O/O Pay

To O/O's, would you rather be paid by the mile or a percentage rate?

 

If you read the Swift annual report their gross income divided by the number of trucks they have it comes out to about 200k per tractor. That would include money from loads they broker out.
My guess is they pay about 100 to 105k per new truck. They self insure for the first 5 million, but they sure have a lot of losses and lawsuits.

If you run 1 truck you have to to make money, they don't care if the driver or leases operator gets a check or not.
I don't know why everyone thinks the megas only pull cheap freight, they have good and bad but they know how to balance it out.

 

They just have a different business model. They survive with contract freight. Most of us small guys survive on the spot market. Spot market is much more subject to rate fluctuations. They know what they are doing.

 

I thought MEGA survive off raping students. I was with Werner pulling a trailer full of brand new COOPER TIRES for .30 mile. I know a new tire is worth like $250, multiply that by 1200.

 

Are you implying that the company is getting paid the retail cost of the tires to ship it? That doesn't make sense.

 

I am constantly amazed at how folks will still view things like a company driver when operating their own truck. Pay per mile is not bad if the package deal is sweet. Basing any perceptions on pay per mile alone can be pretty foolish.

Discounts on fuel, typically 50 cents off the cash pump price for me recently. Stop pays... $75 for the first additional S/O and $100 for each thereafter. Detention... $38 an hour after the first 2. All tolls paid for. Base plates/permits all either paid for or reimbursed. Miles paid for vs actual miles.... I typically average 4-5% OOR and that includes bobtailing to go get a bite, going home, etc. Below average rates on insurances. And if I keep my act together... additional safety performance bonuses which have typically been around $1400 a year.

So with my measly per mile, leased to a carrier gig, I have had an average gross of around $200K a year for the last few years. My net last year was over $80K. And that was with stopping at the house once or twice a week, home on weekends/holidays, and taking 3-4 weeks off a year.

Yeah, I'll stick with the measly carrier per mile gig. Especially since I live in a lower cost of living area of the country where that $80K net goes a long, long way.

 

What the retail value of the goods is often has very little to do with the price to haul said goods.

I'm sure many carriers with new students have it worked out how much the student will cause in damage, on average, per unit. That likely makes up for the paltry pay. Think of what the mega carrier office costs are....

 

LOL

 

They pay less for a new truck. My first trucking gig was with an all Freightliner outfit. Back in 2012-13 they were paying 85k for brand new Cascadias....And they only had 2,000 tractors, not Swifts 10,000+

 

I'm not knocking you because I know what it is to be comfortable and at a company long term like that. But you could net $80K on the spot market easily and likely at a minimum improve on your home time schedule or at least maintain it. All those expenses you mention paid for by the company aren't really that much money in the overall scheme of things. Good rates will cover that and then some. Any good company out here has a fuel discount similar to yours. Most don't but the good ones do. I know it has been said on here Iowa isn't such a great market but I have a friend who trucks up your area a lot with a dry van in the 4th and 1st quarter and I've seen some super hot rates and action up from around that area from time to time. It's really not a bad place to be. There are much, much worse