Truckers' Benefits/Time Off

Before I retired I was a gasoline hauler. We would bid shifts at the start of the year and that would determine what holidays you would get off. I also got paid by the hour so I wanted to work holidays. Thanksgiving week was the best. We got paid 2½ times base on the holiday for Thanksgiving AND the day after. So if you had a shift like mine where your days off were monday, tuesday, and wedneday you could work a day of overtime on monday at 1½ and then 2 days at 2½ and it would come out to $3053 for that week!! But you had to work 2 hours extra everyday to make it a 60 hour week. Seniority only came into play on bidding shifts and vacations otherwise everything was the same. But that was my company and every company is different. Even some of the bigger gasoline companies don't pay by the hour so you can't group one type trucking into the same category.

 

We have 7 paid holidays a year. Most of the bakeries and recievers do shut down for holidays, with a few exceptions. But, if we have to run a load on any of those days, in addition to the $215 holiday pay, the loads pay on a higher than normal percentage. They are paid the same as a weekend load pays. For example, I delivered a load this Sunday morning to a local bakery. On a normal day, this load pays me $118, based on the standard 24%, plus I got paid an extra $25 since I loaded myself out of a railcar. But on a weekend or holiday, the rate goes up to 30%, so the load paid $148, plus the 25 loading fee. And since it was 30 miles from the house, it wasn't a big effort to deliver it.

There are holidays that I know I am going to run. It is extremely rare to have one of the big three day holidays off, since bakeries have limited ability to make up hot dog buns ahead of time for Memorial or Labor day. I did have the past 3 day weekend off, probably the first time ever for that, which was nice considering how hard I had run the previous week.

It's just something that you know you are going to run into if you happen to be a food hauler. We try to schedule it to disrupt the drivers weekends as little as possible, and coordinate that with the bakeries. For example, we may encourage the bakeries to take deliveries on Sat and Mon, and take none on Sunday of a holiday weekend, so we can at least ensure our drivers get 2 out of 3 days free.

It just takes eome effort to make the best of it.

 

I remember one year, the company I worked at paid no holiday pay. I was an O/O and they needed someone to make a run from Dalllas to LA that delivered the morning before xmas. I volunteered for the load so that someone with kids could go home. My requirement for this was to be off on New Years Eve and weekend.

 

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Monday holidays are usually spent doing the drive to where the load needs to be on Tuesday morning. This is kind of normal, as we, many times, leave on Sunday to arrive on Monday. The Monday holiday just means we get to have a full Sunday off for a change.

Christmas and Thanksgiving are the two I never miss. Life is too short to be trucking on either of those special family days.