How important is cpm?

Yep, hauling steel. Theres a couple places in buffalo that haul steel that will give the best ltls a run for their money.

Everyone is alway afraid of percentage, and its always ppl who run for scumbag companies . Im union though, and if something doesnt add up i can call them on it.

 

Ahhh yes the Union companies have usually paid better. I'm glad you are with a good one. I live in the midsouth and could never imagine wanting to handle the northern frozen roads on a regular basis. The only ones I've heard that do % in my area are Royal and P&S.

 

Cpm and home time is most important. 100k miles a year at .50cpm there you go, 50k/year home hopefully every night, at least on weekends.

 

That would be a whole lot more than $50K with activity/accessorial pays added in.

 

Can you expand on this China?

What do you mean by activity/accessorial pay? What are those things?

By activity pay, are there actually OTR companies that pay you every time you drop a trailer or bump a dock? Is that what it means?

 

True that for me as well. The question the OP or other interested drivers should ask is, "How much is your average driver grossing per week?"

CPM might make sense if you are with a company that has coast to coast runs. Hourly obviously is the best choice for local work. I get a kick out of sharing in the upside if I am working for a company that hauls high tarrif freight, like oil field equipment or military.

I got off the cpm thing over four years ago. Went to a percentage and never looked back. Some days I might only run 400 miles, but get paid over a dollar a mile. Those are days when I haul oversized, overweight, and/or hazmat.

 

Yes, bumping a dock, drop & hook a trailer, fueling, pre-trip, stop pay, detention pay, breakdown pay, etc.
I've never worked for a company that didn't pay some or all of those activities.
I would not work for a company that didn't have at least a few of those.

 

Paid for fueling, pre trip, bumping a dock, and drop and hook. ####. I didn't know that existed in OTR (I'm not being sarcastic). That sounds really nice actually. I didn't know those opportunities existed for OTR.

What has really been killing me is that it seems 80% of the loads I get are live loads and live unloads. We only get detention pay after the first 3 hours, and wouldn't you know it, it seems the majority of these places get it done in 2-3 hours!

 

Fueling/pre-trip/post-trip; got all that pulling hazmat tankers. Also got choice of $50 or a hotel room for a 34 hr. reset. I always took the $50 and slept in the truck.
Each company make their own policies concerning activity/accessorial pay. Websites have some of it listed, but sometimes there's more that's not listed, so you have to ask.

 

Can make pretty good money selling pallets. $2.50 - $3.00 or more for each one.
Sometimes print neatly, "pallet exchange" on the BOL, then act like you're doing the warehouse a favor by letting them get rid of 25 or 30 pallets. That's $150 for 30 old ragged pallets. There's two weeks of meals paid for. Some places buy those blue CHEP pallets for the same price. They walk around the stack with a paint sprayer, spraying flat black paint and make a good profit reselling them.