Trucker pay

Wall Street !!!!... you're offering them your throat by talking to them.
The corporate capitalist psycho's on wall street
will cut what little pay we make if they can find a way.
It would boost there profits.

Trust No one

 

I can vouch for the O.P.

contact me [email protected]

 

I'll humor him.

Sent of at least two pages of my diatribe.

 

Except the proper domain is whitehouse.gov

 

Should be a short investigation, with laws screwing us and exempting us from any worker protection, it's not like they have to hide it.

 

He should make sure to also include a bit about the fuel shortage this country is facing. I am only willing to pay 1.25 a gallon for diesel but nobody wants to sell it to me for that. I have to pay what the sign says, aka what the market will bear. Heyyyy ...for 2.50 or so I can have as much fuel as I could ever need!

Apply the same thought process to truck drivers.

 

Mr Texan, let me put things in perspective for you. If some tourist takes a wrong turn in the hood and gets jacked and killed, the media will interview a concerned citizen (normally a blue haired grandma) of that city that will make everyone who watches the program outraged. Now if it was two hoodlums that got to fighting and one got killed, the media will interview the toothless drunk and get his thoughts.
So, you have someone from the media wanting to interview drivers about pay. Who are they looking for? The guy in uniform, the professional? Or that fat, smelly side of beef with 10 yards or buttcrack and sweatpants so dirty that it's beginning to look petrified? Yeah, ol fat and smelly is complaining about his pay. When the general public sees this, they will think, "They are paying that fat smelly SOB too much money."

 

He should take a look at deregulation. In my opinion, that's the most significant change this industry has ever endured.

 

While I agree that there really isn't a driver shortage, but more a driver lack of commitment, I believe that this lack of commitment is directly due to the pay vs. working hours of SOME drivers. Many fledgling drivers start their careers at large corporations, with either a very low mileage rate, or a higher mileage rate and lower miles run per pay period. A new driver will see this when they start receiving their paychecks (settlements), and some will realize that the hours that they are logging divided by the time they are investing make for what seems to be a very low hourly rate. That being said, these are the drivers who move on in their lives, leaving the road and taking a local job. (I was one of those drivers, but I will be going back out on the road soon, myself.)

Truck driving can provide a decent living with a good company, and a good work ethic, but can, and does, come at the price of home time with a family. On the opposing side, however, a poor work ethic, a company that does not utilize a driver to their fullest safe capabilities, or a low mileage rate can force a trucker who may be struggling already to provide for his family to struggle even harder.

Another factor that MUST be looked at is the time it takes for a driver to be either loaded, or unloaded. Long delays at shippers or receivers are often not paid, or paid at a much smaller rate than what the driver would be making if he were able to drive. These delays cut into the allowable hours a driver may work, due to the way the hours of service regulations are written. In these regulations, a driver may drive for (at most) 11 hours per day, provided that the 11 hours of driving is completed within 14 hours of the driver starting his or her day. For example, if a driver started their day at 6:00AM, they must not drive after 8:00PM, whether they have driven 1 hour, or 11. To put this into perspective, consider this scenario:

A driver whom is paid $0.38 per mile, starts their day at a shipper at 7:00AM, waiting to be loaded. Due to shipper delays, They are not loaded until 11:00AM. 4 hours have been taken from their day, making the total number of hours they could possibly drive 10 hours. So far, this shows a possible net loss of $22.80 of income, had they been able to drive that extra hour at 60 MPH. Now, say they have 2 stops, the first being 250 miles from the shipper, the second 250 miles after that. So, after driving 4.25 hours, they arrive at their first stop. Again, due to delays (which are, unfortunately, quite common) It takes the receiver 2 hours to unload their freight. The driver has now lost an additional possible $45.60. The driver again drives 4.25 miles to the final receiver. They are quick to unload, only taking a half hour. The driver is left with 1 hour on their 14 hour clock to make it to another shipper to pick up his/her next load. The shipper is 100 miles away. The driver is then forced to take a 10 hour break, before he can make it all the way to the next shipper, hoping that he/she is not delayed again.

My apologies for being long-winded, but there are MANY factors that could make it more difficult for a driver to make a good living, and it does become frustrating for a driver to make his pay.