Why every driver wants to be paid by the hour is beyond me. I make more getting paid percentage for my OTR loads then I would if I was paid by the hour, unless it's an ungodly amount of hours.
My currently hourly rate for local work is $18.50 an hr, my percentage is 29% of what the company charges. A recent run I did to Rio Rancho, NM and back paid me $396.75, I was gone about 22 hrs total, 13.5 hrs driving time and 3.75 hrs loading, with 2 hrs of that time being logged in the sleeper naping.
Based on that, I made $26.01 an hr, now the reality of it, even though I logged 2 of the 3.75 as sleeper, the company charged the broker for 1.75 hrs detention (we give 2 hrs free for all load/unloads). If I was paid my flat $18.50 rate I would have made $282.12.
Something to keep in mind, when you look at the wages often paid to Union or non-union drivers (UPS, Con-Way, Fedex, UPS Freight, Estes, YRC), the companies have a very tight bottom line and in most cases lose money daily. Look back at what put CF and NW out of business, overpaid drivers. Look at UPS, they turn such a tight profit margin, that a strike or work slowdown kills them. They also charge rates that are higher then what many TL carriers charge and customers pay them because they have no choice in the matter.
How to calculate your equivalent hourly pay as an OTR driver
Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by passingtrucker, Nov 16, 2007.
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It's sad that a lot of drivers are focused on $$$ only, but fail (or completely blind) to factor how much is it worth to come home and spend quality-time with the wife, kids, friends, and relatives. I look at the number of OTR drivers who come home to find divorce papers waiting for their signature, or learn that wife/GF is seeing someone else, because you're too focused on $$$. How many of you veteran OTR drivers reading this have children that had mixed up with the wrong crowd, and are now doing drugs or have a drinking problem? Could getting an hourly-paid job and coming home everyday to be a father to these kids would have made a difference?? Is the alimony and child support payments you're making as an OTR driver worth it? Could coming home every night and being a loving and supportive husband prevented your divorce??
Take a good look at all the truckers you see at the truck stops, and observe that the only drivers over 60 years old are owner-operators. Besides sacrificing your personal lives, you have to factor-in that trucking is an age sensitive career. When you reach your late 50s or early 60s, companies get rid of you; no one wants to hire you because you're a liability risk‼ So the only way to continue trucking is by becoming an O/O. By then, you pay high insurance premiums because your age and slower reaction-time to perceive a potential accident and react accordingly is physiologically retarded. This is a proven scientific fact, which is why pilots are forced to retire at 60. In contrast to truckers, airline pilots are well compensated to factor-in forced retirement at 60.
Guess some people must learn the error of their logic
the hard way. $$$ is all that matters to them. Putting a $$ value to how much is it worth to spend quality-time with family is a concept that is beyond their comprehension. I guess these suit-n-tie, college-educated corporate management types are correct to call us "dumb truckers" behind closed doors, or when they're at the golf course discussing ways to maximize their profit margins while playing a round of golf.
Paddington, jakebrake12 and truckerdave1970 Thank this. -
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