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

thats an exaggeration by any calculation save one.
if you figure it at drive time ONLY (not a fair way to calculate) then someone making 36 cpm and driving the industry average of 2500 miles per week (figure it at 50 mph) makes 17.28 per hour.
if you figure in all the pretrip time, waiting at shipper/receiver, fueling, etc.. it goes down to about 14.25 per hour (depending on how long the wait times are).
its only when you figure since the driver is on call 24/7 you should count all that time that you get a figure of 5.35 per hour. and thats not really a fair way to calculate it either.

 

Mileage pay can be nice in certain segments of trucking though. I've done years on straight hourly and even with overtime I made more per total hour worked on line-haul with mileage pay.

 

in a heavily regulated industry, where your mileage is shortened by HOS, governed trucks, CSA, fuel economy, mileage pay makes the worst sense imaginable

you pay the driver by the hour, so he doesnt have to push the envelope, if he is a slacker, you can tell (goodness, you have him and his truck wired so you can even tell when he sneezes)

mileage was when trucks were allowed to get miles, today, it is nothing more than corporations taking advantage of old laws in spite of new technology

similar to paying them HHG miles, completely ridiculous in light of Google maps and GPS

 

you figure 70hrs per week working, plus a bonus for not being home, a driver should never make less than $1,000/week

 

Judging by his sig pic, he's line haul at fedex freight. Same thing at CWF. On line haul you get paid for all of those things (and mileage when you're driving).

 

I do not see signatures. So, that is why I made my comment.

 

no overtime. that's the key, companies don't want to pay overtime and they can get away from it by paying by the mile.

 

That's true, but if they were forced to pay hourly for driving and work time, they'd start the drivers at minimum wage, pay the OT rate and still come out cheaper, if they were forced into that model. I don't know why they think carriers need to move to an hourly model to create better wages for drivers. If they want to take better care of their drivers, they can, with mileage pay.

The OTR driving job is what it is and can not be changed. The hours are necessary. The time away from "home" is necessary. The bottom line is the bottom line. The industry is very competitive and always will be. And all the wishing for better take-home pay 'aint going to change anything outside of going where they pay you what you think you're worth.

 

A friend drives for a company that gives him fuel solutions that require him to go out of route. These out of route miles are not paid to him. In other words, just another way of screwing the driver.

If there was hourly pay, they have the ability to know everything the truck does anymore.

 

The overtime exemption under the FLSA would still exist if drivers were paid by the hour.

Best regards