Married couple wanting to team, we have tons of questions

The space in a truck is same as the smallest possible bathroom with sink & toilet on 1 side facing a bathtub. It has no toilet, sink or bathtub, just 2 seats. Now imagine 2 people in this space for days & weeks with maybe 30 minutes here & there being outside of that space.

 

Another question if i can:

If we work for a company that pays by the mile how is it determined what miles go on the paycheck? Is it through the Electronic Log Device within the truck that we use, or is it tracked some other way. I realize that maybe not all companies might be the same so I am really only looking to see if there is a way to verify that were are being paid for XXXX miles during a set date range and that there is some sort of ability to go back and verify those miles within the date range. Thank you.

 

Two ways, one with a husband/wife team just divide the settlement equally, many in my fleet are happy with that so we cut one check to both.

the other is the eld is great to report miles and time. Each driver has to log into it, so we just run a report from the database and it gives the miles each driver drives under that load number, stupidly simply now. In 20 seconds we can have this for all the drivers.

 

I may not be understanding you here, it sounds like the pay is all the miles on one check. Is that accurate? Doesn't combining incomes like that cause you to fall into the higher tax bracket (over the course of a year) which would then increase your taxes owed? This assumes you are Married filing Jointly.

 

Cutting just one check is not mandatory, @Ridgeline team wants it that way.

 

Next question if you please:

What do truckers do for defending themselves? I don't think any mega-carrier trucking company is going to be OK with us concealed carrying in their truck and there are like 13 states that don't have reciprocity with Oklahoma so we realize were gonna have to leave our firearms in storage. A hammer in the cab? Take up Marital Arts of some sort? What is or is not allowed for the most part?

 

You'll probably never need to defend yourself, but carry an icepick or knife.

 

It's my understanding that in most cases the trucking company pays the driver for the same number of miles that the trucking company charges the customer to move the freight (quoted miles), unless the company is defrauding driver, customer, or both. In the old days before computers, GPS, electronic guides mileage from A to B was often determined by a paper book. I believe the most famous was the Household Movers Guide or House Hold Guide (HMG or HHG). It roughly listed mileage from city center to city center or from city limit to city limit. Some guides listed mileage from Zip code to Zip code. These routinely were about 10% fewer miles paid/charged than the actual mileage needed to drive from A to B. This was usually explained away as "it's the best we can do" or that's what the book says. A few other company, the better companies IMO, paid based on the driven miles from a device installed on the hub of one axle of the truck or trailer. This was called Actual Miles or Hub Miles. Another method was called Practical Miles. I'm not entirely sure what Practical Miles means, although I have heard maybe 50 different/contradictory explanations that often seemed to be someone guessing or someone misunderstanding what someone else may have said.

The HazMat tanker employer paid drivers the miles the dedicated customer was charged. If driver wanted to tour America and run up the miles, he got no more pay than if he drove the most likely/reasonable/safe/shortest route. You got paid 890 miles from Ela Paso, TX to Ft Smith, AR regardless of which route was taken. I forget what happened in case of bad road conditions over a large area requiring a substantial increase in miles driven. Most of my weeks I was on guarantee or exceeded the guarantee so I didn't watch mile total very closely except in rare cases, very long trips with LOTS of waiting, for example.

Most companies will not pay you for Hub Miles, but Practical Miles, quoted miles

 

You should be told, or you can ask or find out the "paid miles" for each trip before you start or during the trip. You SHOULD keep a total of those Paid Miles and reconcile your total with your company's paycheck. DO NOT just ask Google the mileage and then accuse your dispatcher, company, boss of cheating you when the miles Google claimed differs from the miles you were paid. You need to know how the company determines those miles and what details add/subtract. For example, it was common back in the day once you go to a larger city yo might drop a trailer or unload in one neighborhood/suburb, drive to another neighborhood/suburb or two or three and earn no or few miles because you are within a certain radius of the city center or metropolitan area of a big city. It is/was common for trucking companies to use an OTR driver as a local driver and burn up a whole day running around for little or no money because if they same company used a local driver, who is paid hourly, it would cost them more money. Sometimes the OTR driver is used locally for honest reasons and sometimes to get free work from the OTR driver and avoid paying the local driver.

