Trucking Truth Driver Productivity Leaderboard

G-town spends all his time on the east coast with much more traffic than other places in the country. Say Kearsey, Turtle or any of the other masters of the clock did a ton of driving out west with the mountains all week. Would you be willing to say that I, just running back and forth across relatively flat iowa and the surrounding states performed better than them because I maintained higher MPH due to no traffic and not many hills slowing me? I wouldn't be able to participate because I have to unload my truck but I usually turn 1500 to 2000 miles a week depending on how many days I work.

No, those differences wouldn't be comparable. There would have to be a filter or category for the type of driving and region, say, Western Eleven, Great Plains and Midwest, East Coast, etc. In your case aren't you an hourly driver? I haven't made it all the way through your diary yet. I don't know if you have changed jobs.

The idea would be that there would be some filters to narrow things down so that a driver could compare his driving stats to those of a driver doing similar work. Rob T if you are a CPM driver, then also a category for drivers that unload their own trucks. Perhaps it would be helpful to classify the weekly data upload according to type, location of driving, etc. most closely fitting one of the filters. It sounds like G-Town and Turtle would be two drivers that could compare results since I believe they will be doing similar dry van runs with multiple stops in the same general area of the country. Surely there are other drivers who run similar freight in the same area.

Grumpy Old Man, I was mainly thinking CPM drivers. What can hourly drivers do to maximize their income other than maxing our their hours on the job every week?

That does sound like a wonderful idea. There just may be too many variables involved when comparing drivers in different regions. Perhaps new drivers could use something like this to measure their own progress as they gain experience..? Then their progress can be compared with other drivers' progress. IDK

That's what I'm wondering about the number of variables. Hopefully there aren't too many. I also think any driver that is interested in optimizing his performance would be comparing his earlier productivity with what he is currently doing anyway. The real fun begins when we can see how we stack up with some of the top tier seasoned vets doing similar work to us, in similar terrain, in similar traffic, drop and hook vs live unload, etc.

I haven't made it all the way through your diary yet. I don't know if you have changed jobs.

back in January i switched to a job that entails much more driving and actually make a little more $$. I do unload my own truck but it's to our grocery stores using an electric pallet jack. Still being paid hourly.

What can hourly drivers do to maximize their income other than maxing our their hours on the job every week?

that's about it, but also demonstrate you're worth more. I did that for my first driving job and was given raises quicker so I topped out in pay within 9 months, 3 months before it was required by the union contract. I totally get the concept behind comparison but there truly are so many variables. You may run into bad weather much more often than the driver you're comparing to. Accident may drastically slow down traffic with no where to pull off, meanwhile your 70 is ticking away. Company policy dictating you must log a certain way while another company only requires half that. Speed you're governed (to an extent) and the list goes on. I typically start my day at midnight so I have much less traffic and I could run against the governor (70 mph) without needing to slow at all if I choose to which is usually only if I have a 600+ mile day, meanwhile another driver can't top 63 even if they're driving the same hours. Are the miles being compared for what you actually drove that week, or what you're paid for that week as sometimes you deliver just after the payroll cut off? I think its great to want to see how you stack up against others, but theres far too many variables to even get an algorithm in my opinion. If you're able to create something I think itd be pretty cool. The problem is there is so much out of a drivers control that nothing is ever equal. Not trying to shoot down or dismiss the idea. I just really dont see how you could get an accurate assessment unless everyone ran the exact same loads, hours etc which just isnt going to happen.

Just as another example: my own week can vary incredibly widely, even for a local driver. I'm based out of Denver so I can maybe do one run to Glenwood Springs (over the mountains on 70), one to Casper (straight up I25 -- relatively flat compared to 70, another 220 miles on the day (Glenwood is 360, approx), other days I might only run 60-80 and do three live unloads in Denver proper.

I could see a lot of the same variability running OTR. Start my week out in Denver running for LA, then LA to somewhere in TX. For this to work each driver would have to tag half a dozen different variables at least.

Even though we all deal with the same situations each driver and each driver's day will be different -- so it has to be learned basically one day at a time, how the pieces you get handed any one day have to come together (a la Kearsey's example and the decision of whether or not (when allowed) to use or not use an 8/2 split.)

