How to pay my driver (question for small fleet owner of 2-5 trucks)

seems to me cpm or % matters not all my runs are 2000 miles or more
I get paid $900 to drive to LA that is all i worry about

 

What company do you guys use to actually pay your driver's? I'm talking about you just input what you owe them and they calculate taxes and send a check or ach

 

Sent you a pm

 

I pay 25%, plus half any collected detention/layover. Driver handling is passed thru 100%. Only one employee on payroll at the moment, my son. I had another driver for a year but he passed away and I elected to drive that truck myself instead of hiring another.

Exceptional cases are handled when the exceptional happens. I've supplied hotel rooms, rental cars, etc when the occasion calls for it. Just this year alone I've paid out around $1,600 in "bonus" money to take the sting out of lengthy breakdown time, along with several slow market weeks. I don't make promises I can't keep, and I do offer what I can and what makes sense when I need to.

What's worked best for me, both with trucking and hiring employees in other industries, is: ask them what they need or expect. Give you a number to work with. Then you figure out how to make it work for them and if they are worth it. Depending on your business, that could be a percentage, maybe a mileage consideration, daily rate, many ways to arrive at a total gross pay to satisfy the driver you want to hire. Best advice: keep it simple. It should take less than 30 seconds for a driver to figure out their gross pay in their head at any given moment. Get too deep with conditions, exceptions, and whatnot, and you both will be coming up with different numbers every time. That will get old eventually, and regardless of intent or merit, the driver will feel screwed and quit you.

A side note about percent pay. At the end of the day, you are paying for performance. A mileage pay scheme will encourage a different set of behaviors than percentage will. If you are running spot market loads, percentage only works better when the driver is a self-starter and also self dispatching. You really need to put control of the opportunity for "more money" in their hands to make any pay method work. Big contract carriers get the easy out with mileage. Most of the time, more miles = more money. Percent doesn't work that way. You have to work smarter, not harder, to get better paydays.

Regarding payroll, I use the service offered by my bank. I've done it myself and its a PITA. Well worth the cost (to me) to be able to log into Wells Fargo, put in the pay details, and click on submit. Payroll takes one minute each week. They do all the tax payments, net pay via ACH, and I get paper statements to put in a box and a file to download into Quickbooks to reconcile it all.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that you can pay an employee with a 1099. He's then the one responsible for paying his (or her) own taxes. Might not be the best deal, but then you're off the hook for matching taxes.

Worker's comp insurance is unavoidable, unless they're a direct relative or, if you're a corporation, on the board. At least in Illinois, that's what I've been told.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but workers compensation is not needed if it is a one or two members LLC?

 

sshewins you are entirely wrong, go the the IRS website and read the laws on contract employees,,,

 

I used to haul for a guy that had 6 trucks, paid 25% plus bonus I can't remember how the bonus worked but I always got it! avg bring home 1200-1500 per week, always knew what the load paid before pick up, loved it!

 

i like the percentage, was paid %25 made good money only way i would do it. far as the 1099 i would RUN, you will have to set aside a nice chunk to pay the IRS/state and more

 

thanks for all the suggestions