What you should know about Detention Pay!

How would this roll down to O/O or L/O?

Bulk produce suppliers in Calif do not like the concept of detention. Are they going to be forced into the pay the driver group?

 

This does not make L/O or O/O "employees" regardless of how they get paid detention. Lots of carriers & brokers skim detention. A few don't. Like anything it's negotiable.

 

I guess it depends on who you work for or leased to.
With Flatbedding it is alot less waiting to get loaded or unloaded. But here at Mercer, we normally get paid detention pay. And they always pass the full collected amount over to us O/O.

 

The job is paid by the mile to keep tighter control on the cost. After all we are part of the economy. A load pays X amount. If someone has to dish out extra accessory pay it has to come out of someone's profits. No one likes their profits decreased especially when we are at the bottom of the totem pole.

Detention was created as more of a deterrent to keep the customer from lollygagging around and using trucks for warehouses. Companies for the most part will pay after 2-3 hours of give me time. But it involves billing and getting paid before one might receive it. There's times I've gotten screwed and there's times I didn't expect it and got a nice sum. It seems to balance out.

What matters is that W-2 at the end of the year. If it's up to par all that little stuff seems okay. Kind of like a salary job. I'll give you 70 hours a week of whatever and you give me X amount every year.

 

I don't get it. Gov't employees are not truckers. If you're on salary, you work at least a week free a year (maybe more), that's the beauty of salary from the employer's perspective. They decide what you're worth to them and it's what you make. Hours worked are a guideline, nothin more. If you take money from that salary then you're not talking about working for free, you're talking about taking money promised from the employee. Kind of the same thing with a driver, nobody is going to give you your detention if you let them keep it. Are people screwed? Every day! But I've had short weeks with maxed out detention on two loads actually make me more money because I sat around for a couple of days without idling and I made sure I got what was mine! If you're gonna be an L/O or O/O, you gotta put on your big boy pants, or girl! Part of your job is getting what you're due. Good luck with that boss.

 

It may not perfectly fit the trucking industry, but I still can appreciate the example posted by the OP. It helps see the bigger picture when it comes to crunching the numbers for what most consider a small sacrifice in their daily norm. Thanks for posting, Roady, and welcome to TTR.

 

I don't see where the article the op posted. has anyhting to due with detention pay for truckers. if anything. it shows how the government workers are being treated. lost time in trucking. has always been lost time. thoose that whine about detention pay. usually didn't plan well enough to count the 4 hours it takes to load or unload a truck. if some drivers are getting detention pay. then they need to watch. i bet the detention pay is taken back out in the gross pay for the week. in a sense. they make it look like you are getting it. but,your not.

 

Maybe, but it's not a very effective deterrent as it stands now. Brokers will make appointments that fall right on or before a break period. Shipper's don't pre-stage their loads, some $10.50/hr laborer is trying to make himself some O/T and the managers don't seem to be in any hurry to speed the process.

My best clients are shippers that treat a truck like any other hourly expense, they keep load times to the minimum. My worst experience was when I had to pay lumpers to take 6 hours to wheel 20 pallets off the back. There's no reason for that kind of nonsense.