What is an acceptable rate (cpm) for a New Driver?

IMO, 50 cents per mile. For the hours we work and the amount of time we stay away from home, $1K net per week should be the standard. Then after a few years of experience, find a local job that pays about the same.

 

So the kids working the french fryers at McDonald's should more or less earn the same wage as the assistant managers who've been there 18 months? Okay. Whatever. SMH

Key word is "NEW". Now let's talk about what the seasoned drivers should earn if the new guys get a wage increase from day one.

 

Agreed, but it will be that driver's choice to work for less than minimum wage. Why would he do that?. Because the higher paying jobs aren't available to him without the experience he gains from working for less than minimum wage.

"Paying your dues" is often touted around here as the proper entry into the trucking industry yet so many can't seem to grasp the concept of someone accepting less, temporarily, to put themselves in a position to gain much more.

It really doesn't seem that complicated to me.

 

They didn't offer rates that low because they couldn't find anyone to work for them...now they can and they will only pay what the market dictates, not a penny more.

Why can they now find drivers willing to work for so little?. The answer is in what you don't want to discuss, economics.

The manufacturing industry in this country has been gutted. More and more young people are finding that the blue collar jobs that paid enough to live and raise a family are almost non-existent.

The large pool of young, hungry labor that used to head to the mills and factories decades ago is now available to the trucking companies who have qualms about exploiting it.

 

It hurt the big trucking companies and opened the industry up to all of us 1 to 25 truck guys. Without deregulation us small guys wouldn't exist.

 

Yeah they pay .48 cpm but i bet the miles are low. So your basically making the same amount as a guy driving more at a lower cpm. Sounds good making more and driving less but i rather keep moving vs sitting around in a truck waiting for loads.

 

Ok, so you have made your choice.

 

What is an acceptable rate (cpm) for a New Driver?

No CPM. Pay by the hour. The only reason new drivers flock to this job and freight rates are in the dump is because of piece work pay for less then minimum wage.

Every week we get newbies here thinking they are going to clear $100k working 40hours a week with their newly minted CDL. The reason that happens is trucking schools, mega-crap companies, and recruiters are making bank by selling a three week trucking schools for $5k. They lead the prospective sucker on by telling them their is a driver shortage. Implying the shortage is so dire that it will be no effort cruising around the country dropping and hooking freight in making bank in this piece work system.

That is not trucking. Trucking is more then dropping and hooking freight. And even when that model was idealized it never came close to reaching full fruition. Now days, with intermodal, over seas manufacturing, no domestic manufacturing, box stores, mega warehouses, and online commerce, the mega carrier drop-and-hook freight transportation model sold in exchange for deregulation is un-productive and down right detrimental to the truck driver.

Continuing paying truck drivers by the mile, has gotten to the point of ridiculousness. You could make a good argument for it in the 70's and 80's when their was no truck tracking, no qualcom, no maping software, no cell phones, the average length of haul was 1800miles, raw materials and finished product made round trips across the USA, and the big trucking companies had 4 trailers in service for every tractor. That time is over. Trucks can be tracked both speed and location down to a gnats ###. The driver can be reached on the cell 24/7. Most materials and products come from overseas and travel one direction across the US. More and more stuff is making that trip on the rails at a cheaper price. The average length of OTR haul is down to around 450 miles. With all these other factors considered less and less freight is run on the drop-and-hook OTR tractor model. It makes no sense for a driver to expect any CPM pay system will give him a fare wage.

As long as a drivers time as free, management and customers will waste it. It costs them nothing to do so. Paying CPM only relives trucking company managers the responsibly of managing their company and business. As the length of haul is shortened more and more of the drivers time is wasted on the dock and doing driving related activities for free. There is no incentive for management to increase efficiency or properly bill and manage customers.

 

Naw... I'm catching up on the news, social media, calling friends/family, playing with my tech toys, meeting new people, etc etc etc

Just because I am OTR doesn't mean I'm working... I find it rather relaxing as a whole... While driving or babysitting.

I guess it's all in how you look at it.

My view; I get paid an ungodly amount of money to hook a kin pin, bump a dock, and submit some basic paperwork... And then the company let's me use their truck to travel this beautiful country for FREE!!!! It's awesome!!!

But that's just me. {shrug}