How milage pay works,for new drivers

Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by jc3737, Jan 17, 2018.

  1. TripleSix

    TripleSix God of Roads

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    “We guarantee you 2500 miles a week.”

    If they start you off at $.40/mile that’s you grossing $1000/week, right? Simple math. Does ‘we guarantee you 2500 miles a week’ mean the same as ‘we guarantee you $1000/week’? What does the average driver make at that company? $40000? Well, then The average driver was cheated out of 30000 miles. But what about that GUARANTEE? Does that mean the average driver receives a check for $12000 at the end of the year? That’d be nice, wouldn’t it?
     
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  3. BigBob410

    BigBob410 Road Train Member

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    Not always a100% true on the breakdown part. I get $150 a day breakdown pay. I do agree with the rest of your post though.
     
  4. Wind

    Wind Bobtail Member

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    swift is 37 cents per mile
    Just multiple miles x cents to get your GROSS pay before taxes.

    Example would be 3000 (miles) x 0.37 (cents) = $1110 before taxes per week.
     
  5. TruckRunner

    TruckRunner Heavy Load Member

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    The easy math way I do it is if a company pays .60 cents per mile, per 1000 miles that's $600 dollars. So 3000 miles (3x6 leaving out the zeros) is $1800. Any huge mega Corp will screw you. The trucking companies that are not household names are the ones that pay better. Coming out of school I picked an unknown company and been with them since. My detention pay really adds up. I got about $8,000 in detention pay alone last year so it really makes a difference.
     
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  6. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

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    Forget the pay for the moment.

    Think about the EXPENSES. You will spend a large part of the money in food etc.

    If you are worried about a little traffic here and there after all that time in Chicago, then I don't know what to tell you. Except for myself I run at night usually, no traffic to speak of. I can blaze through Chicago at 3 am and no one is around. Yet.

    Trucking is feast and famine, you always set aside a percentage of your wages where possible even if you don't eat as much as you like that week. There will be a week without pay now and then for a variety of reasons and you will be happy for that savings. 9-11 was the ultimate problem for us when they destroyed the payroll people in our company. Took 6 weeks before we were paid again. In the freight that we hauled for McKesson, sitting at home was not a option. So savings kept us rolling until everything was sorted out.

    You want pay as high as you can get it. I consider .50 starting wages these days. .25 was top pay back in the 80's and it's a form of abuse to keep paying that low.

    Your health will decide how long you can truck. If you are unlucky and involved with a great deal of labor in the grocery for example and in a area with bad food, smoking and so on you are going to take away years from your life. When I started I was told in my area (Baltimore) that most will get to around 56 for life expectancy for a useful trucker. Some will never see that number being hurt, killed etc. Im retired in my 40's when the skeleton started failing in a variety of ways followed by other body systems. That is that for me. You cannot however take the trucker out of me.

    Being new to trucking is your most dangerous time. You can and will be dismissed for running into things and breaking your truck. Not just dismissed but fired and then written into industry record keeping like DAC so that you might not be hireable for a while.

    Dispatch is a whole another dimension to your daily trucking problem. They can absolutely make you or break you. And they WILL run you into the ground in 90 days. You will be THANKFUL for that day off each week doing nothing but sleep. That usually means you are running as hard as you can. And that call will still come in from dispatch saying can you get from here to timbuktu overnight? Possibly illegally? Saying NO is the most powerful defense you have. And they will find ways to retaliate.

    A long time ago a counsler was horrified that I was going into trucking even at 14. He said I'll starve. I have starved. I also have had steak three times a day and money too much to spend in the bank piling up. Ive been there and that. Good times and bad. I'll do it again if having to live with certain changes specifically to what freight I run.

    Chicago for you is home probably. But when you get out into Memphis, South LA, NYC and Baltimore etc you will find that things are possibly a little bit dangerous than you like. I think you will be fine. But you need to take care.

    I can go on and on, but I think that's enough for this morning.
     
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  7. Moose1958

    Moose1958 Road Train Member

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    Question Can any veterans drivers help me to understand please? I mean, do they pay loaded mileage( When you have a load), or pay empty mileage to go pick up a load?

    Some carriers pay a set amount loaded or empty. Think of it this way. Most carriers use mileage calculators like the Rand Mcnally calculator. If this calculator says it is 500 miles from point a to point b that is what you are paid for that trip. Once you deliver some carriers will pay you based on that calculator the full rate to your next load. However some will NOT. Once you get to your loading point and leave your actual pay most times does not start until you reach the zip code/city limits boundary of that city. Then it stops when you cross the zip/city limits of your destination. There are some exceptions to this.

    Question Or if they will send me to States like New York, or California where traffic is terrible ,and I will drive 5 mph, how can they possibly guarantee 3,000 miles per week or more?

    It has been 5 years since I last drove. I would estimate at least 10% of the national interstate system is currently under some kind of construction. Traffic is a fact of life for truckers. I used to spend a lot of time in Chicago. Some of the heaviest traffic in the US is there. I never really had a serious problem with my weekly mileage.
     
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  8. tscottme

    tscottme Road Train Member

    A real guarantee of miles, not a guarantee*, will pay you as if you drove the guaranteed miles whether you did or not. Keep in mind your actual odometer or "hub miles" could be about 10% over the paid miles. Many companies use various mileag guides that are about 10% shorter than what a driver could actually drive from A to B. They have various explanations like "zip code to zip code" or Household Movers Guide, or city center-to-city center.

    The few guarantees I see are either guaranteeing a dollar amount for the week if you meet all of their requirements. Sometimes I see the company advertise a mileage guarantee. Make sure you aren't mis-reading the info and assuming it's saying "guarantee" plenty of ads do that. More ads do that that give an actual guarantee. "we pay up to over 50 cents per mile" What does that even mean? "Our trucks average XXXX miles". Every fleet in the country says their trucks average 2500 miles. It's a lie or a statistical fact that doesn't mean to you what you think it means. They can run you 500 miles a week and every other driver 3000 miles per week and keep their average intact all the way to your bankruptcy.
     
  9. tscottme

    tscottme Road Train Member

  10. jc3737

    jc3737 Light Load Member

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  11. jc3737

    jc3737 Light Load Member

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    Hello,
    Thanks for your reply. Yes, I agree with you. Non known companies,might be the best. But,the problem,is as I'm looking for a job, as a brand new cdl holder from school, the majority of small companies,requires a minimum of 1 year experience. What would you think, about joining big carriers like Schneider,or Swift,ext,as a start? I'm sure,as you said, they looking to take advantage of new drivers,as pay and home time, might not be the best. But, maybe a good place to train and learn?. Also,do you mind to explain me what's " Detention time",as I'm not familiar with terminology,yet. Thanks,J.

     
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