Never drive for a company that starts you out below .40 cents a mile!

The risk factor could be taken down by better, longer, more thorough training and by paying enough to retain employees who can make great trainers one day instead of being a revolving door(I know some are profiting off the revolving door from gov money, but that's another issue entirely) and having newbies with 6 months experience training somebody. Higher pay will also attract higher quality prospects as well. I could never start trucking at .21 a mile, I’d be bankrupt and homeless by the time I put in my two years. Who is going to be crazy enough to do something like that? Someone you probably shouldn't be hiring in the first place! lol

They could all pay employees more per mile by simply charging the shippers more and the shippers can pass that on to the customers. Win-Win-Win for everybody involved.

 

Well, I want to do the work. I'm admittedly add (non-medicated, self-diagnosed. Learned to make it work for me.), so getting out of the rig is a good thing for me. ...oh and if anyone has a problem with my admitting that or being add, close your curtains and stick it where the sun don't shine. There are some of us who were taught to deal with and work with our problems, not hide them.

Thats a good part of why I chose dedicated over otr, I don't want to sit in the rig all day. I know me and I know it'll begin to feel like a prison if I don't do more than just drive.

To the person asking about us express... I've heard nothing good.

I feel that the megas find ways to make up for the low pay, at least the good ones do. They want to hold onto seasoned drivers to train the next batch coming in. So I do agree with Hawk there. SNI will bump me to 33.5 cents after a full year, that's not as much as otr gets bumped, but I get paid did doing the work too, not just driving.

...hell, given the option is hop out of the cab and load my own trailer at shippers if they'd let me!

 

This is along the same vein as "Say no to cheap freight" The bottom line is it is a free market. No one puts a gun to someones head to drive for $.25 a mile. That may be all they are worth on an entry level position. Like in another post in the accident section the Prime driver on his own for 3 weeks tore half a house down and totalled the trailer and the load.
This is like the minimum wage argument. Their are some people who want $15 an hour minimum wage when they aren't worth the present $7.50.
No one who is a good qualified driver, with good work history, few or no accidents or tickets has to worry about making a good wage in this industry. But getting and maintaining that record is difficult, but there are plenty of companies that hire only the best. They just don't have to advertise much for them because they have little turnover.

 

We now have two Hawks in this thread. I am greatly inclined to agree with both of them.

 

not all drivers are paid just cpm,after i sold my trucks went to work as a company driver. when i retired from there four years ago was making 40 cpm off the hub. that being said they also paid $5000.00 on average per year profit sharing,$1500.00 christmas check, one cpm safety, 12 payed holidays, four weeks vacation, clothing ,ham an turkey plus free flu shots,dont know how they pay health insurance now. sometimes you have to look at the big picture on money. but in turn they were a private carrier and they had rules about how you dressed and how you treated the people you deliver to. b safe out there

 

And a partridge in a pear tree.

Its a difference in expectation too. Megas and cheap carriers all expect their new drivers to kill a rig. Doesn't mean total it, just means they expect to get it back in worse condition than a seasoned driver would've put it through. Plus, when you look at these threads about showering, keeping clean and so forth.. Well, again it's expectation. If you have a carrier that won't tolerate it, they'll pay more as they expect more.

 

Yeah, property is cheap. Would love to buy a house in cash and not have to deal with rent or a mortgage while on the road.

Thanks for the feedback on U.S. Xpress you guys, I'll add them to the blacklist.

What about prime and alibene? And I read some of you are with or was with schneider? Really? I heard a lot more cons than pros with that company.

 

I like SNI, they've got their hang ups but so does every company mega or not. My biggest two issues with SNI are they are governed so low (not the lowest, but close) and their sleep crapnea stuff they push into you.

When you're reading posts, you'll have to figure out which ones are "user fault" versus company fault. Easiest way to figure out what is what is to ask, "could this have been avoided if they had looked into it further, or was this beyond their control?"

Usually you'll figure out which ones are just whining.

 

i'd like to know where the .40 companies are. cuz on the west. .35 is about average. and our cost of living is higher.