COVENANT -- From a wife's perspective

Imlearnin just for a bit more info on the pay scale....

What Rocks posted is right BUT out of the .17 cpm, the company takes .02 cpm and socks it away as safety incentive money. Every quarter, providing your husband has no safety violations, the company pays that .02 cpm that he has accumulated for all the miles he drove in that quarter. So in reality, once your hubby starts his team driving, he will get .07 cpm for actual mileage that is taxable and then he gets .08 cpm per diem that is non-taxable for a total of .15 cpm for all the miles the truck goes for each dispatch. Oooops. I take that back. They don't get ACUTAL miles that the truck goes. They get the miles that Covenant says the trip will take which usually is 10-15% less than what they actually drive to get a load somewhere.

So to summarize, once he starts team driving, your husband will make .15 cpm in all his checks and then every quarter he'll get another deposit for .02 cpm for all his miles that quarter as long as he has no safety violations.

At the end of all his pay statements there is a blurb about how much he will get as long as he doesn't screw up so you can keep track of the amount.

Latest update.

Team Redcoat were working their way through the Texas panhandle this evening on their way to repower in Gallup, NM. The load is headed to Fontana but Redcoat's teammate is supposed to start his home time on Thursday, hence the repower. After they give the load over, they will head to Las Vegas where Redcoat will wait while his teammate takes a bus to Phoenix to pick up his van and drive it back to Las Vegas.

Today was Redcoat's birthday. He turned 51. He almost got a nasty birthday surprise when he was pulled over by a cop in Oklahoma. The officer said Redcoat was too close when he pulled in front of a flatbedder after overtaking him. He let Redcoat go with just a warning. Maybe he saw it was his birthday after looking at his license. I told him that the next time a cop gives him crap that it will be a wash since this one let him go.

I am now Space Camp girl. I relocated the rig today to be closer to my new territory in Huntsville. Now when ya'll see the rocket on I-565, give me a wave.

My mom is doing good so far with her treatment. She has been pretty depressed these last couple weeks but she's finally snapped out of it and seemed in fairly good spirits this morning when I left her. A good friend of mine is coming down from Delaware to stay with her all next week to give us all a break. Mom is looking forward to his visit as he has a wry sense of humor and he makes her laugh. The doctor gave her some medicine that is supposed to help her sore throat (it's getting burned from the radiation on her neck). Last night she drank some and you'd have thought she drank rat poison. I never heard such noises coming from my mom in all my life. Her whole body was shaking. She said that was the nastiest stuff she had ever tasted in all her born days. Within minutes her whole mouth and throat was numb so it's pretty powerful stuff. But I had to bust out laughing at her because her reaction was so funny.

That's all my news.

 

Yes, the miles can be off by as much as 15%. I have been keeping track of all the extra miles Team Redcoat have driven and since December 2nd, Redcoat has driven $178 worth of extra miles for free...and that's not counting their trip from Fishkill, NY to Las Vegas where they are now.

And $54K a year from Covenant would be in your dreams. Yeah, the truck could probably go a thousand a day if it weren't for loading/unloading/traffic/fuel stops, etc. Then you take into account all they days sitting around waiting for a dispatch and I'd say you're looking at a lot less than $54K. Then you divide that number in half for the split between the two drivers and you can kind of get an idea of how little these people make for all the hassles they endure.

I think I also stand corrected about the .02 cpm difference between the scale that payroll gave Rocks and what the drivers actually get. Redcoat says the company takes the 2 cents back for the priviledge of getting per diem which is non-taxable. So work that one out.

I thought it went to the safety bonus.

Speaking of Las Vegas, that's where Team Redcoat is now. They have taken in a $10 buffet at one of the Station casinos. I forget which. Redcoat has found out that 1) the company won't pay for a hotel room and 2) he won't be getting any layover pay. This is punishment for Redcoat claiming Mississippi as home and his teammate claiming Arizona (soon to be Nevada) as home. The company desires that teammates live in close proximity to each other so they don't have to fork over the loot for one driver or another to stay in a hotel while the other takes home time. I can kind of see their point BUT...

...my question is -- What is considered close proximity? The same town? The same county? The same state? How many miles can teammates live from each other before the company says that's too far?

That being said, Redcoat has resigned himself to spending four days in the truck. If anybody knows of any good places for him to park the tractor/trailer to spend the time and be close to food/shower/bathroom let me know. I've been to Vegas several times but I've always stayed on the Strip and never paid any attention to truck stops or whatever while I was there.

Stay tuned.