"It's cheaper to give newbies the loads"! Why?

I've heard it said here in the forum many times that carriers will give loads to newbies because it's cheaper. Why is it cheaper, aside from the fact that newbies, historically, get paid less per mile!

 

You answered your own question, that is the only reason.

 

And this thread should now be closed! ROFL!
You've been in this forum long enough you should be ashamed of yourself for even asking that silly question! But you sure do start a lot of threads for a wannabe anyway!

 

If insurance companies' rates for newbies is higher, if newbies cost carriers money in training dollars, if newbies create more expense through uninsured losses (or losses the company just eats rather than filing claims for), if newbies are less efficient getting loads from Point A to Point B, if newbies get more OOS violations because of inexperience and/or insufficient training/motivation, if newbies.......

This is the kind of stuff I'm getting at! Yes, they, the newbies are cheaper per mile as far as payroll goes, but what about the other costs of giving a newbie a load versus giving the load to an experienced driver?

 

Freight tonnage X cost per mile = Trucking
Move 15,000 loads at $.20-$.25 per mile cheaper then a Top Hand wage of $.40+ cpm aint chicken feed

 

However, The Old one is correct. In the initial thought "I pay him less per mile" makes sense. But the newbie generally gets 1-2 mpg less, take longer, bangs up docks, scratches up trailers, etc. I think it makes more sense to give the longer, higher paying jobs to the experienced trucker, and give the shorter runs to the new guy to get him some seasoning. Yes, looking at my profile, you see I would get the shorter runs. I'm just speaking from a business standpoint and from having been a supervisor in the past.

Just my opinion.

 

Umm, Rollover? Isn't the point of this part of the board for Newbees to ASK questions? How can he do that without starting a thread? Just a logic check....

 

You have to look at it this way. This subject has been beaten to death!

These companies would not be hiring these rookies unless there was money to be made and apparently there is or they would go back to the days of "experienced" drivers!

Remember, if this newbie came in off of an unemployment list of government grants and went to a "school" putting it loosely, that is a large chunk of our (yours and my) taxes right there. And if you look at the length of hire for a lot of these guys and gals as noted in the forums they seem to all of a sudden stop driving (fired, starved out or other reasons) for these companies after the government freebie cash is gone. Then they start the cycle all over again. Just look at the retention rates of most of these "training companies"

Of course our government, that couldn't even run a whorehouse and bar in NV and thinks it's in the business of making jobs is so stupid that they don't even notice this trend. But it's the government run by liberal socialists so who can blame them for their short comings! It looks good on the monthly employment figures! Only those of us who see these trends know what is actually going on!

But who'll believe a bunch of worn out old truck drivers? Even these companies don't listen to us when the truck is upside down in a ditch as we don't know what we're talking about!

 

This is actually a very good thread... I know it seems like it has been addressed before... ut there is actually a lot of double talk on the subject.

Supposedly good small companies can't afford to hire nwbies or won't because of insurance and all, and yet at the same time it is said that companies will hire a newbie rather than pay for an experienced driver... So it is hard to figure out...

I would like some more clear answers... For example, I understand that insurance is higher for a newbie... So, it makes sense that a newbie get paid less to cover that cost... Now, do companies pay an experienced driver with tickets less than an experienced without any tickets because wouldn't it cost more to insure a driver with tickets...

Is insurance for a driver done on an individual basis, or do companies just get a policy that covers all drivers that meet certain qualifications... such as, no felonies, no dui's, no more that x tickets in x years....

I just rode with an experienced driver... however, he was not a good driver, not a safe driver, he had a lot of bad habits, talking and texting on phone while driving, never, ever goaling it, driving in traffic with elbows or knee's while eating, looking at map, or writting something down, major over use of jake brake even when no jake brakes allowed was posted and in truck stops. In the 3 weeks I rode with him, he slammed into the headache rack ripping a tear into it while sliding the 5th wheel, he backed into a dock hard enough fo the clovebox to pop open and everything, including me, to fly off the bunks, he backed over empty beer bottles smashing them under the tires at a truck stop, he ran into a building when he was filling out paper work and hadn't noticed the truck rolling, He busted a headlight using the truck to puch open a gate because he was too lazy to get out and too impatient to stop the truck so I could get out, he wasted probably 1/2 a bottle of washer fluid because again too lazy to get a funnel so some went in and a lot didn't, he kept the truck running 24/7, letting idle all night every night, even letting it idle while eating and it was 50 degrees out... He wasted time and miles, by missing exits, taking the wrong exit, once, we drove to the receivers and they were closed, no big deal, we could of and should of just stayed and unloaded in the morning, but, he decided to backtrack 47 miles to a truck stop, ate, then went back to the recievers... we had food in the truck, he just wanted a steak, so we drove 47 miles there and 47 miles back... There is more I could tell you...But my point is... I may be newbie... but I also know I am a better and more effecient driver than he is.... He may have more experience than I do... but I have more integrity and work ethic.

Before this guy, the drivers I rode with were experienced and professional drivers, So I coul see the whole experience over inexperience thing... But with the last guy, he has experience, but I am the better driver... Why should he make more than me because he has been driving (badly) longer than I have.

I am still new and although I have gained skills and confidence, I haven't gained enough confidence to text, eat, read and all while driving.... and I hope I never get that confident.

 

Yeah, a lot of these companies seem to be making money on their so-called training programs. That's why there are so many drivers; if companies had to bear the cost to recruit/hire/background-check/train new employees, then they'd be a little less enthusiastic about driving their existing employees out of the business.

I mean, I'm no expert on these things, but it's obvious to anyone with two wits to rub together that some of these companies are expending far too many resources on new hires. By extension, it's equally clear that the industry response to tightening regulations and intensifying public scrutiny is to treat drivers like a disposable resource.

Newbies incur increased risk? Sure they do, but you can bet that the bean counters have already taken that into account. The chances that a newbie will have a catastrophic accident are still relatively minor; it's far more likely the newbie will ding a trailer in the yard or knock a side-view mirror off in a parking lot somewhere, first.

And then said newbie can be fired. It isn't as if there's no one to replace him.

So the cycle goes. Paid to hire, happy to fire. The freight will get where it needs to go, one way or the other. As long as the hauler in question can keep his rates lower than the next guy, it's hard for the customers to justify dropping the account just because a few loads were late or whatever. A lot of these loads aren't terribly time-sensitive, anyway, in my experience -- or at the very least, they're given more time than they technically need to get there.

And even with all of that said, sometimes my load planner still managed to assign me loads that were impossible to deliver on time -- loads that were supposed to be picked up a day or two or even three before I got the assignment. Never forget that the driver is only one factor in an on-time delivery.

I'd bet you good money that there's an actuarial table somewhere that measures all of this -- and I'll bet the bottom line is that the consistently higher pay for experienced drivers trumps the higher risk for newer drivers.

If my rantings here smack of paranoia, then I'm not terribly surprised, but honestly, this isn't a conspiracy theory or a warning that the big bad companies are out to get us. No one is sitting in their office twirling a greased mustache and laughing maniacally as he screws the poor, sainted driver. I'm not describing an intentionally malicious process, here.

I'm describing how companies and individuals generally act, which is in their own self-interest. Unfortunately, the current climate artificially rewards certain otherwise counter-intuitive behaviors.