Need some old school drivers advice.

I can't say that I blame the drivers.What may happen is you'll get blamed for stuff that was beyond your controll and you'll end up paying for it.

 

It is almost as though it is a way to get company drivers to have the responsibilities of owner operators, MINUS owning the trucks.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!


Agnes N. Lum (born 5/21/1956 - Honolulu Hawaii), international model - mid 1970's to early 1980's

 

If I were in your shoes, I would wonder what kind of routes I'm running. Would I be able to run more with one company vs the other? Also, am I getting 22% of gross? That 40% of net profit might seem like a tasty big number, but the outift might be nickel and diming the gross in order to dwindle down that net profit.

 

I interpret this to mean you will receive pay in the amount of what the boss wants to pay you or what he thinks your needs are.

To me, this seems a way to insure the driver does not "make too much" and that boss does not give more in wages then necessary. i.e. if a load might "net" $1.50 mile after 100 miles dead head, ok, we'll do the math like normal. however if the load might net $2.00/mile, 80 cents/mile to you is just "too much". So the boss will do whatever he needs to get your gross pay (his "net profit") back down to a more sensible level. You would not know what to do with all that money.

I'm cynical. But I know how many are in this industry. Especially smaller outfits who can manipulate things for a handful of desperate, hungry drivers

 

I'd skip on the 40% deal, for all the reasons others have mentioned. If I wanted to be directly responsible for the trucks profit, I'd buy my own truck. Don't get me wrong, a good driver should do his best to run the truck as efficiently as possible, with out doing any negligent damage. But some stuff is just out of your control. Like whether the boss man is bad at shopping around and negotiating and pays way too much for service, repairs, and maintenance. If he spends too much on that stuff, and it comes out before your pay, I'd say that's a bad deal for you.

 

On the 40%. What about routine maintenance..? Does that come off the top..?

 

Maybe paint their house too? Feed the dog ?

 

For any percentage deal the first thing I want to know is how much average revenue is the truck grossing each week? That's the most important number. The owner should know that number by heart. Run if they start hemming and hawing and talking about "up to" a certain figure.

 

I'd ask to speak to some drivers at both companies. For the outfit paying 40% of profit, they better be a VERY profitable company for me to be interested. And their equipment better be very reliable. If I'm understanding you correctly, the 40% would be after all expenses are paid. So if the truck grosses $5000 for the week, but has a $3000 repair bill for a turbo or whatever, you're now down to $2000, minus fuel and other expenses. So you might be talking a profit of $1000, leaving you with $400 for your efforts? I'd run from that one.

22% is low, but if they have high paying loads and you can average what you need to survive, it might be worth looking at.

 

As the driver makes 100% of the revenue to the truck, 40% of the net is low. What it should be is Revenue to the truck, minus fuel, truck payment, insurance, carrier insurance, tax and license, escrow, which works out to your net. Then 50 50