New Pay Package

They want you die of old age before you get to .42cpm.

I thought 3yrs was eternity to get to my top out at .52cpm. Yup and I'm at a lower paying LTL too.

TL guys get screwed over by these Otr companies. Should be paying a lot more for sacrificing being away. I feel long haul should pay over .50cpm starting. I'm sure there wouldn't be a driver shortage. These companies just trying to fatten their pockets by paying less.

 

OK I did the math and so far I am averaging 2500 miles a week. Not too bad for a five state regional driver.

 

You're going to break Joe and Tow's hearts talking that way...

Sleeping with the enemy, you are.

Well, not really. Gordon's pay increase that includes detention after one hour is ground shaking. Sure, most are drop and hook. But it may be the beginning, I hope, of a sea change in the truckload industry, paying drivers for their time.

What a concept!

In that this is across 2,000 seats it's not trivial. At least if drivers can do the math. Most Gordons pick up today and deliver tomorrow. Pick up today, deliver tomorrow. And repeat.

Detention after 1 hour adds up big time.

 

The guys running reefer fleet are really happy about it the most. They spend a lot more time waiting to load and unload than I do in dry van.

 

And this is actually company wide so we are talking 4200 trucks in total.

 

That's awesome and really, really smart--makes it more likely HTLD/GTI discovered that the best source of drivers, as opposed to turnover drivers, really is at other carriers, like Swift.

Can you imagine the pressure on Swift/CRS on the Central Refrigerated Services side, with lots and lots of drivers on the reefer side looking over at GTI's smaller, better-paid reefer division? No sign-on bonus needed, folks.

With the debt Swift carries, very difficult to match--but if this is the structural change I'm thinking it could be--Swift/CRS has no choice eventually. They'll lose too many drivers to soon-to-be-debt-free-again Heartland/GTI.

Swift, USXpress and Con-way announced their pay increases.

Gerdin responds. Oh, yeah? I'll raise you. Take that!

May just solve a huge recruiting headache for HTLD/GTI and the way Gerdin has been bringing down the operating costs on the Gordon side, Heartland/GTI can afford this better than carriers carrying lots of debt.

Truth is, there's never been a 'driver shortage' in truckload, just such a pay shortage that 100% of drivers bail every year. Raise pay, turnover drops. Where else would you go in truckload until other carriers smell something burning and it's not coffee, it's doors slamming as drivers step out of their rigs and leave for greener pastures at HTLD/GTI?

Poor Joe, he'll have to come up with a different script about 'GordLand'...

Well, he probably won't.

 

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall as--likely--it was a dialog between the Gordons and Gerdin that broke this ground on detention. Most likely the conversation centered on the actual cost of driver turnover and recruitment. And where the drivers are, the experienced drivers who will stay, at least.

Gerdin has never been keen on being a training, a starter company. The Gordon's had--may still have--some of the best trainers in the industry, train-the-trainer program for trainers of new drivers and all. 5-year requirement.

We'll just have to wait and see how it looks when they roll it out Nov 2 and after... It's worth staying tuned, folks!

 

I guess I don't see it as such a major step Vic. More clever than real -- Gordon's strategy seems to be raise the ancillary pay for things people ##### about but offset it with lower pay elsewhere. At the end of the year, I bet the Conway driver has a slightly bigger w2


Driver with 2 years' experience based in California:

Base pay:
Con-way 39cpm
Gordon: 37.5cpm


Safety bonus:
Con-way: 1cpm paid quarterly
Gordon: 1cpm paid annually

Hazmat:
Con-way: 3cpm only on dispatched hm loads
Gordon: 1cpm on all miles

Retention bonus:
Conway: 1.5cpm annually
Gordon: --

Northeast:
Conway: 4cpm
Gordon: 4cpm

Canada:
Conway: $25 per loaded crossing
Gordon: 4cpm in Canada

Extra stop pay:
Conway: $35/each 1 pick, 1 drop free
Gordon: ?

Breakdown/Layover:
Conway: $75/day after 48 hours
Gordon: ?

Detention:
Conway: $12/hour, 1st $12 paid 2 hours past appointment (capped at 10?)
Gordon: $17/hour after 1 hour in the dock (what about waiting for dock?)

Holiday pay:
Con-way: 6 holidays/year @ $60/each if you worked any day of that week
Gordon: ?

Christmas bonus:
Con-way: $25 per year of service
Gordon: ?

Driver Appreciation meals:
Conway: ~ $50/year
Gordon: ?

Driver Amenities:
Conway: bunk heater + unrestricted idle on trucks without apu, 1000W inverter, Satellite radio, mid-range interior/gauge package (trolley valves, brake application gauges, etc), Idle-Aire at 1 terminal & coming to another, reimbursed showers (or $12/day applied to your hotel bill), reimbursed parking, prepass & pikepass with most other tolls reimbursed (except some texas, california, & ontario). Trucks traded in at 350,000-450,000. Scales, oils, & fuel treatments authorized on comdata.
Gordon: APU & inverter, premium interior, prepass, trucks traded in at 800,000?

 

Detention begins one hour after your appointment time.

 

It's not anything major. I make more CPM plis get more miles and newer tractors and trailers. APU and inverters on all trucks. It comes down to miles and being able to run. At GTI and Heartland it's not easy, not that they are trying to starve out drivers, it's just the way it works.