Driver pay

To be fair @Chinatown and I don't say this disrespectfully to you or to cause trouble or anything, but the vast majority of OTR reefer and dry van companies that you recommend to other drivers on this forum do not start paying detention pay until after the 2nd or 3rd hour after the scheduled appointment time. And most probably have a maximum amount of hours that they will pay detention on top of that as well.

In OTR reefer and dry van, from my research at least, it is absolutely the standard in this sector of trucking that you will not get paid for the first 3 hours that you're at a shipper or receiver. And I say 3 hours because you know you have to show up 30 minutes - 1 hour before your scheduled appointment time, to check in and dock and all of that. Then waiting 2 hours past your scheduled appointment time before detention pay starts to kick in.

This is definetely a problem in the industry (and to be fair LTL linehaul guys have to deal with the same thing too, of "hurrying up and waiting" for a couple or several hours past their start time and not getting paid for it).

 

The 2 main reasons these company's pay driver's by the mile is to cheat them out of 30 hours of overtime by working them 70 a week and to not pay them for waiting around getting loaded and unloaded.

 

Stop pay makes up for some of the detention.
Truckers that dropped out of high school are making more than many college/university graduates. This is something truckers can be proud of.

 

Yea that's just what these company's are looking for too. Someone that dropped out of high school that will offer them $25-$50 for every stop that they have to wait 2-3 hours to get loaded/unloaded.

 

Still making more than college grads. If truckers pay was bad, there wouldn't be so many staying with it for years/decades. Lots of drivers on this forum with degrees; some Masters degrees.

 

I know an old high school friend who is the chief of police in a 14 man department earning $78K. The median pay for accountants in the US is $73,500. I’m at $106,000 with a CDL.

Whenever they talk about driver pay the numbers get drug down by all the newbies, most of whom never get past their starter job.

 

Working 70+ hours every week just to say that is better than a college grad that might work 50 hours tops is not equal or better

 

Ok sure, but yet again, not trying to be disrespectful towards you Chinatown, but (99% of) all the OTR dry van and reefer companies that you recommend to people on this forum do not pay stop pay for the initial 2 stops (1 stop at a shipper, 1 stop at a receiver). It's only after you get a 3rd stop that the stop pay will come into affect.

Even with reefer, it's not like 3rd stops are super common. It happens sure, but maybe 10% or less of the time. It's not common at all.

The college/university graduates would be making just as much money as truckers did if the college graduates worked their normal 40-50 hour per week job and then decided to do Uber for 20 - 30 hours to get their hours up to 70 hours per week. The only reason most truckers make more is because we work long hours.

Look I'm not trying to argue that truckers can't make a good living. All I'm saying is that if you know of any OTR dry van and/or reefer companies (W2) that pay detention right out of the gate, and pay stop pay for normal 2 stop loads (1 at the shipper and 1 at the receiver), companies that pay you to drop and hook, companies that pay you to fuel, you need to start listing them on these forums.

Because I've researched a lot of the common companies you list on this forum and to the best of my recollection Marten is the only one who I think pays detention right away. No other OTR dry van or reefer W2 companies (that I know of anyways or that you list on these forums) pay detention right away, pay to fuel, pay to drop and hook, etc. etc. That doesn't seem to exist in the dry van and reefer world of trucking.

Accesorial pay is severely lacking with dry van and reefer OTR companies. It is my hope that eventually they will look to the LTL companies as inspiration and start paying drivers for more than just the miles that we run. LTL linehaul, which pays CPM, sets the standard for how to pay truck drivers if you're not using the hourly pay for drivers. I really hope OTR dry van and reefer follows in LTL linehauls footsteps and starts paying drivers better accesorial pay.