I'm Changing Jobs

Ok, Packrat here's what I learned... If you start before Oct 1 and you have at least one year experience, you get the 20k. Less than one year experience is 15k. If starting after Oct 1, with 1 year experience you get 12,500k. 10k for less than a year. Looks like they need drivers ASAP.

Another amazing thing I learned is that all time spent sitting in a door getting loaded or unloaded is considered on duty and I will be paid my same hourly rate for sitting. I did not know such a thing existed!

Seriously, thanks for asking. I consider that a sign of respect.

It was that. Thanks for your response!

I'd like to respond with a couple of points.

First is about your home time as a company driver...

Could I ask as a company driver for additional time at home if needed? Yes. I have in fact. But I could tell my FM was not happy about it.

One thing we drivers often don't realize is how much our driver managers depend on us. We talk a lot about this job being performance based. It's not just the drivers being measured up for how much they get done. Our driver managers are evaluated all the time. They are expected to maximize their driver's available hours. They are expected to move a profitable amount of freight and dispatch a certain volume of miles each month. They can earn more money based on what kind of numbers they produce, just like we drivers do. They are under constant scrutiny from their managers. Trucking management is layers deep. Much of it we drivers never encounter, but it is still there and ever present on the mind of our driver managers. We tend to think in terms of "I need a break, and I will be home without you guys having to pay me." But we don't give the company much relief while we are at home. They want us working because we are in possession of their asset they use to make money with. I'm not trying to excuse the pressure to be productive, I'm just explaining it for the new folks reading this. I'm hoping to spread a little information that might help some of us understand this complicated business a little better.

Secondly, is just a few words about my own experience with home time as a company driver.

I have had very positive experiences with home time. In eight and a half years I have only worked for two trucking companies. I have worked with three dispatchers, and have spent the last seven years with one of those dispatchers on a dedicated account. It seems to me the key to getting good results with home time requests is to take as little as you possibly can, but be firm with great communication about what you need and when. I have taken as much as 10 days off before with no repercussions from my dispatcher. One of the biggest keys to success in trucking is building solid relationships with our support team in the office. If they know we will always do what we say, and do it in a professional and safe way, they will tend to work with us when we need special considerations like extra home time. I only have my experience to go by, but my dispatcher has confirmed this with me several times. We build trust with these guys and they reward that with some degree of compensatory behavior. Everything takes time and effort, but if we are consistently at the top of their list of high performers, they will extend special considerations to us. They expect the same in return though. They will want us to do some special things for them at times, and we need to be willing if we want this relationship to keep working the way we like.

In the end, trucking is more about relationships than most drivers want to admit. It is kind of strange because many of us turn to trucking because we don't do well having working relationships with people. We want to be independent. It is a conundrum. We have to be really independent and good at this job, and we have to do that while keeping up a strong connection with those who we seldom ever see or even meet. Trucking aint easy, but it sure is rewarding!

You always explain things in a great way. Thanks for offering your advice and for providing more perspective into the world of trucking and the importance of building good working relationships.

RD,

Best wishes with your new gig and new rig. Did you ever estimate what your pay from Prime came to on an hourly basis? Sounds like you made a good decision and I hope it works out well.

RD,

Best wishes with your new gig and new rig. Did you ever estimate what your pay from Prime came to on an hourly basis? Sounds like you made a good decision and I hope it works out well.

Thanks!

Man, I don't have a clue. Math is my nemesis!

My gut tells me that if you calculate only for driving and on duty time, plus the fact that I was a trainer, I make a lot more per hour at Prime.

If I add my taxable income plus my per diem , I made close to $90,000 last year. I won't make that much at my new job.

If you throw in time sitting in doors, and all the hours helping students during my sleeper berth time then I think it's closer to the hourly rate that Cowan is paying.

Like I said that's just my gut talking. Maybe one of our other members will chime in with a breakdown of their estimated hourly pay. I could be way off.

How long did you end up being at Prime Realdiehl? And what ended up being the decision maker that made you move forward with Cohan? If you don’t Mind me asking that is.

RD,

You said you won't get overtime with the new company, Does this mean that you will only be driving or on duty, not driving for 40 hours per week?

If you made $90,000 last year and you only put in 40 hours per week opposed to 70 per week for 50 weeks, you would have made $45 per hour. At 70 hours per week that comes out to $25.71 per hour based on a 50 week year.

How long did you end up being at Prime Realdiehl? And what ended up being the decision maker that made you move forward with Cohan? If you don’t Mind me asking that is.

I started with Prime at the end of January 2019. So about 2 years and 8 months.

I've been applying to and checking out different companies since may. Roehl, Variant/US Xpress, Schneider, as well as well as some local companies near where I live. Just trying to see what kind of routes and pay they were offering.

I eventually contacted a driver who worked on a dedicated US Xpress account with me 3 1/2 years ago who lives about 10 miles away from me. I remembered he left the account to work locally for Cowan. He is still working with Cowan and he had positive things to say about the company.

When I spoke with Cowan and found out they have a regional account that pays hourly and gets me home every week, I decided to jump on the opportunity.

RD,

You said you won't get overtime with the new company, Does this mean that you will only be driving or on duty, not driving for 40 hours per week?

If you made $90,000 last year and you only put in 40 hours per week opposed to 70 per week for 50 weeks, you would have made $45 per hour. At 70 hours per week that comes out to $25.71 per hour based on a 50 week year.

Thanks for crunching the numbers, Bruce. However, I didn't fully explain what I meant by no overtime. I will be working 55-60hrs per week. Cowan just doesn't pay time and half over 40 hrs. It's all straight pay.

How is your experience so far with USX?

It might be important to note here that trucking companies are not required by law to pay overtime. I just thought I might put that in here for any curious persons just looking into this and not understanding how they can do that.

I'm curious how sitting in a dock counts as on duty time. Specifically if your logged in as on duty unloading/loading in the qc will that eat into your 70? Or will the company pay you from your arrived at Shipper/final macro but allow you to stay off duty to conserve clock.