Stop pay for semi local flatbed job

Well, how are the local/city drivers paid? Do they get per-stop pay? Do they get load/unload pay? Is your mileage pay averaging near or above the local drivers hourly pay?
Need more info.

 

^^^^^^
1. Are you home every night? 500 miles is a whole lotta miles to be home every night.

Years ago, I had a Foodservice route. Leave Chattanooga Sunday night, go to Knoxville, grab a trailer, hit Montgomery, bay Minette, New Orleans, Baton Rouge and go home. 100% fingerprint. Got home Tuesday. Leave out Wednesday and do it all again, back home Friday. There was no stop pay, but I made mileage and $.15/case. Made $1200/week. Not bad, but it was work! Home 3 nights a week.

2. 1.75-3.75 hours working 4-12 stops. What exactly are you doing? Strapping an un strapping? Busy day.

3. How much do you make per week?

I started out local, delivering beer. Hard work, got paid by the case. The problem was, I was paid $,15/case, but if I had to pick up a case of beer, they'd charge me 50% of the wholesale cost. Well you get these greedy salesmen loading up a store with a big display and the dates go bad and by the end of the week, I had to pick up 20-40 cases of beer. Fine! I loaded the out dated beer in a pickup truck. Management got mad and demanded that I throw them in the dumpster. " Not happening Hoss. If I paid for them, they're going with me!" Work all week and won't even make $500. Get to the yard, do paperwork, turn the money and stuff in and get home at 11pm, but back up at 0400. Home every night, but so freakin what? By Saturday, I was so tired that I couldn't sleep. Just lie on a couch and shake. Would finally fall asleep Sunday noon.

Someone asked why is it that they always see local drivers sleeping over the steeringwheel. I would say because I didn't get to sleep when I was at home.

 

After the 1st stop most drivers get 5 to 20 per stop depending on tarp and time?

 

Well, have you tried saying any of this to management? What were the terms they gave you when you hired on? Has this been your route/assignment from the start? How long have you been there? Just IMO, but the longer you are there, and the longer you continue in this way, the harder it will be to convince them you should be getting more compensation...(ie- the bosses' response will probably be something like "Well, you've been doing it this way all along, why should you be paid more now?")

Be prepared to not be happy with the response you get, but you won't know if you don't try.....

Good luck.

 

I'd say at 40 cents a mile and no stop/tarp pay, you're getting royally screwed.

 

At your .40 per mile, it sounds like you are averaging about the same as the local drivers? (that would be my goal if I was the boss) If that's true... What makes you worth more?

 

That food service job was a decent gig. But then the company brought in some beancounters who decided that they pay their drivers too much. They added a stop in Macon,GA but cut my pay by $500/ week. Got my check, and realized the cut on a Thursday.On the way back home Friday, I got to talking with a flatbed driver that pulled for Osborn. I stopped into their office and put in an app. Since at that time, I had no flatbed experience, I agreed to work on the yard for a week, strapping and securing. Made it home, turned in my truck, started with Osborn the following Monday. Now it was OTR, but we would just go out of Gadsden and back, and I was home every weekend.

I've always been the type that if I agreed to do the job, I do the job. I'd stay on that job as long as our agreement stayed the same. If the truck was set at 70, it better stay at 70. Start cutting stuff and beancounting, I'm out. Now, I've never been one of those guys that'd have a hissy if I didn't make it home. Things happen, I understand that. Had a big snow and ice storm hit the southeast in 93 and a bunch of guys got stuck when the DOT shut the road down. There were drivers that quit because they didn't make it home. Pansies.
Anyway, there's a reason why I always say to bring your A game whenever you play. Some guys when they become disgruntled start slacking. In our line of work, if you start slacking, something very bad happens. Improper load securement. Get one of those awards and you lose your Man Card and you get excommunicated from the Cool Kids. Load shifts, truck flips, people get hurt, lawyers come after you like angry hornets. You are ruined.
Now, it's really hard to bring your A game when you feel that you are getting stiffed, so I would recommend you jump ship ASAP. Do you have your next gig lined up? If your record is clean, you should have zero problems getting another gig. You'd better crunch the numbers though to make sure that's green grass over yonder.