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

1: No i don't agree. And the facts say the number of trucking companies went up drastically. A lot of the companies from the regulated era went under cause they couldn't handle free market competition once their customers had a choice in carriers.

2: yes there was lots of independents and almost none of them had operating authority. They either exclusively pulled exempt products or trip leased.

3:the problem with me is I like being able to pull whatever product on whatever lane I want. Having to trip lease or only pull exempt products goes against that whole freedom thing that Americans value.

4: are you really ignorant of the issue with the Teamsters pensions from those days? Jimmy Hoffa ring a bell? For God's sake it was only in the last couple years that they were given control of their pension back. For 40 years it was under federal supervision due to the fact they robbed the pension fund.

5: the value of my business isn't at question. The topic was new entry barrier. Those were your words. Fact: 300 bucks is what it costs to get a dot and mc#.

It's quite obvious you are either being obtuse, or completely ignorant on the topic. Every statement you made on the topic of regulation was factually inaccurate. If the latter, you really should read some. Wikipedia and Google are very useful educational tools. If the former, I have nothing else to say to you.

 

Nice reply sir

 

Spyder - not to quote you but lets go down your points without bickering. Don't intend to waste others time but lets get this straight and move on.

1) You, like many others, are confusing trucking authority with trucking business. Often when deregulation is written about the increase in authorities granted is equated with the increase in trucking business. Authorities of course increased because the were no longer limited and they dropped dramatically in price. The number of trucking business decreased because they went bankrupt. Two very different things.



As you can see. Self-employed truck drivers, trucking business, decreased directly following deregulation. O/O when't out and got their authority and promptly folded up.

Smaller trucking firms either folded up or got bought out. Deregulation decreased small trucking business not increased.

2) Their were independents with authority before deregulation, just not many as after. What does it matter? Before deregulation, their were more independents and they were making more money and so were the company drivers.

3) I could say good for you but what is the point. I would rather have my business making coin then worry about the contractual details that add nothing to my pocket. More O/O made more coin before deregulation; why be in a business for anything else.

4) What do you care about the teamsters pension your a O/O with no pension? While the people and the media like to talk dirt about the teamster pension, most everyone else has no pension now days. That goes doubly for truckers. Ironically, most truckers pensions disappeared with deregulation, and the few drivers that have pensions are the teamsters.

5) You stated the barrier to entry in the trucking business was $300. - I logically concluded then the value of your business must be $300. If you think getting your authority is the only barrier to starting a trucking business, you would have to be stupid to spend more then $300. Nothing personal just a logical conclusion based on your statements.

Lets please keep this discussion away from personal insults. I have no problem countering your factual inaccuracies.

Deregulation is a big issue with lots of political tentacles that I don't want to get this discussion ensnarled in. What is without question is - deregulation reduced the truck drivers pay which should be the issue of this thread.

If the powers that be felt deregulation was the answer to the industry they did not go far enough. The decidedly took a one sided approach and favored only the dishonest trucking companies. They should have lifted the regulation that allowed truck drivers to be paid piece meal without overtime and with disregard to all other labor laws. It was a one sided deregulation and it did not favor the truck driver or the honest trucking company.

 

Deregulation absolutely had the effect of decreasing the pay for MANY company drivers. Not all, but quite a lot. No arguement there. I absolutely agree with that. I also don't care. I have never been an employee of a trucking company, or any other company for that matter since I turned 18 and could go into business for myself. What does apply to me, and what I do care about is running a trucking company. Be it 1 truck or a thousand trucks.

The entry barrier was practically eliminated. All you need today to start a trucking company is a dot number. Obviously you need a truck, fuel taxes, insurance, etc. But you always needed them so I didn't mention them. Today fuel taxes is ifta, then it was the bingo cards registration system what a nightmare that was.

Today if i want to run pipe out of Houston I can. The only thing stopping me is my ability to get a customer. Back then I could not run pipe our of Houston unless I could get authority for pipe from Houston. And that authority was also based on lane. So if i got it to run from Houston to chicago, I still couldn't take it to denver, California, Florida, SC or anywhere else that was not on the way to chicago. I also would need authority for any back hauls back to Houston. Product and lane was how authority was granted vs how it is now, one authority covers the entire United States and almost every single product with very few exceptions (hazmat for example requires extra permits and insurance). Do you know how that authority was granted? You had to get a commission of government employees to believe that specific market would benefit from you revising the right to service it. And the few companies that already had that authority would argue to those same government employees that the market couldn't support any more trucking companies. In effect what happens is my little one truck outfit is trying to convince 3 corrupt government officials while yellow, cf, and abf is wining and dining those 3 guys and slipping them a new Cadillac. My chances of getting that new authority is about as good as me being given a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. The only way I am hauling pipe out of Houston is if I trip lease every single load from those 3. New carriers aren't allowed to compete and customers have no choice but the 3 that have the rights to haul that type of product. How in the world can you think this is good for small trucking companies and independent owner operators?!

Also, there are more active carriers today than there ever was during the regulated era. In fact, if I'm not mistaken is something like 500 percent more. So how can you say that the number of trucking companies decreased? Or are you only thinking of the 25+ truck fleets and ignoring all the 1 to 5 truck companies we have today that only existed in trip leasing and exempt products then?

Edit to add: that chart you posted has no bearing. It only goes back to 1983. Deregulation was in 1980. So in order to compare numbers of the regulated era you need to go back to 1979. Better yet would be to compare 5 year blocks. 75 to 79. 80 to 84, 85 to 89, and so on. There will always be an abnormal year so the blocks help you see the true trend.

 

This is the correct answer.

 

Happy Fathers Day!

 

Started last year at 33 cpm,now make 40cpm,with 1 year experience,clean driving record.
Why cant drivers negotiate a rate?
If 2 students test out,and one performs better,than the other,why do both drivers,pull the same wage?
Companies advertise their wages,strickly,by experience,without reguard for other factors?

 

While you are waiting to see if your counter offer is accepted 3 more drivers, happy with the rate you rejected, have been hired.

You may have out shone them on the driving test but they are ready to go to work now, not at a later date...maybe...if you get the rate you want.

 

Not much room for "negotiation" per se however, make no mistake the office learns who can, who might, and who won't "get it done". Those who prove themselves and maintain high performance levels over an extended period of time will have much more to bring to the table at various times when crap hits the fan. If you put in notice to quit for instance due to legitimate problem(s) to not fault of your own, you will soon learn just how much you mean to them, if anything. Also, having a solid reputation as a producer will buy you some slack if you have a minor screw up at some point. And conversely, there are many drivers in every fleet, that they would love nothing more then they get involved in a minor screw up so as to have an opening to cut them lose.

 

If you don't care, why the hell you trolling this thread? You agree with the points made about deregulation lowering driver wages and how they relate to the topic, you should of stopped there and agreed. Especially If you don't care.

Please don't divert the conversation of the thread if you got nothing to add of pertinence to the topic. If deregulation history is you thing, open up a thread about it see who responds.