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

I do very little actual driving, I think last year I only did 12k-ish miles.

Last time I checked, there were very few touring companies that could hire full-time drivers. Everyone else hires freelancers and you end up working for 3-5 companies to get enough work to replace a regular job. Freelancing is the norm in entertainment, being an employee is much less common. One of the biggest companies that hires drivers is Upstaging, and last time I talked to one of their drivers, they were on salary of about $1000/week, that was a few years ago. The catch with driving for a tour, is that you are ON the tour, there is NO hometime until the tour goes overseas or ends, this is non-negitiable.

The difference between my job and a regular driver in this biz, is that I'm a video tech FIRST and and driver second. I'm the ONLY tech/driver for my particular tour, and when I hit dead spots on my tour, I often fly to other one-off gigs to tech them. For instance, at one gold tournament, I flew in, built two giant screens, ran them throughout the tournament, dismantled them, then flew home. My company had 4 other techs on site for that gig and they all had their own areas they were responsible for.

I absolutely LOVE my job and will probably retire from this company. The owner treats us very well and promotes a can-do positive attitude throughout the company, everyone there LOVES their job. Every day I think to myself, "#### I love my job!" and I know that most people will never get to say that in their life. I get to play with some REALLY cool toys, and my company builds really cool stuff that no one else can build.

On my tour I can usually get a day or two off to explore and have fun, I'm just outside San Diego at the moment. From here I'm putting my gear on a container to Hawaii and I'll be staying in a house with a really awesome crew we are shipping in from Florida. These guys are a bunch of REALLY hard working guys, and also good friends. I have a bunch of other stops that I'm really looking foreword to this season.

The company doesn't tell me what routes to drive, or care. As long as I'm on-time, and the gear isn't needed for another show, they don't care if I stop somewhere to visit friends/family. I don't sleep in the truck at night unless I want to, they pay for hotels every night, no questions asked. I do on occasion nap in the sleeper on a job site. I have a rental car for almost every gig, and I don't get hassled over cab fares.

And when the season is over, I'll be home for weeks on end between events, with ZERO work responsibilities other than answering emails from my client. At the end of the year I'll spend a couple weeks at the shop going through all the gear for the tour and test it, clean it, and so on. But again, that's on my own schedule.

There isn't a lot of info online about this part of the entertainment industry. I worked as a stagehand long before entering the trucking industry. As a stagehand, trucking was a faster way to a steady paycheck, so I went that way. After over a million miles of trucking I got tired of the way everyone treats trucks drivers, and including other truck drivers. No matter how positive you try to stay, the industry just pummels you with negativity. I quit and went back to doing stagehand work and within a few months landed a spot on this tour as an assistant, a made up position. By the end of the first season I had moved up to lead tech. I started driving for this tour for the second season, and midway through the second season got the bump from freelancer to full-time salaried employee. I'm just starting the third season now and now have more responsibilities and freedom than the guy I replaced. Because I've massively improved relations with the client, the account is slowly becoming mine.

 

Without getting into the realm of advertising for them, I work for a company Called Truline Driver Solutions. They hire all over the US. They do the hiring and pay and all the tedious stuff. They then subcontract drivers out to other companies for local work. Once this contract is done I can request something here in TX or something in some other state. I lucked out with the tractor, they rent tractors and trailers and Ryder only had sleepers at the time.

Edit for missed question:
Most local drivers here in SA work their ##### off. I lucked out with this job in that regards. I transport shelving and equipment from a warehouse to a walmart for a remodel. Not much to do there other than drive. Still torn between keeping this job or waiting for the ltl's to open up hiring and drop apps en masse.

 

http://www.blackhorsecarriers.com

I work in the automotive division. Another driver leaves from the warehouse in ATL and meets me and another guy at the Ryder yard in Chatt (that's where I park my truck). We load our freight by making a bridge between the trailers with the hydraulic lift gates (takes about 20 min). I then leave to deliver to my dealerships (I do all the Mazda dealers between Chatt and Johnson City. 6 in total. The other Chatt driver does N. AL. And middle TN.). Since we run nights, I have a key to all the shops and there is no one there when I make my drops (except the occasional janitor). Each drop takes about 10 minutes. After the last one, I drive home empty.

 

Hourly and time in a half after 40 is the way to go.cpm is the worst!

 

Hourly hands down with OT of course. My local home everyday gig has smoked all my OTR jobs. Then again I'm from the car capital southern ca so traffic is a huge factor in 12hr days.

 

Today I sat in traffic for 3.5 hours going from LA to Victorville. Yeah I know, that was way too fast. I'm going to make it up by parking at the fuel island at the Hisperia Pilot for an hour.

 

I wanted to come back to this. I don't understand why drivers want to work more hours, instead of getting paid better for their time working. Even back in the days when I was an OTR driver on a CPM pay scale, I ran a legal book because I didn't want to work 100+ hours a week like everyone else seems to strive for. I believe in having a balance between work and play, something about all work and no play...

Because my company isn't a regular "trucking" company, running out of hours isn't a bad thing. If any techs/drivers are going to run their clock out and not be able to make it on time to the next show, then we just let the office know a few days in advance. The company then flies out a driver that has a fresh logbook and we team until the primary driver has the hours again, and the secondary driver flies home. It's that simple.