Might be my last week

Do they pay practical miles or the post office to post office miles crap?

 

$.30cpm is mileage. They do NOT use practical miles, they DO use post office to post office short miles.

 

I'd have a big problem with that. They asked you to sign an incomplete expense form AFTER you told them you quit and turned in your truck?? That should be your first warning flag. You wouldnt sign an incomplete itemized list from your mechanics shop for your car now would you? I would not be suprised to have a couple 'extra' expenses on that form you didn't know about. And you'd have no recourse, because any judge would look at that paperwork and say, "...well you signed it, buddy..." and it wouldnt matter if you say 'they forced you', cause then it will be your word against theirs.

Having no TV or laptop in the truck to kill time isnt anybodys fault but yours. But then again, you cant really buy that on $300-400/wk paychecks.

Hope your next job works out 10x better.

 

Cplmac2, you said before that you went with mileage so you would get paid for all the bounce miles. Is it looking like thats the best way to go over percentage? I thought the 30/cpm went up if you met certain criteria? Do they pay you the same rate on all miles?

 

I don't really know if it's better to go mileage or percentage, they never really sent me the percentage pay information I requested when I was with my trainer. My trainer was on mileage so I have no idea what most of those loads would have paid on percentage. You do get paid the same for all bounce and loaded miles on mileage which is why I went with mileage. I do know that the load I took from Indiana to California last week paid $4200 to the truck which would have paid me $966 on percentage, but I made $690 at $.30cpm. That load is not a normal load though, it paid a LOT to the truck compared to a normal load which from what I've seen is less than $1000. Mileage doesn't really adjust like percentage, for the most part mileage is based almost entirely on how long you've been with the company. Percentage is based mostly on your performance, mainly revenue to the truck, mpg, and OOR. Revenue to the truck is the big one which is kind of crap because that is probably the most out of your control element of the entire pay structure. You are entirely at the mercy of freight and your fleet manager when it comes to revenue to the truck, the only thing you can really do at all is just stay busy. Even though it has no effect on my pay I've kept my OOR down, my idle time down and my mileage up because it's a good habit to be in, especially if you plan on switching to percentage or running your own truck. I don't remember exactly how it goes but I think after six months the $.30cpm goes up to $.38cpm or something like that. Hell I don't know, I'm just putting in my beginner time.

 

You still get a snapshot and can get bonuses on mileage, so it's a good thing to keep OOR down and MPG up.

 

Those bonuses are a joke, I think combined the total of the upside of your mileage, OOR, idle time and everything else is something like two cents a mile. After six months you automatically go up six or eight cents. I'm not a hundred percent positive on the numbers but I remember clear as day thinking the certification and bonuses for mileage were an absolute joke compared to percentage. It seemed like percentage was the way to go for performance based pay, and mileage was the way to go for time based pay at least as far as the pay structure. I still think mileage is the way to go just because of the bounce but the structure is pretty clearly leaning two totally different directions. In the end I don't think it matters because they use that structure to turn the best dime by using the system to their advantage.

 

After 6 months, you go to $0.32cpm. DH has been on both systems and the mileage is working out better than percentage did. The difference in this, however, could also be because he's on a dedicated route now. Even though you're(anybody with TMC) on mileage is no reason to not worry about OOR or MPG. You can still be fired for high OOR and low MPG. It's a good idea to watch them with whatever pay method you choose.

 

TMC is so big on percentage it would just make me skeptical of it. The recruiter that came to my school wouldn't even really talk about mileage pay. My friend that is out with a TMC trainer right now sounds like he has been brainwashed into percetage as well. He said the way they explained it sounds like the best choice. Is it because they know they will be bouncing you everywhere and would rather not pay fot it? It looks like I'm going to end up at TMC myself. I should have went a month and a half ago but I thought I would find something better. Nothing else has worked out so I guess TMC is the best option. I guess I should feel fortunate that its still an option but I'm not all that confident that I can take the psychological warfare.

 

Might as well get my 50th post in while i'm at it.................................