how much is enough?

What is his CPM at National Carriers ? Do you ride with him since he is gone all the time ?

 

@May Ann I currently drive for Ashley furniture out of Arcadia WI they do a lot all over CA with two years and a clean record your husband could drive here and be home on weekends it's a really good gig to check in to

 

You folks need to break out of the 'more miles = more money' and 'more CPM = better company' mentality. You should be more concerned with 'Less Miles and More Money'.

If the only way to earn more money with your current employer is to turn more miles, then you should probably be looking for another employer, because you're being exploited.

 

Totally agree!Always when applaying for a job (and I do this fairly often) and they are telling me "You will get many miles!"as if it was some kind of benefit my reply is "I don't need miles,I need good rate per mile".Then, they look at me as if I came from Mars or something.I would much rather do 2000 miles @ $1 per mile than 4500 miles @ .50cpm.

 

Now I know why you live in Nevada...with a memory like that you simply have to be a card counter.

 

I have always said trucking is feast and famine. Some weeks your miles overfloweth with bounty and good things in the paycheck. Other weeks you dont hardly go anywhere with problems in that paycheck or none at all at 0.00 and yes they will print zero dot zero zero on there. Sometimes a minus paycheck if you borrowed comchecks in the previous week. (Dont borrow. More on that later)

When you have a good week of nice pay, put some aside against the bad week. That way eventually you will have about a thousand dollars per week in cash money which is pretty good to have ready to go. Ive gone 9 to 12 weeks on a thousand dollars eating cheap food very carefully each day, but not so little as to trigger malnutrion or something bad to interfere with being able to truck. Bill paying etc was a another issue.

The United States economy is doing very bad right now. Looking over what is availible in Zero Hedge online and following some of the site's relevant links related to the trucking industry itself, there is a percentage of trucks across the USA sitting. Roughly 10% at this time. I once posted a few links that directly access weekly real time reports by financial web sites in trucking data for free to everyone to read. the Moderators moved them else where on the forums here. I don't know where they are now.

If your company has decent people your driver might be able to ask the Driver Manager and inquire as to a reason for the lack of miles. If it is because freight is bad and everyone is in the same boat then you are ok.

The reason I say this is because I was once a bad driver to a bad dispatcher in a large company and they decided to starve me out by shorting my miles until I quit. What they did not know was two things. First I had savings and lasted a few months. Second the State of Maryland had generated in the past Case Law against employers who deliberately short driver miles to force them out. The State of Maryland in court ruled absolutely against EcK Miller in my favor completely and awarded back unemployment pay plus decent weekly benefits on my claim.

Eckmiller proceeded to black list me as a bad employee or a bad driver. So lesson for me is that one bad week talking to a bad dispatcher can get me into trouble that I cannot win. That is why I do not like dispatchers in general. And I especially do not like companies who play dirty against drivers in general. And there are many of them out there. I can do the dirty too.

If your driver is in no trouble and everything is ok related to a business downturn resulting in no miles for many people company wide, I urge you to show loyalty by staying with this company. He's got two years in you say, try for three or more. They love loyalty in hard times as in good times.

Have your driver talk to his Driver manager, let's find out why or what is causing the lack of freight. Before you decide to do anything.

 

Why doesn't your husband come home???

 

Didn't you start another thread on this?