I deserve better

He sounds like he is working for CRST. That is EXACTLY the CRST pay scale. Except if it's really them, he's actually making 3 cents less than they claim, because they completely take away 3 cents every mile for the per diem program fee..and there is no opting out, its *required*. They sell drivers on this extremely low rate all the time, on the whole "Well we give you more miles than other companies".

I'd rather make 50 cents a mile and drive 1000 miles a week than make 25 cents a mile and drive 2000 miles a week and get the same pay, man. Most weeks i was at CRST though, assumign i had a codriver who wasnt throwing a fit constantly (very rare), we were running 2000 miles a week or less as a team...for the truck. So you get paid for 1000 miles at 25 cpm...$250. Great money..

Repairs are part of the job. If you know how to do it, or can figure it out, its faster than waiting for a shop...plus you know its done right.


I do a lot of repairs on my truck, and i work for werner. A typical non-company shop will let you wait 3 hours to even get to you, and thats on the good end of waiting...and then they'll take hours to get ahold of anyone at my company, and then...they'll spend 10 minutes..changing a mud flap or something else i could do myself. A company shop though? I'll wait for 3 days before they even touch the truck!

I don't even let them change their own oil. TA does that for me. I bet if i did it myself they'd reimburse me for it. But, i'm not going to float $100 of my own money for oil for them...lol.

I have even gotten them to reimburse me for things like wd40 for changing mudflaps (rusty screws wont turn), duct tape (for holding placards on after the holders fall off), and velcro (for some reason my toll passes were not attached to windshield)... And tomorrow, they will be reimbursing me for yet another tube of silicone to finish fixing my improperly sealed windshield. I have half a mind to tell them they need to re-do the job right, but it would be SOO DARN FUNNY if the windshield cracked, and they went to fix it and its superglued in with a quart of super glue...For some reason i'm thinking they'd start asking questions if i asked them to reimburse me for $50 for superglue instead of $5 for silicone.......

But if they arent going to do it right, its going to be done MY WAY...and after tomorrow, this windshield will not ever ever ever ever ever ever ever leak again. (dont worry, im not using superglue)

Anyway, seriously now. Don't quit. I talk about leaving my company sometimes, but i have 2 years of experience. I can do it. I left my first job after 5 months experience, and i went through all hell getting another job in...and werner was the ONLY company that would take me. If i had stuck it out another month, i would have done better.

Honestly, when i was getting ready to quit, i had the thought of taking a 30 day leave of absence, and then i would have had 6 months with the company and would have been solo qualified, and could have refused to team up with someone for the other 2 months of the contract. Now i owe them $5000 for raping me.

 

That's just it... a driver saves so much time by knocking out minor repairs. I've seen drivers put their trucks into shop bays just to get a headlight changed... They waited forever when they could've fixed the problem themselves in 5 minutes, and we all know time is money. I'll swap out lights, mudflaps, hoses, clamps, fix wiper systems, dump freon into the A/C system, mend a small 100 p.s.i. air line with a fitting (did that once when a leak put me on the shoulder---happened on that long grade just north of Baker, CA, in 100+ degree heat with heller residual heat coming off that motor), you name it. If I need alignment or some critical engine work done, then I'll put a truck in the shop; unless company policy dictates otherwise, I usually get PMs done on the road at places like Speedco, Petro, wherever... I will save any company money by purchasing oil, coolant, wiper fluid, etc., at Walmart rather than at truck stops; you can save $5 on a single gallon of oil that way, if the company didn't already give you some extra oil for the road. Whenever I buy "truck supplies" at Walmart, I put all that crap on a separate ticket... doesn't look so good with a 12-pack of beer listed on the same receipt, yeah?

 

Less than 40K miles.

Sorry.... But you are still very green.

 

Oh...

I started out at making 10 cpm in 84 on a team rig.

I didn't hang with it for very long.

 

thats just a little over 10,000 a month! If I don't get between 12 and 15,000 a month I'll pitch a you know what you can hear at the office from tennasee! I've been running about 4000 a week since I changed jobs and happy as hell. The pay is a little low, but the miles are there. I'm sure this "gentelman" will settle in given time. sounds like his new career didn't match his dreams of what truck driving would be. welcome to the real world.

 

Your friend was VERY lucky to land that job while being so "green"...

FriedTater wasn't calling you names (per se)...there are a great many "self entitled" wannabes out there. Just read this forum to see for yourself...

 

Percentage pay ain't always a good thing from a driver's standpoint. 22% of crap is still crap. For example, if he's hauling around $1/mile freight, he's getting $0.22/mile at 22% of gross. If his company hauls cheaper than that, he's making less.

At least paid per mile, you know how much you will make every time the wheels go around.

 

Man, i drove with two people who thought they knew it all.

The best one, this chick that had literally gotten out of training the day before. Insisting she was doing nothing wrong at all as we are going down cabbage patch at 75 MPH and i am starting to pray. SHE STILL DRIVES A TRUCK I SAW HER A COUPLE MONTHS AGO WHAT THE HELL HOW IS SHE STILL ALIVE!!!!!!! She also would back into parking spots without getting out and looking and would hit stuff because she didnt look. Come on.

And then theres this guy, he had 4 months of experience and i had 3. He made a big deal about how he had soo much more experience than i do. FYI, he works at a cracker barrel now. Anyway, he'd always backseat drive, tell me how to drive, complain because i stopped too much (as in, i ever stopped), and would operate switches on the dash to do things like flash the headlights at people who are passing me...at the very earliest point that they wont take my hood off. No matter what i said, he'd still do it. He also would never have the truck any lower than 4th gear unless it was in neutral. It was in neutral a lot. Every turn made at 7th gear, i'd slide and hit my head on the side of the truck in the sleeper, then he'd turn the other way and i'd hit my feet on the other side..come ON. NEVER got out and looked. ALMOST ####### RAN ME OVER ONE TIME BECAUSE HE DIDNT. And i remember one time he backed into a tight dock, and wanted to go at 1st gear speed, so he slipped the clutch a lot with the truck in 4th. come on...

Infact, no one i've ever driven with has ever gotten out and looked, ever. what the hell is wrong with people? Oh yeah, CRST didnt teach getting out and looking.