In addition to the many variables that will inevitably come into play when determining a driver's productivity, there also exists the problem of defining productivity itself. I don't think you can easily put a number on that, even within similar jobs. Conditions change from one day / week to the next, and how we roll with those changes determines our daily outcome. It may be far easier to measure a driver's inefficiency or lack of productivity.

I am my own biggest competition. Measuring my success is done internally. Comparing myself to another driver is pointless, in that we each faced different obstacles in our day. Take G-Town and I for instance. Soon we'll be performing nearly the exact same job duties in nearly the exact same areas. But we'll each face our own set of challenges, and have to work within the parameters of those challenges to get stuff done. Yes, he's been doing this for a long time, and will likely run circles around me from an operational standpoint due to knowing the tips, tricks, and inner workings of the job. But on any given week, he could hit a series of snags while I have all gravy runs and get more done. Does that make me a more productive driver? Hardly. I just got lucky. When G-Town looks back at those snags and sees how he handled them in the most productive way possible, he can define that as success.

Again, you can't put a number on that. We can however continue to teach those tips, tricks, and inner workings here to help other drivers compete with themselves and always strive for more.

Grumpy Old Man, I was mainly thinking CPM drivers. What can hourly drivers do to maximize their income other than maxing our their hours on the job every week?

Good question, and one I’m not sure I am qualified to answer yet.

Though I do see other drivers in the NE region complaining they aren’t getting enough hours, while I’ve been running hard since I went solo.

I think it’s due to me not wanting to sit at a dock, regardless of me getting paid to do so. I think my preference to drop and hook and keep moving makes me more profitable for the company. I could sit and milk my clock and make the same money, but I prefer to keep rolling as much as possible.

WMPF Turtle wrote...

I am my own biggest competition. Measuring my success is done internally. Comparing myself to another driver is pointless, in that we each faced different obstacles in our day. Take G-Town and I for instance. Soon we'll be performing nearly the exact same job duties in nearly the exact same areas. But we'll each face our own set of challenges, and have to work within the parameters of those challenges to get stuff done. Yes, he's been doing this for a long time, and will likely run circles around me from an operational standpoint due to knowing the tips, tricks, and inner workings of the job. But on any given week, he could hit a series of snags while I have all gravy runs and get more done. Does that make me a more productive driver? Hardly. I just got lucky. When G-Town looks back at those snags and sees how he handled them in the most productive way possible, he can define that as success.

Indeed at every level, this is 100% spot-on. When I have time (tomorrow), I'll reply to this in more detail.

I appreciate all the feedback so far. It's definitely good food for thought. I hope to post a few more thoughts on the topic later in the week when I have more time myself.

Just my 2 cents, in theory a leaderboard here may initially sound good but in actuality I feel that it's best left to each of our companies rather than here. As others have said, too many variables to be equitable and I feel each person here strives to help each other be the best, professional driver they can be. Mileage competition amongst us is unnecessary and could, I believe, put undue pressure on newbies trying to compete and prove they can hang with the experienced drivers possibly causing accidents.

I know it's been said before, but part of it is when to start your clock, and trip planning, so you know you can make your delivery on time... I know drivers like me, who are on dedicated accounts that start and end at the same place, not only know when to start your 70 and 14 hour clocks, but where to start and stop.

For example, I had a regular load that delivered on Mondays. Usually my first stop was in South Windsor, CT and ended in Fishkill, NY. After a few weeks of picking up my load on Sunday, and stopping at a truck stop outside Springfield, MA, and getting back to Vermont at 6pm or later on Mondays, I made the suggestion of flipping the route to start in Fishkill, NY, and end in South Windsor to beat the rush hour traffic in 3 cities with nightmare traffic. So after a couple weeks of prodding, my boss agreed. The load that he gave me was the standard 6 stop run, and I mad it back to Vermont by 2 pm on Monday, a whole 4 or 5 hours earlier than the other way. When I strolled into my managers office, he was surprised and told me my next load wasn't even ready until 8 am the next morning. He gave me $75 layover pay because I had to wait for my next load, and the next week, he did the route the same way, and I got an extra 400 mile load in my weekly pre-plan because of it... from then on, he always kept me on the same Monday load and then gave me longer more challenging trips, with more miles every week....