How common is hourly pay?

I left Werner and never looked back. They were never granted the chance to fire me and smear my dac, CSA, or mvr. I left right after training. Someone said double my current pay, yes that is what it would have taken to keep me there. We all know they aren't paying that not even close. My current situation I am a trucker by day and a dad by night. My wife leaves for work at 2pm and USUALLY I'm home before 4pm. This means on average we have 2 hours or less of daycare per day. If I ever did otr then we would need a full time babysitter 8 hours per day OR my wife would have to quit her job. She works at a county hospital with state benefits.... Outstanding health insurance for the family and a state pension. I cannot and will not expect her to give that up.

Everyone's living situation is different.

The shortest day I can manage is 6am-2:30pm. About 8.5 hours. That's dry roads, no snow...no unexpected detours, no breakdowns, and no delays at farms. Full hammer down... As much as I can with a smooth bore tanker and not have an accident.

I think fuel hauling might be in my future. I have been told by several drivers if I stick with this job for 6 or more months I can go anywhere I want in local trucking.

Smooth bore tankers are actually considered one of the more dangerous and challenging types of driving a truck driver can do. Highest risk of rollovers. I have also driven single compartment trailers which is even more challenging then double compartment.

I don't think it's that bad....slow down significantly for corners. They are heavy, especially top heavy AND the load shifts constantly.

I just recently trained an experienced driver on my route, basically just showed him where to go. He said my skills as a driver are actually advanced only considering I have only 1 year and 4 months.

Simply I decided otr was not a fit. Werner never had the chance to screw me over .

 

That's not what happened at Werner not at all, I was never left on the side of the road. I worked for another ltl company that didn't work out, but I was never left on the side of the road. I left Werner on MY terms.

Also don't assume that a local driver has no skill. Dead wrong, especially smooth bore tanker. Frequently on this site there is talk about drivers that can't shift lol. I can shift just fine an 18 speed.

My one complaint with this job is unpaid time, added hours to the day without additional pay specifically.

I will probably be staying here for a while though. Better weather is coming.

 

i figured it out, i can do simple math..... some days like today i did my run in 8-1/2 hours, making roughly $23 per hour (today was a $200 day). whats really kind of funny is a get paid by the farm stop, tomorrow i have 4 stops ($150) but i then the 4 stop day is always plagued with nonsense delays like the last farmer, who has fairly frequently kept me waiting 2 hours (no additional pay). it frequently only works out to be $12.50 per hour for that $150, which is pretty bad to be driving a tractor trailer. i thought about starting that day later, but i really cant do that either.... the first farm is milking almost as soon as the tank is empty. my oldest son is 6 years old, i might stick around long enough for him to be old enough to watch his younger brother.

this job works out with my daycare schedule FAIRLY WELL and its still very much a trucking job. sticking around for the time being, might be a wise move; but at some point down the road going to fuel hauling with hourly pay might be a way to go. what does suck is the longer that last farm makes me sit, the more daycare i have to pay out..... i end up loosing money. the whole thing is too bad that the pay is structured in such a way its really only a good stepping stone. i dont mind the job itself, if it were hourly and i was compensated for everything i did i would stick around a LONG TIME, perhaps the duration of my career.

if the industry as a whole wants to fix the so called "driver shortage" they can start by doing away with piece work industry wide.

by the way if anyone is interested in what i do, i found a really good video on what my job entails, and its not milking cows LOL.