$100,000+.....Company Driver

Yes, yes they are! For better or worse.

 

One of their drivers almost sideswiped me one night and didn't even look up from his phone. Interesting that they pay well.

 

He was recruiting customers.

 

Oh sure. I'm just saying, you wouldn't think you'd take risks at a good company.

 

Just gotta do hourly or salary. Towards the end of your first year run overnight so they can’t micro you. Rural routes with few cameras. Or join the teamsters. The teamsters are awesome. I had a friend at Schneider get arbitration for a “preventable” just because he was teamster and they happened to have trucking reps. I’ve been aspiring to join ever since.

 

I’ll work for free before I ever allow anyone to micromanage me. Ever!

 

I'm the same way. Some of the company policies out there are f ### dumb. Like fuel stops for example or not allowed to use toll roads.

My last 3 companies all had fuel stops and guess what I rarely used them. Fuel stops are like walking over dollars to pick up pennies. And guess what not a word was ever said to me about not using them- because I was a top driver both productive and safe.

Back to the original threads title about $100k + yearly drivers. I mentioned that everything is changing in trucking. A bunch of companies that are stubborn with paying wages are going to be weeded out very quickly.

Truck drivers and trucking as a whole is going to be seen in a much different light in the coming years. Smart companies like Walmart already know this. Salaries are going to go into the mid 100s- UPS linehaul is already there. The big question is how will this affect the country and costs of goods. That's anyone's guess right now but we will see.

 

To be fair, all those companies are not suddenly kind hearted. They are a soulless business after all.

In my uneducated opinion. Those "raises" are just clever marketing. All they are doing is just keeping up with inflation, which is a good thing, a lot companies are not doing that. If you take a closer look, they still are where they've always been within the payscale.

UPS/all LTL top dogs in payscale

Walmart/other private fleet carriers

The rest of companies

What the drivers that want a competitive wage need to do is be at a company with regular raises to keep up, or go where that happens.

 

How do you have three trainees? The trainer trucks have three bunks. Are two of them married? That third bunk can’t have anyone in it if the truck is moving. How are three students getting a quality education? Are they each doing 150 hours? Are they being dropped to upgrade as soon as they hit 70 hours or have been on board 2 weeks? Two students and their stuff with a mentor and their stuff is seriously crowded. How on Earth are you managing three?

 

The company I work for is most definitely Soulless. Lol I have to keep on them to keep them honest and fair, but the “mistakes“ seem to be less and less because they know absolutely that I will stick up for myself and not back down if they try to rip me off. Other drivers out there tell me I should work for a company where I don’t have to do that.

One thing that I did notice when I went back to the yard last week on a Tuesday is there was a lot of trucks parked. We have 160 OTR trucks in our fleet. During the week there’s maybe 15 to 20 trucks in the yard, this week there was like 60. It was very obvious.…..I think a lot of people are jumping ship and leaving. The company I work for the average full-time driver still isn’t quite getting to the $60,000 year range and their benefit plan really is lacking. $7000 a year freaking medical deductible. And we pay $300 a month for it. I’ll make about $64,000 this year, but I’m OTR 24-27 days a month. I know I’m way underpaid. And they know, that I know it too.
They’ll either step up and pay or they’ll sell out or be ran out of business over the next 12 months. Something will give.