Joe & Tow's new trucking adventures/ex GTI thread

Keep this in mind. When evaluating 'value,' using average is an almost-useless metric. Median numbers are much more valuable because they ignore the high and low outliers. Using average, for example, if I take a population of 13 employees, including three incomes of $75,000 and 10 incomes of $30,000, the average is about $40,000. Use that average and the high income as an advertising carrot is attractive. The median, and it turns out, the mode, on the other hand, are $30,000. Based on that small population, it is much less attractive, but more realistic.

Making that kind of relationship in a large trucking company would be more valuable and realistic, yet far less attractive to new employees. And that, dear students, is why merely evaluating a company's advertising statements about income should only be one of the factors used...and a very low-value factor, at that.

 

keep this mind about medians as well in this hypothetical example in a company with 5 drivers:

employee #1 $25,000
employee #2 $25,000
employee #3 $70,000 (median)
employee #4 $70,000
employee #5 $70,000

the median/mode in this fictional company is $70,000. the average is $52,000. So sometimes the median can also inflate a number higher than an average can. Averages do mean something, because that basically represents the sum total being paid to all the drivers, the median doesn't tell you this. Within that group you have those who make more and those who make less, much like most of the working world. If you are achieving above the average, you will make more than the average pay.

 

I think a better evaluation would be to post the percentage of drivers at the bottom of the scale...

one thing about gordon is that they advertise a .04 cpm bonus but fail to tell you that only 40% of the fleet can qualify for it no matter what they did. And only the top 5% get .04 cpm and it goes down after that. A deceptive ploy I think.

 

Doesn't the average cover both of these? if you don't make the bonus, it won't end up in the average of the W2's. Whatever percentage of drivers are in the bottom of the scale, that will be reflected in the average of the W2's. So if a company was advertising that you could potentially make a CPM of 55 CPM but 90% of the drivers were actually making 45 CPM, the average of the W2's would already reflect about 45 CPM.

 

For new drivers it would be best to know the average of first year drivers in the fleet they are in.

 

In a large company like HeartlandGordon, there will always be bunches of employees at both ends -- new hires on the bottom, long-term employees at the top. Nobody knows how long they'll stay with a new employer before they start, whether new to trucking or not, since the devil is always in the details that nobody talks about. Aspiring to the upper levels, while attractive, is not realistic. That is why talking to drivers "out there" about their companies - not just recruiters or cheerleaders who either spin the numbers or don't divulge them - is a great source of relevant, more accurate information when making prehire or job change decisions. Sure, you'll get griping, moaning, and groaning; it's the USA. We can do that. But a driver has nothing to prove and isn't hired to promote her company, so your chance of getting an accurate - though certainly not totally accurate - picture of life on the inside is greater than just listening to those who are paid to promote.

For me, all I want a recruiter to tell me is the starting mileage pay and what I can expect from my dispatch personnel for the first 3 months. Nothing more. I will learn the rest on the job and my experience will be different from the next driver. In fact, much of how the former GTI drivers here described their experience was totally different from my own. So while that is a valuable source of information, it is only one piece of the pie.

One thing I never, ever ask about about is how many miles I could expect because this is a huge spin zone, almost bereft of any touch with reality. My own experience with GTI bore that out. Though I didn't ask, I was told I could expect 2,000 miles per week or more. In fact, I didn't see those miles until I complained to my FLEET manager in my third week. It was only then he recognized me as a US, not Midwest regional driver and things changed. But even then, he said the reason I was going to get that many miles was that I was out for six weeks at a time. Pity the poor driver that couldn't stay out that long. I only wish I had been around long enough to see if they would really give me that many miles consistently.

 

One last thing then I have to go mow my lawn

The last couple of months have been pretty hard for me financially, what with a huge fine from the state of Michigan, so I've been looking around for part-time work. One large company's website has what I think is a valuable, accurate bit of information that I wish trucking companies would emulate:

" Employees can expect to take home between $140.00 and $170.00 each week after deductions have been taken for taxes, etc."

That gives me a reasonable expectation of take-home money which I can balance against the hours I would work. No pie-in-the-sky numbers about what I might make one day. No false hopes of glory and riches. Just what to expect now. Why not do that, trucking company executives? My guess is if they publicized it, the number of experienced driver applicants would drop; they would know what is 'real,' not what a driver might make one day.

 

I see a lot of former Heartland drivers posting on
here a lot of negative information about their
experience with this company. I dont see any of
them posting on this thread about what a great
company Heartland is to drive for. I think that
speaks for itself. How about some currant drivers
giving their opinion of what a great place it is to
drive for. Speak up and be heard...

 

Hope that everything comes together for you Denalidad and works out well.