The fear of no pay...

RedRover · Aug 14, 2017

And running 10k per month doesn't require logging illegally. Hell, you can run 15k legally if you play it right and the stars line up. I ran 3832 week before last. Legally. That is PLENTY of recap to run another 3000+ mile week the next week. Hell, I ran 3200 and got a reset in last week before I went home. I was at home for 4 days however, so what do you think this week looks like? It looks like your o/o experience. I'm working for free.

BigBob410 · Aug 17, 2017

Must have roofed a car or something.. he completely skipped over my suggestions if he really had car haul experience there is plenty of cash and benefits to be made out of Jax, Springhill and plenty of other places in the south. And even if he wanted to just bump docks there are plenty of opportunities out there with solid companies. As I have said in other posts... You could give some people 10k a day to sit at home and they would complain their butt hurts!!

x1Heavy · Aug 18, 2017

BORNAGAIN said: ↑

My introduction to the industry...

Back in 2012 a friend bought his own little box truck in Chicago and was making good money working for a local broker. He took me on his daily run, we went to a local machine shop at 2AM, picked up a pallet with 6 clutch assemblies for Caterpillar monster machinery. We drove 3 hours to the Caterpillar assembly plant in Indiana. That run paid him about $300 everyday. On our way back Dispatch had him picked up a small pay load from Indiana and we dropped near border with Wisconsin. We were done by 1PM and he got paid $500 for the day total. Minus taxes, fuel, all the expenses of being owner operator for the day...

I was so excited about the easy money, that I took all my savings and bought a similar truck, Isuzu NPR box truck and signed with the same broker. Unfortunately for me, it didn't go so well. They never had any long runs that paid any money for me. I got stock with a new contract bid they just got and were testing out, I was their ginnie pig delivering small items to homes and small main street front stores, hair salons, etc... I would spend the whole day battling big city traffic, At the end of the first paid period, I only got paid enough to cover my fuel spent, never mind every other cost I was incurring. I worked for free.

I went and spoke to management and protested, I was promised it was just the first week, that it would get better. Second week, I did get a couple of good runs, I was sent to deliver 4 barrels of ink to a newspaper factory some where in Northern Wisconsin, up in the middle of no where. I was still living the excitement to be driving my own little truck in new territory that I never explored before. By the middle of the week, I was back to the same thing, getting no sense little loads. Dispatcher hated me.

It is unnerving for us drivers to put our time and resources out front, driving under the promises of a good will that never materializes. It was my first experience with this industry and it was a nasty welcoming.

I just saw the YOUTUBE videos of James Snead, with his experiences with Prime Inc. Rookie that Join their program with no CDL and no experience not knowing what he was getting into. To make it worse he went for the lease program in Prime Inc. Soon he found out that after driving 3500 in 70 hours doing a good number of drops loads, he was only making enough to keep $500 for himself after all the truck payments and everything else.

It was not the lack of loads, but the low pay of the load. Your whole life-hood lies in the hands of a dispatcher and how he spreads the good loads to his liking and a company sales staff that only negotiate loads at a price high enough for the company to make a profit but not the driver. You the driver can never tell how much the company is getting paid for the load that you are delivering. It is all a big unknown being run right in front of you.

Then, there is other guy who also joined Prime Inc with some experience but he went for the company driver. Although he had experience, he was forced to go thought their whole training, which in the end the student ends up having to pay for. Once running on his own, this guy shows his pay check for 70hr 3300 miles week, he got paid a gross $1100.

That brings me to my concern. I now take home $350 for a fixed 40 hours week, Yes I have managed to survive on that little money for a whole year, but I get to sleep on my bed every night, and I get to ride my Harley to work on all sunny days. But if have to work 70 hours straight to make $1100, no sleeping, running like crazy, risking everything, being over weight, running illegal to meet appointments, being away from family and home, sleeping in a truck cabin, all for $15/HR, vs what I make locally $13.68/HR, that just doesn't add up very well, why would anyone do that?

And most of the companies that I been looking, they don't promise anything, all the can say is that there are drivers that have been able to average $800-$1100 per week, but that is not even take home, and in order to reach the top of that average one must run illegal at times and work 70 hours. Nothing is for sure, it is all about the possibility of a potential, but there are so many factors against you, specially in the south.

