooth and nail simply because they don't like laws they can't abuse.

 

It all depends on what the hourly pay rate is.. Looks to me like some companies are after minimal pay. How does minimum wage sound to you..? It's about money and who benefits..

 

I agree and it is a be careful what you ask for you may just get it.

 

Hourly for me would likely mean a pay cut. NO carrier is going to pay hourly for 168 hrs/week. In fact, even in your most hectic of weeks, you wouldn't be paid for more than 70...because that's all you are allowed under the regs to WORK. The factory worker doesn't get paid to sleep, and neither will you. Most employers don't pay for the lunch break, either so don't count on that. If hourly pay happens, it'll likely be only for the time the e-log device verifies that you're actually doing something (i.e. driving)...so you'll STILL have to fight for pay while loading/unloading as well as answering to the man signing the check WHY it took you so long.

I'll stick to my percentage.

 

I wouldn't take hourly unless it was a minimum 25 an hour. But I would never agree to mileage pay either. I like percentage of the load. I've ran numbers over and over and percentage is only way to go.

 

We lease on to the company and pull their trailer. Truck gets 70% of the rate. I get 32% of that.

 

Paying by the hour is "fine" if you only have 10% of employees abusing the pay-scale and only have 20 employees. But if you have 10% of 5,000 employees abusing the system ... you are in serious trouble. But you can't tell that to anyone who has never signed payroll checks or been responsible for keeping company waste to a minimum, or trying to compete in a difficult business sector.

That said, the fuel savings alone would pay for some nice additional driver wages. But can you imagine all the cry-babies who will come out of the woodwork when the snow and ice starts to fly?

But like was mentioned earlier, be careful what you wish for. You may get it ... and I'm pretty sure you're going to be taking home less money at the end of the month because there are a dozen ways they can screw you on an hourly system, where the wages will be set for the "worse case scenario".

Do you seriously think carriers are just going to increase driver salaries over-night as they transition form mileage model to hourly model?