Why are otr drivers paid by cents per mile as opposed to a regular hourly wage?

the short answer is "because they can". while stexan seems to be more kind to the industry as a whole, i believe the bottom line is they found a good way to pay less than they otherwise would have to. evidence of this was alluded to by trknfool...if it were merely a way to encourage productivity, as stexan says, then please tell me how anyone in good conscience could consistently "steal" from their employees by paying for far less miles than are required to get from shipper to receiver. while there is SOME argument to be made against paying hub miles (drivers would go out of route just to make a few extra pennies...cant have that), there is no justification for paying 0 miles to go from the western edge of houston, for instance, to the eastern edge. anyone paying using household goods is paying an average of over 10% less than the miles that are absolutely required to run the loads with no deviation. criminal. where are the regulators on this one?

 

Right-on & I LOVE YOUR TRUCK

 

Most likely as a union driver, not intending to get into a pro or non pro union statement.

 

If you're a homeowner, do you pay your lawn people by the hour to mow, edge, rake, bag, etc?

But, ok, let's play this game all the way through, shall we? Let's forget about incidentals pay because that is not germane to our topic. So the industry pays drivers "by the hour" to truck across the nation. If the employer guarantees a set hourly wage be paid to the drivers for the time the wheels are turning, what does the drivers (workers) guarantee to provide the employer to verify adequate performance and to justify their hourly drive-time wage and benefits?

If driver A takes 11 hours to drive from San Antonio to El Paso, and driver B takes 9 hours, does driver B get bonused? Can the employer fire Driver A for poor performance? If the employer is going to have to pay by the hour, and his paid monthly revenue miles will perhaps drop by 10%, maybe he's better off dropping the hourly pay to compensate for the lost revenue.

If some here feel the trucking business as a whole is so 'anti-driver' and pro-bottom line, then by all means, seek another trade. And if the people making and serving your #3 combo meal at McDonald's takes 3 minutes longer than normal to serve you, be sure to tip them more since they had to work longer to provide you the meal you paid for. Why it took longer should be irrelevant to you.

 

Nope, not a union driver.

 

wow, you got some really horrible analogies going in there. the lawn...if you got paid to mow by the yard (as in 3 feet) would we expect you to throw in 1 yard free for every 10?
the mcdonalds thing i just didnt get..was way too convoluted. they get paid by the hour, thus the argument about them would work better against your position than for it. if you dont work fast enough there, they fire you. if you dont get to the shipper or receiver on time, they fire you. not for one time, but keep being late for everything and see how long you last. they can always fire you for poor performance, regardless of how they pay you. and yes, incentives work every time they are tried.
i dont disagree with you about whether or not drivers SHOULD be paid by the mile...but neither do i think they are able to take the high road that its for any other reason than because its the cheapest way for the industry to operate. only problem i have is with the "legal theft" many of them perform every day by agreeing to pay drivers by the mile, but then only pay for SOME of the miles.

 

As long as I keep getting big checks I don't care if I get paid based on how many times I use the flashers.

 

If you called up ups and asked them how much it would cost to ship a 40lb box from Nashville to Los Angeles do you expect them to tell you how much it will cost in total or would you prefer them to give you an hourly rate?

Sorry sir, we estimated price x for shipping but due to road conditions it took a lot longer so the price went up.

 

I think that being paid per mile is fine as long as the company pays for the other things that drivers do during the course of the day. All drops and pick-ups, any detention time over 1 hour...actually any time spent waiting over an hour should be paid, especially if you have to wait at the shipper/receiver. All of it, at the same rate. None of this "15/hour for the first 2 hours, 5/hr after that". That's ridiculous. Anything the company requires you to do as part of your job should be paid. I see on here that there are companies that pay their drivers fairly for things other than driving. Anything that can be backed up on paper(check in/out times, breakdown service calls, etc.) should definately be paid. If there actually are any, I think it's the things that might rely on the integrity of the driver that companies would shy away from paying.

 

"I'm currently paid per mile and was wondering why this is the norm in the trucking industry? thanks."
Could you imagine if we actually got paid by the hour. That would mean that we would have to get paid more than minimum wage! Why on earth would they want to do that?!

I think if you add up the amount of time a driver puts in and what they actually get paid for most it would come out to be far under an hourly minimum wage!