48cpm for company drivers? What's the catch?

Pretty trucks too.

I work for a company that pays $0.55 cpm($0.65 for drivers who choose to pull a load to Canada) and turn decent miles even in the slow season(another flatbed company).

longhaul is a flatbed company, probably not a lot of loads that require finger printing a load.

 

Company looks legit requires 2 years but it has to be flatbed. I just don't see flatbedders averaging 2800 miles a week but I could be wrong man maybe like 2300 miles

 

I averaged around 3200 at pgt, but those were dedicated customers otr. I know of the few lht guys ive spoken to they love their jobs

 

They paid that in 2001.

JBH Tried to promise me .47 if I said the magic word yes, but they would not gaurantee me a conventional tractor so I said no until they finally compromised and promised me a conventional within three months of hire.

Never mind the discovery of about 30 conventionals parked nose to tail in a box with no tags in the far corner of the Prothro Junction Shop area off I-40 in NLR (North Little Rock roughly the 156 mm exit) those trucks are still there probably.

Anyway. It is top pay at .48/.50 or so in 2001 era. The absolute top of a company driver not on a trainer salary. Trainees got half that. Maybe.

These days due to inflation top pay should be a dollar to company drivers not training and a basic pay should be at least .65 .80 would be a good average between the best hands and the new hires in terms of what you need per year to live properly and pay all of your bills and grow a family.

Anything else is essentially institutionalized theft in favor of the few with the power to do contracts and brokering rates. I understand some companies now are advertising specifically low rate lease purchasing. ANY one who has any brains has gotten out or is getting the hell out of Lease Purchasing.

Finally there is no catch. If they off you .48 say yes right now. Don't be so suspecting.

What you do want to be is involved in first class freighting. Maybe a nice low boy with a triple aft axle set and a triple drive axles to haul 25 million dollar jet engines after you secure and tarp them for Boeing, Rolls or whomever. With that kind of freighting way above and beyond what I consider a form of criminal abuse of drivers who rot at the dock for days and nights or burn up his ELD hours in stop and go traffic all day instead of just cutting losses and parking. To make a new Appt.

Trucking in my time you were told to be say in Boston monday Am and call when you got empty. You get there when you get there.

Now, everything is micromanaged because of the technology becoming a curse and has a appointment time for a load of potato chips that might take a month to sell. (Hopefully...)

 

I started at a flatbed company this month and ran 12,330 miles. That’s with slim flatbed experience and almost a year of experience doing other things in between. Goes without saying I spend a lot of time tarping(which is most loads) and securement(which is every load) and doing my required load checks(which is every 3 hours or 150 miles). It really depends on the company and planners, where their priorities lie. At this company they will pay you 100 dollars if you’re empty and not dispatched on another load within an hour. Or so they say... in a month, I haven’t spent an hour without being under dispatch. They even had me pick up a load before I went home for a 34. There are people who run 140k per year consistently here and there are people who run 10,000 per month. But the difference here is really in time management and communication. Last week I got 2100 miles and this week I got 2600. And I still got to 12,330 miles. Honestly with the load to truck ratio for flatbed, if your company doesn’t have the freight to keep someone who wants to run 3000+ running, I’d look for another company. Someone with their own authority, that’s a different story. I’d be content with 2500 miles if I was only pulling loads paying 3 dollars a mile. That would be worth sitting a day or two and waiting for the broker that laughed at you to call you back.

 

Its honestly so hard to determine without trying it out yourself.

Some companies pay a high cpm, but dont offer enough miles and probably dont pay anything for making you sit.

Some companies require years of experience, clean record, every endorsement, then put you in a nice shiny cowboy truck and pay you 30cpm, while you get to play pretend owner op.

Some companies pay lower cpm, but run your tires off. And give you tons of accessorial pay.

Some companies pay lower cpm, and give you very few miles. And stick you in a beat down truck, and dont give you any extra pay, and dont even lube you up before they ram you in the booty.








And then somewhere, in a galaxy far, far, away. There are companies that give you decent equipment, pay you well, and keep you working. I'll let you know when I find one.

 

What flatbed company did you run 12k in a month? What they pay cpm? You have me turned on

 

cpm is only part of the equation.

