Should cpm be changed to hourly for all drivers?

Exactly my point... I run more miles than the average driver at my company on a regular basis. We have something like 55 or 60 OTR trucks. I'm consistently in the top 10 for miles each month... And often the top 5. We have 3 drivers that get 15k + miles EVERY MONTH. I get up in that range occasionally but not often. I'm never late of my own fault. I I quite often get the difficult loads that require you keep the left door shut in order to deliver on time. I feel that for this the CPM system rewards me better... The smucks that dink off or are consistently late end up with less cause they arent getting the longer runs or as many runs in a month. Plus I get a mileage bonus (once I hit certain mileage tiers for the month) that makes my CPM for each month increase for that entire month

 

Every job I had I husseled at. And every one of those jobs that were hourly I had multiple people tell me to slow down cause we were paid by the hour lol. Being the top performer got me nowhere. Even as a manager on salary my dedication got me nothing. Saved the company a small fortune in 2.5 years and got nothing. It’s all BS. Nothing changes and nothing will change. Keep striving to be the best in your situation.

And for those who want the entire industry to change? Give up. Ain’t happening. If the pay doesn’t meet your expectations, change companies. If you want to control your destiny, buy your own truck and earn what YOU want. Don’t wait on others to change it for you.

 

Now, you and I are not saying the CPM system is perfect. We are saying that it’s more advantageous to the hard charger. There’s not a big difference between the A Game driver and the average driver, there’s a million little differences. For me, that biggest obstacle was the fuel stops and fuel scheduling. I’m not going out of route to fuel. I am not fueling in the middle of the day. We came to an agreement about the fuel, and I could run those critical loads. In a 65 mph truck.

 

Once again. You cannot paint the entire trucking industry with a broad brush.
There are way too many variables and types of driving and trucks. What may be a good pay scale for a driver pulling a refer coast to coast won’t be good for a driver pulling a oversize cross country or a fuel hauler doing 3 or 4 gas stations a day.

 

I can only comment on OTR dry van, since that is what I do.

In that respect, I can not see any advantage for the trucking industry to pay hourly instead of by the mile.
I could see an advantage to me though, if I padded my on-duty-not-driving time and/or drove at a slower pace.
My fuel stops could take an extra 10 minutes, maybe not log off duty for shorter breaks, take extra time for post trip and pre-trip inspections, log all time at the shipper/receiver as on duty...

And in reality I might have to do all that just to break even if it ever went to paying me at an hourly rate.
Because if I was the one setting up the hourly pay system, I would be adjusting it for all those factors in the first place.


And this thread smacks of the fight to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Get more at the bottom, with no regard for the trickle-up effect.
Because the more the bottom makes, the more the upper charges for everything. Within a year or so there is no real advantage to anyone on the bottom. Probably just the opposite.


I am happy right where I am at, earning by the mile.

 

I think driver would milk the clock and owners will lose many. Traffic and accidents will also at a factor in the owners losing money by paying hourly

 

But you can only drive for 11 hours and be on duty for 3 for a total of 14. And with ELD's it would be hard to do.
I"m paid hourly but I am just hauling fuel to airports for now. And doing preloads for road drivers.

 

What needs to be mentioned is that a very large amount of drivers are already being paid an hourly amount. Come to the town I live in, and talk to every driver, and I bet over 95% are on hourly already. The long haul, super light load industry, is just a small part of the overall trucking industry, not the only thing that exists, and many forget that. Just wanted to bring that up, as a reminder for those who say hourly pay couldn't work out well. It already does work well for many.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming of disagreement.

 

Govt talks about safety but the only way to start on the road to safety is hourly . Paid by the mile -faster that you drive on roads and through construction sites - the more money you will make . Paid hourly - people slow down . Proven that speed kills . Pretty simple concept .