ELD system V.S. hourly paid company drivers

Keep ELD. Keep mileage pay.

Remove HOS as LAW, make it a GUIDELINE.
Report LEGAL working habits, on duty at shipper, etc. Took a nap due to traffic then continued later.

Have Scales inspect your logs for any unsafe driving/working habits. (10 hours driving non-stop with 2 sleeperberth log etc) and issue tickets to those who want to be the 24hourers..


I know many will laugh at my idea, but the question is. Why are y'all afraid of FREEDOM? Accidents won't stop because of elds. But YOU having the say of when to drive and stop without the preassure of knowing if you let those 3 hours go today because you were tired, it will screw up the rest of your week, make you late for appt, etc.

I've driven so relaxed/safer without that eld ticking down my neck, it is unbelievable. Makes this job a hole lot more enjoyable.

What I find ironic about all this is. We are paid on performance (mileage). Yet we are all governed to perform the same (70 hours). Seems very communist like to me (land of the "FREE" much?) Most of us have no choice of how many miles to get (we depend on dispatchers) so, our income can only maintain or go down, never increase since you can't make up lost time the next day. Drive 8 one day and 14 the next (done safely with naps proper rest).

It saddens me to see what could be a great and freeing profession be brought down to its knees by the bureocratic tyranny we have as government. I think it is a sad state for the American values.

Bring on the love/hate

 

According to the forum. $.60 cpm is average company pay.

$.35 X 70 mph comes to $24.50. Most company trucks are governed at 65. Out here in the rocky mountains. Average hourly pay would be more like $14. Average speed of 40 mph.

Go to California and that drops to $3.00 per hour if your lucky.

 

I'd love to see that .60cpm average lol

 

Sorry but that's dumb.

We have a fractured industry now, with you drivers crying about the "abuse" you guys go through, you guys who keep acting like the problem is hos and they need to go away can't imagine what abuse you will face by both the companies and shipped if HOS are suggestions.

Don't want to run 20 hours, screw you, you're fired.

You can't make that pickup, screw you, your fired.

We ain't paying you because you were late, don't like it, screw you you're fired.

Think these Megas and some owners are abusive now, just wait until they nearly starve someone to death and hold their job over the drivers head.

I don't like hos right now, they need to return to the 1962 version with drivers needing to learn how to use their time better.

But they don't need to be just a suggestion.

 

Maybe there needs to be a serious change in how drivers are licensed and to reduce the glut of drivers so wages do go up.

Good drivers don't make entry wages.

 

Wow. If one just landed here from Mars and read this thread, they would be certain that many drivers in the industry today are literally begging at truck stops for leftover food scraps.

And 40 mph average speed in the western US? Talk about wildly exaggerated trucker tales. Yesterday I drove from Belgrade, MT J to Nephi, UT J in a 65 mph fleet truck at 79k gross in 08:20 drive time and 200 miles of that was not contacting dry pavement except occasionally.

SMH

 

I was hourly for 18 years. Your time is monitored closely so you don't milk the clock. If you take longer than the new guy who's wife is about to deliver a baby they want to know why.

Hourly pay isn't magic. It's mostly a grass is greener fantasy some OTR drivers dream about. The freight is only generating so much revenue. You'll be paid what the company can afford. Hourly, CPM, % is just a way to calculate the pay.

 

I am hourly and home daily. I get paid from the time i log into the peoplenet till the time i log out, minus the 30 minute break. Being paid hourly is definitely better in my opinion, but it does not eliminate the pressures of hos. We still fight the clock every day just like the rest of you. Converting everyone to hourly would not solve anything.

And yes, i could see a lot of clock milking happening. I can’t honestly say that i’ve never done it here and there, but do that too much and you will just burn yourself down the road.

 

That’s pretty much the truth. In fact at my company the otr guys (paid by the mile) make more than me (hourly) at the end of the week even though we all do about the same miles. But i get the perk of being home every night, so it all comes out in the wash.