Is there any companys left

good luck on that and i am glad you have found what your looking for. congratulations.

 

All valid and important questions. I will attempt to address each 1 thoroughly. Please be aware I am a driver on an older payscale and my information might not be 100% accurate. The pay scales were changed after I joined the company and so I was "grandfathered." Please feel free to contact Eastern and verify any and all of what i have posted. While I do get a referral bonus for getting other drivers to join us it is a graduated payout based upon the driver actually staying with the company for at least 3 months.



Weekend home time is at least 34 hours mine averages close to 44 hours. It varies from week to week based upon the load assignments.

Yes I do believe the majority of trucking companies out there are in fact "non-union." I put that information in due to the fact that Eastern Freightways is a subsidiary of NEMF which is in fact a union company (Machinist Union not Teamster).

The current congestion pay for the areas I listed is $22.00. As for recouping lost time going into these areas it does not pay enough but is a "token" amount and has been the same for the past 8 years or so. The amount of time Eastern Has been back in business.

Multi stop pay is actually a new pay item. You see I am under an older payscale in which I receive pay for every stop, every drop, and every hook. I also make .43 cpm in addition to the above. For newe hires the pay scale starts between .38 cpm and .40 cpm (I believe they want at least 6 months of verifiable experience now). I know they offer teams between .46 cpm and .50 cpm but I cannot say for certain a solo would get this high. They company went thru a change in their pay structure so I try not to cite exact amounts for fear of having "old outdated information."

In regard to weekend pick up or deliveries. We have some drivers that opt to work on the weekends (it is not mandatory) to make extra money and so the company offers an extra 50.00 in pay as long as the customer required weekend service.

Detention time is calculated (for me anyway) at 18.00 per hour. Each driver satrts at 15.00 per hour when hired and this goes up by .50 cents per hour per year of employment. This "hourly rate will be used to calculate your earning for paid days off, holidays, and vacation time. The calculation is 8 hours at the drivers hourly rate. I believe after 5 years of service the driver then goes to 1/52nd of your previous years earnings for your vacation pay. For the paid days off the calculation is 1/52nd divided by 5 (the normal work week). An important note however. The company does not allow you to "bank" this time off and roll it over to following years. You must use it within the year the paid day off was earned or it will be forfeited (not my rule and I do not care for this myself but I have learned to use my time off rather than lose it).

Breakdown pay is set at a flat 11.00 per hour. I do not know what the time limit is but it does start right away.

The trucks being used are mid 90's Freightliners and Volvos that are anywhere from 1998 to 2006 models. The freightliners are being phased out slowly and are predominantly used for local drivers but are used for regional if a Volvo is not available at the time. Eastern has purchased 50 2006 610 Model Volvos with automatic transmissions. These trucks are being rotated into the fleet gradually as the frightliners and older Volvos are rotated out. The older trucks are straight 10 and super 10 transmissions without engine brakes. The older trucks (90's) also have the "grass burner exhaust." The 2000 model (and newer) Volvos have the normal, back of cab, above cab exhaust.

BC/BS coverage begins after the 90 day probationary period and I think it is 20.00 for a single person. I pay 40.00 (we used to get this benefit free but it was changed about 2 years ago and now we all pay a portion). I think the 40.00 family coverage amount covers the whole family regardless of how many kids you have. Again I am just a driver and many of these questions can be better answered by the recruiter.

As for averages, I average about 2500 miles per week and make additional money for each load I pull which adds 2 to 300 extra to my pay per week plus a monthly safety and compliance bonus .01 cpm for paid miles driven for the month.

I hope this information will help you all in making a fair comparison between the job and pay you currently have and what you would/could get here.

 

Edited my moderator. Insults not allowed here.