The difference between commission and hourly pay

Used to work for a mega company that paid me 0.39 CPM. They told me that it was a lot so I believed them. Problem was when you are still doing company stuff like waiting to get loaded, fueling, scaling, swapping trailers, looking for an empty, etc, your pay just stops. After 18 months with them and making only about $26,000 a year I did a little math. Divide the amount of money you earned for the week by the hours you worked. Came to $8.33 an hour. Gave them my two weeks notice.

Then I started looking for an OTR company that paid by the hour. It was tough to get through to the companies that actually do this (when you put hourly pay in the search box, dozens of commission only companies pop up). With some extra effort I found a few companies that actually paid by the hour and I'm not talking the ones that make you offload your truck all day and night (hired laborer that also drives the truck). I do exactly what I did for the last company (drive), but my pay is a lot more.

Their base rate was about $16 an hour for new drivers, but with my experience they started me out at $18.50. After 40 hours that goes up to $27.75 and we always hit overtime by Wednesday afternoon (third day of the work week). I always get at least 30 hours of overtime a week. Should make over $85,000 my first year.

Last week I had to pick up a load that took the shipper 11 hours. I was on overtime so I earned over $300 for sleeping, eating, playing games on my computer, etc. If I was still with the mega company I would have made only $45. You see the difference? Making commission is a rip off. If you speed you will get caught and your insurance goes up. Who needs that? I take my time if there's a lot of traffic, but otherwise I go whatever the speed limit is up to 75.

Will never drive for a commission only company again!

 

Some of the drivers said they were sitting a bit, but my next load came within 100-150 miles of getting to the final delivery of the existing load. It was slow only 3 weekend days in 18 months. Averaged 2700 to 3300 miles a week.

Another issue was getting home. Only got seven days home within 18 months. Took 4.5 months to go on a doctor's appointment. This after them telling me that a driver's time at home was very important to them. Sure, the recruiter will tell you that lie.

 

I've been home every weekend starting on Friday afternoon with this new company since I started.

 

Well in a few years we'll all be doing something else when the robots take over trucking. I'll be retired by then.