History of why Truckers are paid by the Mile instead hourly?

I guess I missed that part. Where does it say that?

If you work for a carrier who has more trucks on the road than they should and often leaves you sitting for long periods of time you would benefit from a guaranteed minimum. But if you work for a carrier like that it's time to look for a better carrier.

There's another thread going about guaranteed minimum salary. I think that is a good idea and addresses the problem of the driver losing big time when they're stuck idle due to things beyond their control while still providing the incentive to work more.

There's also the thought that hourly pay would help prevent drivers from driving like an idiot as there would be no incentive to rush in bad conditions. Slow traffic means more money for the driver, not less. I've always believed that someone who will drive like an idiot will drive like an idiot though, regardless of how it may or may not effect their pay check.

And then there is the counter to that. With no incentive to produce drivers will milk the clock. Sorry boss, I wasn't goofing off at the truck stop, the reason I was stopped for 3 hours at the J is because I got stuck behind other trucks in the fuel line.

The idea that hourly pay would translate into more money is something I don't buy though. At least not for someone who wants to work.

The problem I see with any type of minimums is that it will lead to more micro management. One of the things I love about my job is that I don't have much of that. If I want to take a three hour nap or take the scenic route instead of specific roads nobody cares, so long as I get the load delivered.

 

Trucking is production based pay. But does not always seem like a good idea. I'd go for a day rate. Like some owners do. That way you do not waste your time.

 

The drive is at the mercy of the company to a large degree of course. That's what having a job leads to.

I usually do the 60 or more a week and run pretty hard. I rarely sit waiting for a load and long load/unload times are rare. We also have guys who do 50 a week or less and run a more relaxed pace. They'll work with the driver as much as they can in that regard.

Some will say that's a rare thing but from what I read on here I'm not so sure. Read what some of the Swift drivers post for example. Some like a relaxed pace and get loads that work for that while some like to max everything out and they're also able to have that work out.

Personally the way it is works good for me but I'm certainly not opposed to the idea of minimum guaranteed salary/miles. Right at the beginning of that article they state...

"Some surveys have shown that drivers, mostly over-the-road haulers, quit not because they believe they are being paid less than they deserve but that they cannot be sure how much they will earn during a week or month. Without knowing how much they will bring home, they find it difficult to budget."

 

The author needs to research a little more and be more honest.

Farms were producing a lot of food and the country needed many trucks to deliver produce and meat to consumers who were just getting back on their financial footing. There was no refrigeration in those days so truckers drove as much and as quickly as they could before the food spoiled.

That's not true.

There was refrigeration in those days, it just wasn't mechanical on the truck or rail. Meat used to travel by rail in cars loaded with ice outside the big city processing centers. Veggies and fruits were transported the same way. Most farming communities were growing grains and other things that did not spoil or were processed near the farms (canned green beans anyone?) in the major ag centers of the country. Grain, feed corn and so on were all something that didn't spoil as did tomatoes or apples.

Trucks were used in areas where there were large multiple markets and rail wasn't a sufficient to get farmer's stuff to the market to be sold to a wholesaler - if you want a great explanation, go watch "they drive by night". Many trucks were used to buy the produce from the owners and sold at a market for a profit, I've done this a few times myself.

Agricultural wasn't the reason why we were exempt under the new laws, it was industry that depended on making production quotas that were being serviced by trucks within cities. Companies like Ford and GM were using trucks to haul products from their subsidiaries like A/C Spark Plug to their customers - like Hudson and Packard. So they pushed to have the exemptions more than the Ag business. This was important in the North East where a lot of smaller industry was not served by rail, but by truck for years long before the depression.

 

If you were a business owner and had a load of widgets you needed to move from New Jersey to Northern California (in January), would you give it to a carrier who quoted an hourly rate (with no minimum or maximum time, and time to be determined when the load arrives) or one who quoted a rate based on miles, up front?

 

Refridgeration dates to the civil war era. It's already been covered in a previous post (Thank you Ridgeline..) Railroads ran icing plants capable of icing 50 to 70 rail cars filled with perishables in a hour. (Talk about employment for everyone that has a back and not in summer school.... or needed on the farm.)

I learned to advocate salary based pay for company drivers. Tires are a big cost, Fuel is a big cost, truck payments are a fixed cost and the taxes etc permits and so forth never stop hitting. So if salary is a fixed cost, companies will see instantly if the trucks are sufficient productive each week on the bottom line.

Trucking is a feast and famine to those who do not save any money. I lived on 200 a week net a times back in the 80's only because there are about 2000 dollars squirreled away against the possibility for whatever reason (Failure of timely courior services to deliver the load papers etc) you wont get a check that week. You can still endure and carry on while tracking carefully in a large journal what work you have done, information for that work and the miles paid so that when you do get back to headquarters you can take it up with the boss and get a comcheck plus taxes withheld reciept.

On a salary, you are paid on the dot taxes taken out and so forth and you run that week on that money. Success and failure is not a option unless you are truly lazy or obsessed with fleshpots and casinos and time wasting vices and cannot be on time for your deliveries.

Hours of service is just part of the matrix of transport. Working 70 hours in a week and coming up with just 200 dollars net means you probably grossed 350 on 70 hours. That's 5.00 a hour. In those days minimum wage was 3.35. Aint too bad. But YOU have to BUY the FOOD, BUY THE PARKING< BUY THE SHOWERS BUY THE CLOTHES BUY BUY BUY. You can literally spend your money just taking care of yourself and your trucking needs.

To get that 350 gross pay you only need .25 cents a mile at 1400 paid miles loaded for the week. Running around in the NE with a reefer with 30 stops, this is quite a bit of work. But there is that. HOS is not a problem.

If you cannot again make a business decision to carefully build a savings, take care of your home and family debts (Hopefully you have very little to none...) and carefully eat certain meals at a good price as well as choosing the sturdy clothing etc you will succeed.

You can also succeed on 2000 dollars net a week. Just don't go hog wild and stupid with that kind of money. Or Complain.

 

Certianly. If I order computer parts like hard drives (God only knows how much I have spent these last 20 years building computers and shipping charges...) those things are leaving California or Jersey (Newegg) by Air and into either Memphis or Little Rock a few hours later and at my door next morning.

If I did not pay shipping or chose the cheapest service, those hard drives are going to need 5 days from California across the burning southwest (Sitting on the weekends in the heat or cold...) to Little Rock or Memphis and then back to me. Those things are going to be travel foot sore and probably need a few weeks to breathe and rest into my climate before going into my new computer.

I rather just fly the #### things at whatever they will charge me to make it happen. And so. It's done. They are on the plane.

They know this and can charge me a first born, arm and a leg etc to make it all happen.