Switch from CPM to hourly

I do not have a fleet, but the pattern I’ve seen in trucking is local drivers, say, within a 100 or 150 air mile radius, are usually paid by the hour and sometimes a hybrid with performance pay as we see with Sysco, US Foods, and Coca-Cola. The mile pay makes more sense for OTR or regional drivers, who put in a lot of miles and are away from home for days or weeks.

Edit—

I forgot to mention that overtime rules/laws vary from state to state.

 

We pay by the hour. Anything over 8 hours a day is time-and-a-half. Amount of pay is based on seniority and longevity. We don't pay any extra for working weekends since the driver is usually on overtime anyway. There's no night differential pay. No fuel bonus.
We run mostly local and short regional. The driver is paid from his clock-in time until he clocks out minus his meal breaks.
The driver is paid for everything including loading, unloading, and waiting time. We have ELDs in the trucks but since most of our hauling is local we seldom check them against the time clocks unless there's a problem of some kind. We know about how long all the hauls take.
We also pay for 8 holidays at 8 hours at the driver's hourly wage.
Breakdown pay is at the regular hourly wage. That includes ovetime if he's already on it.
If the driver has to stay out overnight we pay for the motel room and we pay for meals starting with evening meal on the first day of the layover and continuing until the driver comes back to the terminal. We pay for his meals on the day of return excluding the meal that occurs after his arrival.
We also have a longevity bonus, a safety bonus, and full medical and dental at no cost to the driver. Family can be covered for a nominal fee. I don't remember what it is but it's very reasonable.
When I first started here we paid percentage but we found we get better drivers and drivers who'll stay with us by paying hourly.
If you get a driver that sees hourly pay as an excuse to milk the clock you'll notice soon enough if you keep close watch on his trip times. We had a couple of those when we made the switch to hourly and, with the kind of hauling we do, they stood out like a sore thumb. One changed his ways, the other one didn't. He's no longer with us.

 

If I was a company driver. I (and the wife) would absolutely love hourly pay. Of course since the bottom line is ALWAYS the bottom line. What the hourly rate (and bennies) is makes all the difference in the world.

 

It may. Consider the possible fuel savings? Maybe the drivers will take it a bit easier on the equipment? Maybe the drivers will be safer? Maybe they wont rush pre-trip/post-trip thus eliminating down time or equipment failures? Im just fishing here.

 

For us, the difference between percentage and hourly pay is surprisingly close. Our driver retention is excellent. We haul a variety of things and a driver has to be versatile. He might be on a flatbed one day, a pneumatic tanker the next, haul logs for awhile, and then spend a few days on an end dump. Drivers that can move easily from one kind of equipment to another are rare. And valuable. We like to hang on to our people.
The driver's attitude toward the job is one of the benefits of hourly. If they get hung up someplace they're still getting paid. It also gives management some incentive to find out why the hangups are happening and solve the problem if they can.
One thing about it, if you transition to hourly you'll find out real fast who your hard workers are and who drags their feet. You might have to do some retraining or even some firing but then end result will probably be a good crew that makes money for you and themselves.

 

Really? I've always thought people would like to mix up their day.

 

Some do. Some don't. Doesn't matter. If the work needs to be done it gets done. The drivers know this when they sign on.