About to take the big step: Hiring a Driver for my Rig. Give me Pointers

If I were to ever hire another driver I would pay him percentage again however I would offer 20% as a base rate and he can earn up to 5% additional by doing it the way I say it needs to be done - not outlaw style as the last driver I had said he wanted to run. Outlaw style caused my CSA score to drop quicker than a dump truck falling out of the sky.

Two examples come to mind - IN to GA. I told said driver to take a 10 hour break in Chattanooga or possibly a little further south then he decides to try an make it all the way to So Atlanta and decides since it is 2:00AM that he will cut through the center of the city. Well then Johnny Law decides to give him the $383.50 ticket for going through Atlanta and a write-up for Driver Record of Duty Status not current and, the inside 285 ticket added a cool basket of points added to my CSA score, two weeks prior to that same driver gets an OOS for failing to retain previous 7 days logs and another basket of points added to the CSA score. After that I decided it was time to shut it down for a little while so I let him go and I assume he is now trashing the CSA scores of others. The good thing was he could fix a good number of things on the truck but he really just no matter how many times I implored him to do stuff the right way regarding trip sheets / log books he just wouldn't listen. I even cut his pay and all I got was similar to Tomkatrose with just some shrugged shoulders and a "it's not my problem" look on his face.

I will say the driver I had prior to him was a pure professional, held his license near and dear to him and took pride in knowing that stuff was done the right way and knowing there wasnt a negative mark anywhere on his license, CSA, or PSP score. Maybe wasnt as handy as the above mentioned guy was but at least there was never a phone call of " Boss, I just got put out of service for no logs " conversation.

 

I will definitely b cautious on hiring someone.

 

This is why I think GPS is a good idea. There was a story told to me by another fella that hired some drivers. One driver was a loose cannon I guess. Didn't care too much for the logs and/or delivery deadlines. Boss was watching him on GPS and had enough I guess. He jumped on a plane to Atlanta and drove the truck back home.

Here's another tip. Make sure you have a spare key to the truck in your office.

 

Why? Find a truck that looks like yours in the truck stop, ask the driver to borrow the key, and odds are good that it will work in your truck also.

 

Will the driver be able to make a decent living at 25%?

 

Depends on the dispatcher.

 

PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!!!!!! And a truckload of money. As you know,trucks run on money and many drivers can find dozens of ways to cost you plenty. Hey, it's not their money.

 

LMAO. And then what? You going to drive your truck away with someone else's key?

 

Nah, just use it to get in the door. By the time you've got the truck interior detoxed enough that you can actually drive it, the dealer can get another key to you.

Or you could just make a copy of that key if it works.

 

Yeah. OK. You're right. That seems way easier than just keeping a spare key at head office.