What is EXCELLENT pay for experienced company hands?

I have the $1300 min per week program. That comes out to $65,000 or a little better guaranteed money. Drivers generally come in at around 72 or $73,000. No health care though like I mentioned.

Midwest, Southeast, Northeast.

Here recently have done some runs to Texas and going to start running to the SW and West with teams. That’s my goal anyway. For the last decade we’ve stayed within about 700 miles of Indy.

Try not to pin point and be negative on just one thing. Traditionally, unless I make an expansion into further from home, the drivers run around 2700 miles in a week, many times less even, sometimes more.

So, clearly that is not 700 miles every day.

What I mean is, if you have a load going 650 miles that delivered next day, it’s nice to have confidence that the driver can do it. I can’t tell a customer he will be there and then not be there. That’s not how you keep high end customers. Or, if you have a 1100 mile run and two days to do it, shopper runs behind and takes 3 hours to load. I need to know you can get it there.

It doesn’t mean every load is like that. Many may be 3 to 500 miles too. It’s about what your capable of, not what you can continuously do.

Thanks for the insight. Sounds like definitely lower pay but that the healthcare and flexibility with your truck, along with a great maintenance program keeps you and your family safe and happy. Don’t blame you a bit for staying out. Thx.

Right, that’s pretty much what I’m thinking. It’s hard significantly raising pay because it’s only fair to do it across the board then. That means huge increases straight out of the gate. Once you raise pay, it’s very difficult to reduce pay from a psychological aspect of the driver. Chances are the standard of living may have been raised during that time and now it puts him/her in financial trouble and unhappy. While, if wages would have maintained the very good original level they would still be happy. Catch 22 there.

Ive long said that if employees were more ok with pay being reduced, then pay increases would happen much much quicker. You could more follow the market be having to maintain an average.

Sorry to hear your company is less then desirable. (####ty) lol.

My company is definitely not what your portraying it to be. I actually care very deeply and remember what it’s like to work for others. Plus, I have longevity in mind at all times. Sounds like you should make a change?

Far as the 700 mile thing, I explained that more above. It’s about what your capable of doing, not what’s expected everyday. Drivers who drive for 3 or 4 hours then take an hour, so on so forth through the day just can’t make it with e logs. Sorry to say but alot of the freight I haul is critical and we also have to stay legal. If you are someone who likes to take their time, probably better to own your own truck and do it on your own time.

I don’t mean to sound too harsh, I don’t overly push people, in fact I don’t push them at all. I only work with runners. They got bills to pay, I got bills to pay.

Don’t blame you a bit brother. After all, I did post this on the owner op section so I should expect a healthy dose of owner op perspective. Thanks for the feedback on that team pay.

 

I’m primarily interested in what other people desire or would like in order to make a move. I don’t have a problem retaining who I have but have had huge problems “luring” in new drivers to my operation. I’ll go ahead and answer the questions though.

1. 70 mph but I’m thinking for the team or teams I can bring in that run cross country, I’ll set those to 75.

2. No cameras. I have noticed the majority of my drivers have installed their own forward facing and some even mirror cameras. I’ll never install driver facing as that’s not something I would ever be ok with myself.

3. Hub miles

4. 90% live/live. We only drop hook back at the yard if my local support truck has picked up the load ahead of time or if it’s a next day delivery and the local truck will deliver it out of increased efficiency.

5. Oops missed the force routing question. I’m all about common sense. Use the most efficient route unless there is reason to go out of route. Me or my office don’t eagle eye the trucks and check every route. I’d rather have professionals that do what they need to do.

6. Yes, I have customers direct, but also run a lot of broker freight too. Whatever is most efficient and profitable. If it makes sense to broker our customer freight, that’s what I do.

7. Trucks have bunk heaters but not APU’s. If it’s over 70 degrees then idle. If it’s below 15 degrees then idle. Anywhere in between I prefer to shut off and save fuel. I do quarterly safety and fuel mileage bonuses to reward those that stand out above the rest. Again it’s back to common sense and taking care of each other.

8. Not asked but I buy new trucks without the radars on the front. To me, that stuff can be more unsafe then safe. I wouldn’t want it on a truck I was driving so I don’t get it. I’d rather rely on naturally safe drivers who don’t need to be alerted to dangers.

I don’t force fuel stops. I give a list of 5 or 6 different chains that I prefer. But I’m not a fuel nazi. It’s about getting the job done most of all.

 

Hopefully anyone that has read every word I’ve said in this thread sees that I’m more about making money and being efficient. I don’t give two ####s what other companies do.

I do think it’s clear that maybe I should focus on healthcare more the increased pay. So, that’s definitely something I’ve been able to take away from this. The problem I’ve saw is most group plans require a minimum of 15 employees to even think about talking. We tend to hover around 12 or 13 so just not there yet unfortunately. I guess that’s a growing pain of being small and trying to get over that hurdle.