This week I have learned so much reading here and watching YOUTUBE.

North east is not the place for owner operator, must of the load up there are dedicated where drivers mostly do drop and hook for an hourly salary company. My friend moved from NYC to NJ to work for this company, he gets paid $24/HR to do drop and hook between NJ and CT, he goes in a 10AM and most days is back home by 8PM, dedicated company.

But here in the south, these big truck companies have so many regulations and weird ways that they have a hard time maintaining dedicated accounts. Mostly of what happens here in the south is brokered live loads, you never know where you picking up from, and if it will be ready on time, much time is spent waiting, dispatchers that work against you, regulations, trucks that are governed at really slow speeds, cameras inside the trucks, can't idle trucks while waiting on live loads, so you either burn in the summer with no AC or freeze in the winter while waiting, so many regulations and bull###.

So, a driver like me who is not a veteran but I already did my time of school and on the job training, have 2 years under my belt, I don['t want to be going to such ridiculous training being forced by companies like Prime Inc, simulators, sleep test etc, then 3 weeks of road training with a trainer that gets paid for every day that you are on his truck helping him drive, so it is on his own benefit to keep you there for ever.

So, where do a guy like me turn to? I am tired of being the new guy, to be at a lost, at the bottom of the list, to be not making any money. When would it all start to change for me? How do you get into a good company that actually lets the driver make a profit for his hard work?

I was recommended JH Trucking, they run paper logs and they expect for you to run a minimum of 10K miles monthly minimum, you can already see where this is going... forging documentation to make it happen, to meet their expatiations... If you read the reviews on line, dispatcher asking driver to rip off pages from log books and shorting drivers of miles and deducting truck wash charges and fees to reduce the pay checks... Drivers always putting their time and effort out front with no guarantee of anything.

Reality is that when economy is good and companies are making a killing, paying the drivers for the actual miles is chicken feet, but when things get tight, companies start looking for ways to cut corners and to cheat drivers at every corner. When the company under bid a load to steal it, they don't plan on loosing a penny, instead they know they under bit the driver and the loss in revenue will be put on the drivers back.

I don't mind to sound so negative, I am just getting overwhelm and frustrated with this job search
Click to expand...

There is a small room with a very large spreadsheet printer. This room is kept in the dispatch core area between dispatch desk farm and the upper management offices. If you are able to penetrate that night dispatcher taking in the ball game, wait for him to go to bathroom, penetrate into that printer room and get a eyeball of that sheet coming out. You will see driver name, how much driver owes company currently (Including lease operators) and the pay per mile gross on the load they are currently dispatched on. My loads were ranging from 1.90 to 2.60 a mile wheras I was being paid about .32 at most.

It was a eyeopener. I got out of there before someone caught me looking. It's a shame someone left the printer room door open just then.

A second pathway of access to information is the old shop computer that is tied into company's Main distribution network. it has no need of a pass word and at lunch you can type in your unit number and presto gain access to the complete and recent notes between dispatchers and also between dispatchers and manage ment about what mileage my truck has done last week at what mileage gross (Around 1.90 to 2.60 a mile.) and in the comments they talk to each other about that dumb deaf driver always questioning appointment times, who does that little turd think he is? etc etc etc.)

A little espionage carefully applied to a company now and then gains you information that is literally food for thinking. If you gather enough mentally fast enough and get out before getting caught, you can spend a week considering the problem of so and so talking such and such to boss man princess about my precious appointment times. Then you can formulate a pathway to work around or eliminate the problem all togehter. My solution after careful thought was to change dispatchers.

Then I checked that nice little shop computer one more time. Notes have calmed down quite a bit. Not quite praise but improved quite a bit.

Like you will ever get any kind of praise out of these stone sphinxes behind your back....

Log in or Sign up

Forums

Find Trucking Jobs

The fear of no pay...

RedRover Road Train Member

Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

Wait, employers can't reach you!

BigBob410 Road Train Member

x1Heavy Road Train Member

Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

Wait, employers can't reach you!

Log in or Sign up

Useful Searches

Find Trucking Jobs

The fear of no pay...

RedRover Road Train Member

Wait, employers can't reach you!

BigBob410 Road Train Member

x1Heavy Road Train Member

Wait, employers can't reach you!