You want to have the mileage process fully explained to you and then monitor it when you start a company, at least until you REALLY understand the nooks and crannies in the system that affect your pay. Once you fully understand the process and you consistently see you NEVER get paid what the process explanation suggested you would get paid (look up Calvinball) the you should think about big decisions at the company. Some companies paid me like I was the bosses son, like I was any old employee, or like I wouldn't notice certain things until I did notice. I generally never worked anywhere until I had 90% certainty the only thing my paychecks would be were honest except for a rare mistake which can happen anywhere. DO NOT assume the company is honest until you discover they are not. Find that out before you show up for orientation. YOU WILL NOT argue a dishonest company into becoming an honest company. Dishonest companies do not put "we cheat drivers" on their web pages or advise recruiters to inform drivers of this feature. Research like your future depends on it.

 

Whatever you carry (gun, no gun), I would not discuss it with anyone. ANYONE. It depends on where you go and what you haul and what you have access to. Practically speaking, if a driver were to carry a pistol in the truck, make dry van, reefer, flatbed deliveries at the most routine customers, no powerplants, no chemical plants/refineries, no military installations, no govt facilities, you have a very, very, very, very small chance of ever having anyone even ask if you are armed or have a gun the the truck. You can be inspected by DOT in almost any and all states and have a very small chance of being asked and a much smaller chance of a truck search.

The issue becomes spicy if you often deliver/unload in pre-riot or low-grade riot cities or you accidentally are present when the riot kicks off for the first time in that location. If you deliver to the sites I excluded above you have a moderate to decent chance of a very light search of the cab, often only a guard standing on the side-step and looking into the truck and sleeper to verify no hidden humans and a quick look under the hood and under the truck with a mirror to discover any "surprises". In 3 years I went to more secure locations I NEVER had anyone do more than ask me a question and possibly look for a hidden human in my truck/sleeper. Military and power plants are their own category. You will hear EVERYTHING being claimed about the searches for them, some are possibly true but many are too good to check. EVERY military base the rules are set by Base Commander. The rules change based on conditions and most recent threat/event at any base, not just the one you are at. So prepare to hear drivers explain what ABSOLUTELY IS TRUE at Base X based on a rumor or a visit in 1972. The rules at that base have changed a dozen or more times since then and there may be almost no problem if you show up with a gun and get turned away or they may take you to jail for having a stray 9mm cartridge in your suitcase. The base may hold your gun until you leave or the base may call the local/state cops to have you arrested. The same base may have done both or neither in the past until the terrorist event at Base Y 2 days before you showed up at Base X.

If you carry a gun, there are safe ways to drop it off at a safe place or ship it home safely and legally. If you carry a gun it's your job to find out, not just explain you don't agree with the law they are charging you for violating.

Tire thumpers, wrecking bars, hammers, knife, ice pick, insect/animal spray, poor man's flamethrower a bic lighter and spray can of almost anything (hairspray, WD-40, etc), It depends on what you can carry in your situation and what you can use. Items that look like tools for truck drivers don't raise as much suspicion as items that essentially only have a use as a weapon.

Newbies VASTLY overestimate the danger in trucking. The real danger are the cars doing colossally stupid and reckless things that cause a crash, you will almost always walk away with minor injuries and they die. In almost 30 years I can remember about 5 times I wanted, got ready to use some tool for a security situation. 2-3 were in Oakland, CA (worst spot in the country, IMO), 1 in El Centro CA rest area, 1 abandoned weigh station on AZ-NM line. I went to Detroit numerous times and felt unsafe, it's Detroit, but had no problems other than all the street/detour signs were stolen. I went to Baltimore a few times before the St George Floyd riots. OMG Baltimore is awful. Haiti levels of crime and decay.

You will probably never have any event other than a yelling match with a customer clerk or your dispatcher. That was my experience. YMMV