Should cpm be changed to hourly for all drivers?

As long as the pay is commensurate to the job, and acceptable to both parties, then the method of calculation is immaterial. Some guys at our company are paid hourly, some are paid by the mile. We are on dedicated runs, so I negotiated my wages by the trip. Trip 1 pays $300, trip 2 pays $350 etc. I'm not required to help offload, run the forklift, or help sort freight at a dock, but I do so I can get home sooner. The harder I work, the more my Hourly goes up. In construction we call this piece pay.

 

All changing this industry to a paid by the hour job would accomplish is to make it a minimum wage job. Figure it however you like but even if you somehow got lucky enough to be paid 24/7 it still would be less than what 80% + of the drivers out here make on a cpm basis... Just as a side note National minimum wage is currently $7.25/hour.

 

Four years ago I left a cpm job and started working on percentage, also known as commission. I earned 25% of gross revenue generated by the truck, pulling flatbed for the oil industry. I far prefer this method of payment, as long as I am pulling freight with a high tariff, why not participate in the upside?

Many times I found my own loads on load boards, especially when needing a backhaul to home base. I negotiated the rate. Many a time I chose to deadhead a day or more to get out of an area with freight that paid crap or if it meant I had to wait all weekend for a shipper to do business on a Monday morning. I thought like an owner operator, trying to maximize revenue and gross profit for the truck owner. I bought my own truck and trailer and leased on with the same outfit after a year and a half.

Now I sold my truck and trailer, moved back to California, and got a job on percentage. This time hauling for customers like the military. High tariff freight. I'm happy with my paycheck. I average less than 2000 miles a week and I'm home almost every weekend.

 

I'll throw my 2 cents in quick here-
Yes,people that drive a truck for a company,wouldn't hurt for an hourly compensation-OT after 8.

Now,More importantly- one size dont fit all- Sure- I Could Bill my Customers $110 per Hour (What i generally average per hour) But they will look at things "Differently" And instead of studying it- They'll Pass on it and I'll lose business.

Same With All TTR Members Over at "Wheres everyone at #5"... Those Guys are NOT Freight Haulers...They Make Superior money and wont Gamble nor poke the bear by bringing up Hourly pay to their customers.

So, Different variables everywhere......But Like I say- If Your just a "Driver" or I was just "A Driver" Id Want Hourly Pay,You better believe it.

 

I wouldn't, but I would much prefer and get percentage instead of cpm.
When I was 12 mom sent me to a u-pick truck farm to pick a bushel of peas. I left at daylight to beat the heat, I paid the 2 bucks and picked my bushel, some lady gave me what she had picked and 4 bucks for mine, I picked 16 bushels that day and came home empty handed, except for the extra 32 bucks in my pocket.
MOM worked at a store for minimum wage at 49 bucks a week. hmmm
This wound up being an every day deal for a big part of that summer.
The next year at 13, I would go and try to get on hauling hay, finally a guy that had his 2 nephews working for him hired me for the day, because one was sick, well I beat him of of his job, and got on steady at 3 cents a bale, two weeks later he ask me if I would be interested in him paying me 4 cents per bale and getting rid of his other nephew, we hauled 1000 bales every day and called it quits, mow I am making the very same pay a day as mom is in a 40 hour week.. I have worked most of my life either on commission or percentage, and have no regrets period.

 

You could pay em the same progression to a top rate of pay and stay on top of them to make sure they are doing their job. Has worked quite well for a long ### time at UPS. Drivers make good money and the company makes ungodly amounts of money and there would be no more sitting at a produce DC for six hours to get unloaded because the company won't put up with it....you won't take this load....okay....refused, order it again. Now at ups I was paid bonus for coming in under my dispatch and that creates some unsafe work habits so there is that downside. Like it has been said in here already, daycabs are the ones hauling ### everywhere they go. Now before someone jumps in and says ups pays by the mile, yes they have a VERY FEW mileage runs left but they are an oddity.

 

Irregular-route OTR will never pay hourly. Why? It's just alot more efficient for the shipper and carrier/broker to negotiate rates on mileage or percentage of the load. Example: I have a full load that needs moved from point A to B: the carrier calculates the mileage between the two points (say, 1,000 miles on HHG), then figure the driver wages at say .50 cpm, fuel is miles per gallon, other misc expenses, and then profit.

1000 miles X $2.00/mile = a set rate of $2,000. But hourly is variable: it changes with traffic, weather, other delays, etc. Much tougher to set rates when they're hourly based.

Now, these guys who think being paid by the hour means laziness and clock milking are clueless. Man, if a trucking company pays you by the hour, management is gonna be on your ### for production because they are paying you for all your time. Ask that Sysco food service driver running up and down a ramp pushing 500 lbs handcarts how much time he to milk the clock between stops. In local LTL, our city operations are graded by stops-per-hour, bills-per-hour, gate times, etc and if you don't hit those numbers, you're written up and eventually fired, that's it. UPS package car drivers are Teamsters at around $40/hr and I know you've seen those guys running across peoples lawns to deliver packages faster. Up to 100 stops per day and UPS tracks those guys down to the very minute.

Our easiest jobs in LTL are linehaul and those are MILEAGE based. Hourly city work is a ball-buster. Be careful what you wish for if you want an hourly trucking job.

 

Clueless? I think not.

Those that live in glass houses should be careful of throwing stones.

 

It isnt unreasonable at all. A driver can make a living on 42 cpm. Your average mega is not even paying 50 cpm. Everybody seems to think they can make big money without giving up anything. Some people can, but not many. I personally like being paid cpm. Being paid hourly doesn't always make sense being an being an OTR driver. It's not always I burn my entire 70. A lot of palms have to be greased. Is it a guarantee that being paid hourly would amount to more? Particularly if you work for a mega?