How long do you think it takes you to scale a load as a newbie driver?

Drive on scale tell them info, go park , get scale ticket. Overweight, go back to shipper, all good, lets roll. Thank god for spread axles.

 

Nothing as in zero dollars.

I get a kick out of otr drivers that think they are giving their time away. when in reality they are giving nothing away, all this stuff is part of the job. If you do not like the job you signed up for, QUIT and go do something you like.
I guarantee you if companies had to pay extra for a driver to fuel, scale, load and unload, them the cpm or percentage rate would be going down, to match or more. The company has to watch their bottom line and out bid the compitition to have you haul anything.

Company owners and managers have as much reason to have you going down the road as you do your self, and have to pay attention to what they are doing in that regard, just because the wheels are turning and the driver is making money, does not mean automatically the truck is.

 

I'm the one saying I think they should be paid for it, not them. They aren't complaining about it so they don't need to quit just yet. I think they are giving time away. I won't touch the keys unless I'm on the clock let alone work with the truck and have been that way for the better part of 20 years now. I would like to see these guys get paid for what they do. When you work for someone else you are selling them your time, you only get so much of it on this Earth so if you aren't spending it at home, fishing, watching TV, or whatever you want to do I think you should be paid for it. I don't think anyone has the hobby of fueling, scaling, and getting their paperwork in order as a hobby they like to do when they are off the clock.

 

He was asking how much he was losing.
What I am saying is an otr driver IS getting paid when working on percentage or a cpm basis, it is basically in the rate. Most companies charge and pay the driver extra to tarp, and any excessive wait times, fueling and scaling when needed are just part of the haul, and getting the job done.
My truck holds 370 gallons, so I am always putting in from 200 to 275 gallons, and from stop to finish, I and there no more than 15 minutes, unless I have to wait for a pump, it would be more hassle to keep up with than it would be worth.

There is no way to realistically compare it to an hourly paid ltl or say a construction company truck, or anything in that nature.
When I have driven hourly for construction companies, my time starts when I start in the morning and ends when I get out of the truck in the evening, even hauling hot oil, the short runs I charged hourly, and it was the same, except when since I was in my truck, I was fueled when I showed up to work, but everything else was on the clock at truck wages, not driver wages.

 

I wrote a post a time or two where two drivers, thats me and wife were paid 67000 for the year in 2001 according to our tax returns.

Less than 6.25 minimum wage at that time running about 4.70 or so per hour for all hours worked per driver.

In other words what we're doing as a team primarily with FFE was running about roughly 40 to 60% less potential earnings than what was recorded. If we were kept in the correct situation where a team is needed, say LA to Avenel NJ and back all year then the gross wages for the two of us will be around 17000 for the month or $208,000.

Just the fuel to run 210,000 with a little over 9 to 10 months with the same tractor came to around 85000 dollars spent. And 7400 or so hours on the engine ECM.

However in that year we were debt free and had piles of money in savings. 9-11 came along and we kept on rolling rather than sit on unemployment. That's 6 weeks without a paycheck until the payroll was replaced. We were running medicines at that time and medicines do not sit on unemployment.

Trying to figure out how much it costs to scale a load over say 20 minutes max out of a 1 hour potential earnings to the truck of about .74 times 45 miles earnings for that hour comes out to 33 dollars and change or better yet 55 cents for each minute for the whole hour. Thus 20 minutes scaling... $11.00 of forward mile pay not collected. Or 5.50 for the each of us. plus the 11.00 charge for scaling at CAT. And you probably burned about 5.00 in fuel to do it.

So if trucking was hourly paid then 33.00 a hour for the two of us would have been standard back in 2001.

 

a LOT OF WISDOM right there.

'Don't sweat the small stuff !!!'

 

This. So much this. Many of these night time LTL linehaul guys are running what, 450-650 miles per day? Basically, what an OTR driver is running depending on what the max speed of the truck is set to?

And yet they still get paid CPM. And get paid hourly.

Chinatown has mentioned OTR companies that pay accessorial (I think that's the word) pay for any combination of pre/post trips, fueling, dropping/hooking, ext. ext.

These models have shown it can be done. Where companies and drivers can still make money and be profitable.

I agree, but would like to add:

Go by annual earnings divided by hours worked to determine if you're satisfied with your pay.

You have to take into account the number of hours that you work as well.

One other poster mentioned it, once you get the hang of it it's not the work you're doing for scaling that takes a while.

It's dealing with idiots in the truck stops parked illegally or in front of the scale so you can't drive off it. It's waiting in line inside because Big Bubba Gump is complaining to the cashier about why the fountain doesn't have his favorite flavor of soda for his 44 OZ heart attack Big Gulp Cup Refill.

There's so many parts of this job where the line gets blurred between what's considered working versus not working.

Standing in line to check in with security, then with the shipping or receiving department, then waiting hours to be loaded or unloaded. Do you have to work physically or mentally hard when completing these tasks? No.

So it's not working, right?

Well, would you stand in line at warehouses or sit in a truck for hours during loading at warehouses for fun?

everybody here has made good points. On all sides. And I do have to say, I think warehouses need to have more responsibility put on them. Some of my companies customers know that detention pay doesn't kick in until the 3rd hour, so they'll load other company drivers whose detention pay kicks in after 1 or 2 hours.

 

When I got paid CPM. I had a hold over on a delivery for two days. Got detention pay for two days. I went fishing. I got paid to go fishing. Oh the suffering! I agree we should get paid for everything we do.

I now get home almost every night. Drive regional. On call, 7 days a week. From 7am to 5pm. Make very good money. I'm very happy. I don't get paid to scale a load. I don't get paid to go fishing. ... I do get paid by one customer to wait for them to test a sample from my load. It's because the customer pays for that.

 

Scaling a load is optional. Just like showering and reading road signs. You can get by just fine if you choose not to. When you do run into an issue, own it.

 

Exactly. Most of my trucking career I’ve run on percentage, and made good money doing it. I don’t mind scaling the load, if I don’t, then I’m up for possible “stupid tax”, as I call it. My company paid every scale ticket I ever turned in. They did NOT pay overweight fines. Getting a fine for being overweight is preventable, and therefore, in my book, stupid tax. And by the way, I had 3 overweight tickets over the years, not one of them was less than $400.00, which I felt I couldn’t afford. In every instance, I cut corners and/or made assumptions that were not true. You pay a few of those tickets and you won’t worry about not getting paid, you’ll wish you’d scaled out even if you paid the fee out of your pocket.