Driveaway companies,

Apparently not enough for drivers to afford internet access. Ha, seriously though, everytime I research it just looks like a waste of time, heartbreak and dead broke seem quite likely the common problem. Sorry Dude

 

What are you thinking about?

 

The company I work for is driveaway/towaway. I calculate trip costs and the standard formula I am told to use is as if they make $15 an hour. The company pays for everything; hotel, fuel, food, etc.

 

Depends on the company, some are great but most are no better than the mega carrier training schools. As you know Stan I am now doing my consulting as well as tow truck and car carrier sales. We do most of our transportation in-house but do end up using a few driveaway companies. It seems the going rate to the carrier is averaging at $1.80 to $2.20 a mile, some with FSC most without any.

All but the biggest use 1099 contractors and typically pay them 50-65% of gross plus a fuel surcharge. Many of the driveaway companies leave their contractors responsible for fuel, tolls, and travel to/from the truck. They typically provide insurance, plate, fuel and trip permits. The contractor gets 50-60% advance and the rest upon submitting a clean BOL.

I personally have experience with Bennett and American Transport Company. ATC is great but they specialize in mostly non-cdl trucks and railroad equipment, Bennett does it all. Bennett has a load board where the contractor can select a load but they don't post rates and you still have to call an agent to get rates and be dispatched. Very few have any sort of detailed training or road tests unless you are going to be doing deck sets, a few of the RV driveaway companies do some RV specific training.

I have been moving trucks for a few of my dealer friends in a driveaway operation for between $1.40 and $2.50 per mile, depending on cdl or non-cdl, what permits are needed and if I am towing or loading anything for them. They provide the insurance, dealer plate and authority while I provide everything else.

 

I have a question to all the experienced driveaway people. I am new to this and was told non cdl did not have to go through DOT weigh stations. I passed one in New York. Trooper pulled me over and was great. Reviewed my logs and checked everything. My logs were perfect and just gave me a warning. My contract was terminated for the warning and I cant seem to find employment with any drive away company now once they see the warning. What do I do?

 

There are hundreds of smaller driveaway companies, just keep trying. If you can get a real person on the phone try explaining that you had bad training at your last driveaway company, maybe they will give you a shot especially for the RV companies as their busy season is coming up. You can also reach out to a few truck or RV dealers to see if they are hiring their own drivers, also try Penske, Ryder and U-haul for "hiker" jobs shuttling their trucks between locations.

In the future you need to be aware of the rules for each state you are in regarding scales and non-cdl trucks. In most states anything over 10,000 pounds gross weight rating must enter the scales, a few it is at 16,000 pounds and a few it is at 26,000 pounds. If in doubt just pull in, the worst they will do is give you the green bypass light.

 

That is always good advice. When in doubt? Just pull in. Except for Calipornia where there signs say "No Pickups Allowed", then just pass on by. I hauled RV's for 10 years out of Elkhart, In. Some states were worse than others with scale houses but for the most part it was pretty smooth. As far as pay, it's alot better now than when I was working. But I will say this,,, if you are good with money and you take care of your truck, you can do pretty well. That's just my two cents and the breakdowns and experience it took to learn it.

 

I talked to a guy out in York, NE last week who was moving a little gas powered van from Indiana to Denver I think he said for about a dollar a mile. I could see some pros and cons. Generally I don't think you're allowed to sleep in driveaway units but I think a lot of them do anyway. He said prices on flights were cheap enough to where it made sense to just fly back to Chicago from Denver or Los Angeles and then take the train to South Bend, and finally an Uber/Lyft car ride from South Bend back to the dispatch office. Clearly this would not a line of work for the non-adventurous or those afraid of public transportation.