Employee set-up VS. Incorp Employee

I think he might have meant how you charge out the truck to the customer.

 

A lot of the work we do the truck is paid by the hour. Or by the load, by the metre etc etc etc The above is immaterial as long as the driver is compensated fairly for all the work he performs.

 

Thank you Prairie Boy. I knew you were a fair employer. I also knew you had more experience than all the posters in this thread! Very simple philosophy: Look after your employees and they will look after you.

 

Yes, look after your employees, pay them fairly, don't leave them wondering if they're getting ripped off or what is the guy next to them getting that they aren't and people will stay, do a good job and you don't need to babysit them.

And the proof is in the pudding.

I don't know about being an employee, but I do know they treat their outside carriers very well. Equal rotation on loads, you know what you're getting paid up front, the rates are good and you get paid what you were supposed to. They're also not shy about letting you know when there is no more work.

 

Where do you see that??. Prairie Boy pays drivers by the hour and his trucks are billed out by the hour. That is exactly what I've been saying all along. Besides, you don't have to agree with everything someone else believe to still respect them and their beliefs. BLW, I would still like to hear how people set an hourly wage when their trucks are billed by the mile. Seriously, I'm not being a ########, I would really like to know how one reconciles paying on a different scale than the truck is paid.

 

It isn't magic; you set an hourly wage rate and pay the drivers accordingly. I understand where you are coming from as I had the same concerns when setting up pay for our drivers. For sure it is easiest to pay the drivers in the same manner that the truck is being paid, but not necessarily the best for all involved. We did a hybrid pay system; we paid percentage of revenue because that covered trip time, loading, unloading, deadhead, etc., and was easiest for our bookkeeper while still being fair to both the drivers and the company. Sometimes our trucks were paid by load and sometimes by the hour. However, we also added hourly pay for truck washing, service, breakdown, etc.

 

I appreciate your reply but it doesn't really answer my question. My question is how do you calculate how much you can pay the driver (hourly) when the truck earnings is by the mile and the hours that will take is an unknown (due to unforeseen delays). You are dealing with a known income and unknown expense...NO?.

Paying percentage is exactly what I am talking about. By paying percentage you can maximize the drivers wage without putting the companies revenues at risk regardless of what method the truck gets paid. However, percentage is one place where Bruce's concerns come in to play. If you are paying percentage, it's incumbent upon the employer to not accept cheap work and therefore expect the driver to work for peanuts.[/quote][/QUOTE]

 

Paying the driver hourly according to their log book would seem to be the simplest. Yes, you are dealing with a potential "unknown" in the form of the driver's hours, but that's just part of business. Of course the wise owner will review driver's hours and occasionally "audit" them, but generally you can pick out pretty quickly who can be trusted and who can't.

I have bid lots of projects where we are submitting a lump-sum price, but paying employees hourly. We make assumptions of hours needed, build in a "fudge factor" and live with the results--good or bad. That's business.

 

Mileage pay is a joke so I won't even comment on that.

Paying drivers by the hr and bidding jobs on volume of product takes some knowledge of the job, roads, conditions etc.

You have to move X amount of product from point A to point B. Figure out how many loads, how many hr's per load and how much per hr you want for the truck.

Some drivers will do it in 10 hr's others 11 but you should be making enough profit that small things and the occasional breakdown won't matter over all.

If you're bidding jobs so tight that a line up at the tire shop is gonna cost the company money because of the driver's wage... well you're bidding way to cheap.

About 10 years ago when I worked for Formula we bid on loads going up the McKenzie Hwy that we had been hauling the year before...( I don't remember the numbers) something like 75 hr's from Drayton and the winning bid was 29 hr's or something, we laughed and laughed and laughed lol. Obviously the person that bid the job had never been on that road, probably just looked on a map.

 

Right there ^^^^^^

He bids by the load by the meter etc. etc.

Actually I recently got laid off from one of the best and best paying jobs I ever had, I was paid percentage. Not a contractor an employee.

Question, can a driver being paid as a contractor get in trouble ?