Salary/Hourly/CPM ...what do you think?

Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by dogtrucker, Mar 22, 2016.

  1. MrEd

    MrEd Road Train Member

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    I don't really know about anything other than OTR. In 23 years it's all I've done. For OTR, I thought percentage pay was better than CPM. At least, with fair rates and minimal empty miles it is. Cheap rates, and long bounces....not so much.
     
  2. dogtrucker

    dogtrucker Road Train Member

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    Well, it seems we are rewarded for staying out. I work 42 hrs/week average @$1200/week. Still, the local openings go fast ...people like to have a home - go figure.
    I hope your Ray is not from the religion forum - I was pretty hard on that guy; if so, apologies for any hard feelings.
    12 hours a day is too much for me. Add commute time and what can you do when you get home but sleep.
    Maybe I should invest in lottery tickets.
     
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  3. dogtrucker

    dogtrucker Road Train Member

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    At least on percentage your profit is tied to your employers profit so there is a mutual interest in success. That looks like a better model than CPM.
     
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  4. dogtrucker

    dogtrucker Road Train Member

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    That sounds interesting. I looked at some of the touring companies. The money seemed OK but it also looked erratic and stressful.
    It looks like you do a lot for your clients. Over all, do you feel satisfied and appreciated? Would you trade this job for any other? Is there some extra fun and adventure in that line of work?
    You are into a specialty many of us would like to know more about. Maybe link to some threads? Thanks.
     
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  5. pattyj

    pattyj Road Train Member

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    Some of the local drivers are maKing even less then 975.00,the ones that don't go out of town.I don't know what religion forum you speak of but no worries because Ray has never been on the forum..He's not computer savvy.
     
  6. 8thnote

    8thnote Road Train Member

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    I've got a salary job. It's local over-night driving. I run 5 nights per week, home every day and off every weekend. I run the same route each night, but all the customers don't always order everyday, so if they don't order I can skip that stop for that night. If I ran the full route 5 nights, it would work out to 2180 miles per week and about 45 hours per week. But it's often less than that. My salary is $1100 per week no matter what.

    I feel that I'm more than adequately compensated for the work that I do and I work very hard and strive to provide first rate service to my customers because of it. I do not view a salary as an incentive to slack off, as someone mentioned earlier. Quite the contrary. I know how good I've got it, making good money at an easy job, and I'll continue to excel at it because I don't ever want to go back to an otr cpm job again.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2016
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  7. Pintlehook

    Pintlehook Road Train Member

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    Guess I'll chime in here and try to explain my payscale, it's kind of complicated. First I'll mention that I have medical/eye/dental insurance that costs me nothing (ZERO) dollars out of pocket, in addition to that I have a pension and a 401(k). I also get paid holidays and vacation, the downside is that I have "split" days off (Sunday and Wednesday at the moment). I rarely work more than 45 hours a week and I'll outline a typical day in a second. I always try to look at the total compensation package before determining the merits of an employer and my current situation works out well for me.

    I'm paid "component pay" and it's based on the run times of the particular route for the day. I can NEVER be paid less than .395 cents per minute, which works out to $23.70/hr. Any "extra" work (i.e. days off or an additional run when I return from my normal bid) is paid out at 1.5 times the normal rate.

    Okay, I'll use yesterday as an example. Keep in mind that it's the shortest run (miles wise) that I have all week, in fact it's probably one of the shortest in the company. 2 trips, 114 miles total. 2 stops on the first trailer, 2 stops on the second.

    I started at 4:30am, the company pays us 20 minutes to pre trip (remember that anything over that is paid at .395 cents a minute). I left the gate at 4:48am (still received 20 minutes of pay) and drove 14 minutes to my first stop (it paid me 17 to get there, so I beat it by 3 minutes). I had to drop 1 pallet, it took me 11 minutes and we get paid a minimum half hour for a stop (11.75), so at 5:30 in the morning I'm already 24 minutes ahead, so to speak.

    The rest of the trailer went to my second stop that took me 20 minutes to arrive, to be honest I'm not sure how many minutes in paid me to get there, but I always "beat the time". Got paid almost $80 to unload the rest of the trailer (no touch) and left the stop at approximately 7:15am.

    Arrived at the domicile at 7:45am (again, I'm not sure of the drive time but I know I beat it every week). I get paid 40 minutes to drop and hook at the home terminal (anything over that is the .395 thing again) and I gated out on my second trip at 8:15am, so that's another 10 minute cushion.

    I won't out line the drive/unload time for the first stop, suffice it to say that it was VERY favorable. I dropped the whole load, save 1 pallet for the first stop and the drive time to my second stop wasn't established yet. The company gave me 33 minutes to get there, it took 49. Bingo, 16 minute delay. Got paid another half hour for the second drop, it took me 22 minutes because I got a bite to eat while I was there. Drive back to the terminal, get paid 30 minutes to post trip, and go home.

    I punched out at 12:30pm and made $263 for 8 hours of work. I consider myself extremely lucky to have my job. Frankly, the whole industry should pay similarly. Understand that this was only one example of one day of my week, the runs vary greatly but we are paid for everything we do.
     
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  8. TankerP

    TankerP Road Train Member

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    I've done cpm, salary, hourly vs. activity, and hourly with OT.

    My personal order of preference:

    1- hourly with OT. (Hands down the winner, nuff said)
    2- hourly vs. activity (protects you when traffic is bad or any other delay)
    3- salary (secure but get ready to work your butt off)
    4- cpm (we all know what this is, right?)
     
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  9. Starboyjim

    Starboyjim Road Train Member

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    So, you know what's best for everyone, Zeviander? For me, no thanks. I don't want the pressure of squeezing enough hours, stretching my OT, to make a check. I don't like CPM, so I'm sneaking up on % pay.
     
  10. Starboyjim

    Starboyjim Road Train Member

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    Dogtrucker, you cheated your logs? Shocking.