New OTR Driver With Low Mileage Loads

Hello, I thought I'd put in my $0.02. I had worked for Werner, a good company for new drivers, as well as experienced drivers. Their OTR pay isn't the greatest ($0.27/m) but if you have a good relationship with your fm/dm/load planner, you'll get the miles. I was on a dedicated account where I averaged 2000-2200 miles/week, and I was paid $0.37/mile, $0.02/mile safety pay, $15/stop, and $20 or $40 unload pay depending on if it was a partial trailer or whole trailer I had to unload myself. It may not sound like much, but when you average the pay out to cpm , I averaged $0.56 - $0.62 cpm, and my smallest take home pay (after taxes, insurance, and $50/wk extra to help pay my cdl loan) in 2 1/2 years was 500 (gross was $1,000), and I was home every Friday by 4:30PM until 11 am Sunday. My last full calendar year, I grossed $53K. A lot has to do with the fact I proved myself to my FM by busting my hump, 100% on time performance, constant communication with him, and only turning down loads with a valid reason that I shared with him.... Another benefit that I had was my FM was a driver for over 20 years, and knew when a driver was BSing him....

If you look at it this way, if you can manage 7 300 mile loads per week thats 2100, and it will usually set you up for a longer one. I have done 2 135 mile loads in one day just to get to the 1400 mile load. I don’t turn down anything and if they ask me to shag stuff for busy work I say no problem.

Being friendly and polite to your Driver Manager , Fleet Manager , will go a long ways in this industry. The old addage is “Catch more bees with honey”. It can be pretty typical if you are with a smaller company as short loads usually pay the company pretty well.

I am just up the road from susan and we do a lot of John Deere, so some of there loads are only 133 miles just to go pick up another. Eventually get to the better one.

My $.02c on this: (which will be nothing new really) We get paid for everything we move. So unless I am very specifically trying to get home and the load they're giving me is going the wrong direction *and* there are no other options, I take it. I've been with my company for seven months now so I have a feel for where a dead area is and isn't in terms of freight options, but any decent DM will know, and communicate that. Running those dead end loads when they come up and being chill about it is worth a lot of brownie points for them, and imo it's better to take whatever they've got lined up first and /keep the wheels moving/ than sit and wait for something perfect.

This sure has been a fantastic conversation. It seems maybe the person asking the original question never came back to participate, but I know this helped a ton of people better understand how this industry works. Awesome information and advice from everyone!

Brett

I only drive a 4 wheeler, and have aspirations of a big rig some day and it helps me. We get so much information from just checking in daily, it is great.

Chris

So Wait I'm A New Solo DriverI Get .40 A Mile With CR, So I'm A Company Driver And They Gave Me A Load 18 Miles to Pickup And 35 miles to drop Off, That's About 29 Bucks, To Drop Pickup, And Then Go And Live Unload, Now I Put In For My 34 Hour Before This Happened, I'm Here At The Drop And There Not Unloading Till Tomorrow, ButI HaveIt Setup That I Can Drop And Continue My 34 Without Coming On The Clock, So They Want Me To Drop Come On The Clock, With 15 Hrs In Of A 34 For 20$ Common Seriously, I Am A Rookie But I Drive Hard and Work Hard, This Is A Bit Disrespectful That They Expect Someone To Do All That Work, And It's On LA Traffic There No Rights For Truckers Because We Have To Do 55 While Everyone Is Doing 70 And Do All This For 20$ So What About People On My Situation, Who Are By The Miles,And Get Something Below 100 or So Miles, I Did RefuseThe Load Over The Comm, 20 Min Ago, SoDontKnow How That's Gonna Go But Let Me Know, 50 Miles at .40 Cents What Would You Do? It's Alot Of Work To Drop Pick Up Live Unload Could Be Hrs On LA I Dunno I Was Upset At PutI Don't Accept They Haven't CalledYet, But Anyways Let Me Know.

I dont want to beat a dead horse but like everyone else has said, communication goes a long way. I dont get paid for miles so my situation is a little different. I talk to my DM a couple times a day. Usually when I finish my work and have extra time and finding out what the plan for the next day is. He knows that I always finish early and want to fill my day in so he has started to just ask me about the extra work early instead of waiting for me to call and ask. The extra hourly pay usually turns into an extra $50 or $60 on the day. For example yesterday I tested a truck that had work done pulling a loaded trailer transferring a part between shops. 3 hours of just driving around at $20+ an hour and it let me brush up on my shifting and this was after delivering a $200+ load. It has taken around 2 months to get to this point though and talking to him every day about doing extra.

On the flip side another driver at the same yard and same DM is complaining about his pay and how he just can't afford to stay. He doesn't want to work more then 10 hours and rarely finishes his second runs, doesn't usually stop up to work a weekend day or do extra. His calls are usually about not finishing instead of taking more. Therefore he gets setup with 1 short-medium run and makes maybe $100 for the day.

I guess that's more communication, work ethic and attitude in the end...

I read this entire thread and found it to reinforce things for me. I dont really pay too much attention to individual miles for each load other than how much time it will take for me to get there, how much time I have left on my clocks and where Im at with recaps and how much time I need to budget for the next trip. I get paid more money for the shorter runs and its just that much more experience I get backing. Id like to proudly say I get to my appointments early, but so far Im batting about 50/50 average. Hopefully as I get more experienced at this it will improve. Ive never been late by my own doing though as yet and always have communicated. Now I communicate as soon as I get the pre plan if I think there is possible issues.

I dont turn down any loads, Ive stated that I didnt think I had enough experience to run in certain areas but would be willing to try as I gained more experience and wanted to make sure I was being safe. One of those was the NE, I was given loads there anyway, ran it fine. Granted, ive only been solo for 6 weeks, I have gotten 2500 to 3000 miles each week. Im ambivalent if those are 3 trips or 10 trips totaling the miles.

Im not sure why you apply for a 34 hour reset? Im able to budget my time so as to run on recaps, and my DM seems to be able to build loads around that. We confer on trips, I offer suggestions, ask if I can help or propose ideas sometimes. Ive gotten him to laugh a few times too. I guess Ive asked him if he wanted me to take a 34 if I was close on a load, but he said no, youll be ok, just continue to watch your clocks. No Problem and will-do. Those are the two things I say the most to him. Granted though, there is a ton I dont know about, so maybe different types of freight require different game plans.

Just my two cents worth.