When I was a company driver, I drove local / regional and was home every night and on weekends. Pay was 48cpm, I averaged around 1500 miles per week, but grossed $75k annually. How? Accessorial pay and bonuses made up the difference.

Drop / hook a trailer? $10
Cross a bridge into NYC Metro area? $42
Bump a dock for a live load or unload? $15
Detention pay after 30 minutes? $16/hour
No RODS errors at the end of a quarter? $300


Look for companies that give you more money for less miles.

 

Central Oregon Truck. You’d laugh at the mileage pay. A good portion of our actual yearly gross is paid in performance bonuses, which are paid off monthly on the 5th day after the end of the month... so on the 5th. They also guarantee you 10,000 miles a month and pay 10,000 miles per month if they don’t get you there. Also, 50 bucks to tarp. The 48 State fleet average length of haul is 1048 miles. In the first month, I hauled 2 loads under 1000 miles. One of them was a load in the direction of my house and then they had me pick up a load to take home for 34, and rolled to Florida. The load out of Florida was 668 miles. And all the rest have been 1200 plus. Usually 1800-2000. Another good thing they do is that they split miles. So you won’t have to rush to get a load delivered before the end of the pay period to get paid. They will take actual hub miles run before Midnight PST and split that load, so the miles you have run will be on that check. Company paid medical, dental, vision. Fully vested 401k from day 1. Vacation pay starts accruing from the first load and .01 per mile and you can withdraw from that any time after it hits 3000 dollars.

300 trucks. Amazing company in terms of how they address you and treat their drivers. Best fleets to drive for 5 consecutive years. And this year’s best fleet period in the small fleet category.

You won’t sit. I can promise you that. If you sit because they wasted your time, they compensate you for it. And then all the other standard flatbed perks of course... most shippers and receivers treat you well. Most let you park overnight.

The only thing here is that they are chain and go. If the highway isn’t shut down, chain and go. Also if you can’t manage your time well, you won’t be doing well. They plan loads at 50mph with a 2 hour buffer, plus securement, plus tarping, and no time to otherwise park or go sight seeing. They aren’t a sight seeing tour company. Their words. But one thing they absolutely take seriously is home time. The CEO of the company is also a cdl holder and keeps it valid. As does Safety, all driver coaches(dm). They have all been drivers at that company, hauling a lot of the same freight from the same places. They can all outwork pretty much anyone. They know their ####. But when a driver puts in a home time request, if there is any notice on it at all, they will have you planned to the minute you need to be where you need to be. If they can’t perform, they’ll have you in a rental car or on a plane to get you there. I’ve already seen it happen.

It’s actually a great company to work for. Like a bunch of Truckers got together and started a company geared toward keeping drivers happy. And it shows. 300 trucks, and their turnover is below 10%. Now the bad news... Cameras. Governed trucks. Paccar engines. Those may be non starters for a lot of people, but there are guys doing 16,000 miles every single month in their 65mph truck. I’ve yet to set the drive cam off and believe me I have tried. The only thing that really bothers me is the Paccar engines. The engine brake is crap, so you’ll need to be at least a gear lower when descending grades than with a Cummins.

Most of the trucks have APU, all the new ones do. All of the trucks have 2500+ watt inverters. They are all issued with CB radios that you’re expected to use. You’re also required to bring an atlas to orientation. Most of their trucks don’t have any form of gps. And a lot of places we go even a good truck gps would say you can’t go.

But yea... with my accessorial pays, just on my checks before bonuses and whatnot, I made .52 per mile this month. I have a pretty good idea what my bonus will look like... should be 12330*.14, plus an additional .02 in what they call focus pay... which is whatever they want to focus on that month. This month is no service failures and you get .02 per mile extra. Last month was .03 for no safety violations or accidents. I think the lowest paid driver in the fleet this year, if they didn’t hit a single bonus and they had to cover whatever miles they fell short of 10,000 in any given month, would make 57,000. You would have to be the laziest ####### ever to not make 67k plus at this company. And that doesn’t include what they actually pay for all of your medical, rider insurance and so on. Plus they put that penny per mile into a vacation escrow for you.

 

everything you need to never come home. sounds great