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oops, you're right, i ment long miles.. i was getting $0.41 a mile for anything under 200miles. Drivers with tenure were getting $0.40 for anything over 500mi.

and the issue isn't people not wanting to "eat the crap" and get experience. the issue is other drivers taking dumps on new drivers for eating the crap and getting experience.. there has to be a common ground in this industry. everyone knows you can't get a good job with out experience, and everyone knows pretty much only cheap companies hire drivers with no experience, but then at the same time, everyone talks down to drivers for not having experience and working cheap.. it almost seems as if it one of those "dang'd if ya do, dang'd if ya dont" situations.

It's a good thing that LeAnn Rimes or Taylor Swift doesn't drive truck cause they would have had plenty of nervous break downs from all of the skit talkers sitting on their high horse.

 

to put it in perspective, in 1979 with no experience whatsoever i got my first driving job at 23 cents per mile loaded or empty. in 1989 i was making 35 cents a mile loaded and empty, plus accessory pay. and at that job a driver who hadnt pulled flats , steps or rgn would ride with you a month to be trained, that paid an addl 75 dollars per day, plus we stayed in a motel every night and werent expected to team.

in 1990 when i bought own truck, it was common place for drivers to avg 30 cents a mile at an avg company. a good many folks start at now for the same pay i started at in 1979, something is wrong with that picture.

and the aiwiron makes is that large companies like swift will pull for a mileage rate less than the going rate, often times just to get the business, they wont cut it 5 cents , they cut it 40 cents or more.

example, if i pull freight from a shipper at a rate i can live with and go there fairly regularly, the first time i see a tmc, melton , or swift in there i know the rates will start a downward trend. they then bottom out and for a while we wont load there, then somebody screws something up and the rates go back to where they were and you dont see those fleets there.

its nothing against those drivers for those companies, everyone has to start somewhere to get experience. its the business model that started after deregulation. the business model that uses thousands of trucks to haul freight at lower rates, they make a small profit per truck but with thousands it adds up.

its like the wal-mart accounts many of these big fleets haul for, jb, schneider, swift, etc all continually underbid each other for slices of this business.

 

EXACTLY

They hauled school bus chassis' for years on those drop deck trailers.

 

Not trying to start an argument but you most people would actually be very surprised if they found out the rate that TMC charges. It's not as cheap as you think.

As for working for 40 cents a mile after 5 years that's crap! I make well over that I've only been flatbeding for 2 years. Then again I am also on a percentage based pay.

 

Skateboardman hit the nail on the friggin head!!

 

Yep, just like the freight out of Minneapolis that we were told a year ago, If you dont want to haul it for 1.35/mile, TMC will. That was straight from the shipper!!!

 

milskired , you are right in that somewhat. you would also be surprised at the rate the guy in line in front of you and in back of you is getting for the same load going to the same place.


dont take what i said as a knock against your outfit , its just a fact of life. you in fact probably have encountered the same thing, you have a place you haul from regularly, them some other outfit shows up and the rate goes to heck on your percentage.

i once loaded in hickman,ky at a concrete wire mesh plant, loaded with a tmc guy going to same place in chicago. he was a percentage guy. he asked what i was getting , i said well we got to figure cause i am o/o , so i took my rate, took off the fuel surcharge, then figured off my 75 per cent what the 100 per cent rate for me was and then compared what his said his pay would be on what he was told load paid. it was quite a large difference, although what he was getting was well above mileage pay for most fleets.


thtts the point of post on this matter, and i think also of aiwiron. its not the driver but the company this post is directed to.

 

Im not taking it is a knock at all. I agree totally with you skateboard.

Buckeye if you dont mind me asking, what place was it up there.? I only know of 2 places up there that we haul out of a lot. One pays great and one is always loaded to the max and pays crap.

 

I also took it pointed towards the driver someone just because what driver would actually work for a company where you can't even bring home 5 to 600 dollars a week. That was right out of the swift drivers mouth about a month ago when I was talking to 1 he said he's lucky if he brings home 500 dollars a week. I just about shoukd on what I was eating when he had said that because I usually bring home double that

 

I'm sure they're dedicated to certain freight....I have a friend who used to drive for them and he said they always ran the same lanes and the same loads.....I'm not worried about swift or jb comin in and takin any of my freight