Questions on hourly positions

It just depends. Ads are usually optimistic. But in trucking when a company says 40 hours per week that often means 40-50. Talk to drivers at the company putting the ad in the paper. That's the ONLY way to know what you may be walking into. Since MANY trucking companies don't pay overtime (you get straight hourly pay for all hours worked) they are usually very likely to let you work longer if you need more hours, as long as doing so doesn't cause you to go over the legal limits. There are still legal limits but there may not be a requirement to log what you are doing. I had a job like that for 18 years.

 

Again, you really need to ask where you are applying....
Most of our bids are 10 hour bids, 4 days a week. On paper. The runs are actually more like 12 hours long so an average week without overtime is 48 hours for what's advertised as a 40 hour week on the jobsite. On the same token one of the bids is only 10 hours long, 4 days.

There really isn't a good answer because every terminal will be whatever that terminal needs.
For example milk will need to run rain, hail. sleet or snow. Construction on the other hand you'll get 70 hours in the summer, but 20 in the winter....

 

If I wanted to bring union into it I would have.

We are strictly until now talking about plain Hourly.

Unions have their own systems. I stand on what I said as correct. Provided it is not anything to do with Union.

 

Depends on the company and really you gotta do the research and talk to the drivers.
The hours depend on your skill/ production and company environment. The company I’m with has has slow seasons but they also want drivers to get their hours about 60 a week. Some drivers come in and get moving and knock out 3-4 loads a day. Some drivers milk the clock and do less. But if there’s a day in the slow season you know who they’re calling upon. That being said you can always find ways to justify your time. Getting/ doing maintenance on the truck, washing the truck, exchanging old equipment. You just don’t want to be known as the guy that’s dragging his foot doing everything and scraping for every minute.

2. That’s depends on the company and their standards

 

Our company guarantees a 42 hr. week, long as you show up. Drivers only run approximately 3-4 days a week, work on trucks and hang out at truck shop till they get their 42. Most runs average 9-10 hrs. No weekends.
Not going to get rich, but not bad for a trucking gig..

 

What systems do Unions have? Please elaborate on this. I'm a Union represented driver and I can't find the difference's except for pay and benefits? What I mean is we all do the same thing. We pick up product from point A and deliver it to point B? What am I missing here?

 

For the final time I am not getting into Union Pay and Benefits and so on. The topic is strictly Hourly pay. To me that means a time clock punching twice a day.

I have deliberately stayed away from Union stuff to keep on Topic with OP's ORIGINAL QUESTION re: HOURLY PAY. Trucking has alot of that as well.

If I tried to get into Union to meet YOUR question, it's only going to show how ancient I am and out of date so there is no point. I am absolutely finished with this particular topic.

 

Just had a relevant conversation with the GF about this.
Most of the companies around here, including the one I work at now, want you to work at least 50 hours a week. That is with OT after 40.
I am not an expert, but I believe on a W2 position, it is actually less expensive to have 4 drivers working 50 hours a week each, again with OT, than to have 5 drivers working 40 hours a week.
Perhaps someone can shed light on whether or not that is correct.

 

It really depends on benefits and the like.
For example heath insurance and pension/401k is a sunk cost, so up to a point yes it is less expensive to pay overtime vs. hiring a new employee.
Off my head I'm thinking medical, retirement contribution, insurance required by dot, number of truck and trailers needed to something as simple as using a payroll service is by number of employees.

At the end of the day it's those sunk costs that matter. Plus, because of schedules, one might even need to buy a 3th truck for the 5ht guy (vs running say 2 12hr shifts for the other guys) which raises that 5th guys onboarding cost.