Getting Screwed out of Miles

Since the linehaul is close to actual the load was figured on practical miles when quoted but the billing or payroll calculated the empty miles shortest route miles. Question them.

 

Any company truck, regardless how they pay the miles, better be turning a profit.

Almost all manufacturing had trucks before deregulation and within a few, short years, most were gone. Hence, all the mega carriers seemingly coming out of no where overnight.

No such thing as they need us.

 

Hundreds of private carriers are still in existence hauling their own products. They don't need for their trucks to be profitable. They just need to make sure their products get to market in an orderly manner. That's their core business not trucking. The trucks are just a means to an end.

 

Oldest trick in the book. Years ago , many went to Rand McNally, then to so called practical miles. This was supposedly going to put an end to short mileage pay. Used to be worse. Some used household mover guide. At least 10% off. Others used zip codes of main post offices. Easy to get shorted, depending on the address. Almost everyone’s pay was at least 4 or 5% short. Used to aggravate me when O/Os claimed they made X amount per mile on a specific load. Doing the math it was always considerably less. They always dismissed the shortage as close enough, or industry standard. Bottom line is actual pay. Not what they claim it to be. It’s BS. Freights bid on actual Truck route mileage. Companies skim off the top. Drivers lose. It’s just wrong.

 

Used to work for company that paid percentage, but, they’d pay you .10/mile for any DH miles over 200, Everything was 185-195 miles, Dallas TX to Little rock AR be 191 or so, Dallas to Memphis be 195.

Short story, nothing for DH.

 

Another example -

We worked for Freymiller as company team. They put us on as power only pulling doubles for Saia.

Saia would give us a sheet that stated actual miles.

Freymiller would pay us on their system as zip to zip.

I had a friendly meeting with them and they paid US on what Saia paid THEM.

Honest mistake? Maybe. Worth addressing.

 

And many years ago, miles were some times figured city limits to city limits.
So you come from the WEST and hit delivery (west city limits) but go 15 miles on east into center of town to unload..
The gods are with you, you reload next door, BUT depart on EAST with that load a deliver it near its East city limits.
Could mount up running along the upper band... Iowa to Chicago, on to Detroit, on to Dayton, etc....

But back in the day, we were paid whatever R/McNally chart said. However, we were making so much money ar 5 cents a loaded mile, we didn't care...

 

Figures don't lie, but, liars do figure.

 

I believe this is the proper way to do it, "Pass the load". $750 difference . I would walk away also. Give it too someone that wants to loose money.

 

This is part of the fun of being a company driver or a glorified employee who owns a truck...you don't get to negotiate the rates or have any control over how they are calculated. Seems like whenever I take loads going certain directions I always end up running more "hub miles" than what the trip pays. Part of this is because the way the miles are calculated is just not accurate enough in many examples. PC Miler uses zip codes so it's post office to post office not proper address to proper address like Google Maps. And then out in the real world sometimes the shortest route on paper is not the smartest or safest route to take for a large combination vehicle, especially in certain tougher parts of the country. Often times I will run more miles by choice to stay on Interstate routes to avoid narrow/winding/steep secondary 2-lane roads, or will elect to take the bypass or beltway around major cities which as most of us know is usually a good idea, but of course it usually adds miles they aren't paying you for. So there's always a slight disconnect between the recipe for the cake and how the cake actually gets made. Very few drivers anymore actually get paid per mile. It's essentially just a flat rate to get it from here to there and rate per mile is really just a theoretical calculation derived from that.