Layover Pay Detention Pay Stop Off Pay Loading, Unloading, And Pallet Jack Pay

I personally don’t get caught up in any of those terms. I don’t think I get any of those in my pay either. I turn in my time sheet every week and get paid very well per load. That’s all I worry about.

For us OTR drivers, it's not so cut and dry, especially those of us hauling reefer.

Here's a knowledge nugget for you since you're so new to both this site and to truck driving, Ryan.

Pay attention to this part:

Some local and regional drivers, like Bird One, actually drove OTR prior to their current gig.

Your foolish responses continue to make many of us shake our heads behind the scenes, Ryan.

I personally don’t get caught up in any of those terms. I don’t think I get any of those in my pay either. I turn in my time sheet every week and get paid very well per load. That’s all I worry about.

For us OTR drivers, it's not so cut and dry, especially those of us hauling reefer.

Here's a knowledge nugget for you since you're so new to both this site and to truck driving, Ryan.

Pay attention to this part:

Some local and regional drivers, like Bird One, actually drove OTR prior to their current gig.

Your foolish responses continue to make many of us shake our heads behind the scenes, Ryan.

100 percent agree with packrat. Did reefer OTR for 2 years, 3 years local and 2 more OTR and really it doesn't matter. I make really good money and I don't get any of the accessory pay. I turn my bills in every load and I make what I make. I'm happy with it and like I said I make good money. My first 2 years I spent at roehl and they had all the extra pay stuff, didn't really apply, except detention pay. When I went local I was hourly just turned in my timesheet every week. Went back OTR and this company doesn't have that stuff and I make more than I did before.

I personally don’t get caught up in any of those terms. I don’t think I get any of those in my pay either. I turn in my time sheet every week and get paid very well per load. That’s all I worry about.

For us OTR drivers, it's not so cut and dry, especially those of us hauling reefer.

Here's a knowledge nugget for you since you're so new to both this site and to truck driving, Ryan.

Pay attention to this part:

Some local and regional drivers, like Bird One, actually drove OTR prior to their current gig.

Your foolish responses continue to make many of us shake our heads behind the scenes, Ryan.

I was using myself as an example as to how sitting as a driver doesn't always mean not making money. I know for a fact this is not foolish and is quite accurate.

He wasn’t referring to you talking about not making money while sitting. Referring to you letting me know that my comment was not so cut and dry in regards to refer work. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I was unaware with my 5 years experience.

I personally don’t get caught up in any of those terms. I don’t think I get any of those in my pay either. I turn in my time sheet every week and get paid very well per load. That’s all I worry about.

For us OTR drivers, it's not so cut and dry, especially those of us hauling reefer.

Here's a knowledge nugget for you since you're so new to both this site and to truck driving, Ryan.

Pay attention to this part:

Some local and regional drivers, like Bird One, actually drove OTR prior to their current gig.

Your foolish responses continue to make many of us shake our heads behind the scenes, Ryan.

I was using myself as an example as to how sitting as a driver doesn't always mean not making money. I know for a fact this is not foolish and is quite accurate.

I personally don’t get caught up in any of those terms. I don’t think I get any of those in my pay either. I turn in my time sheet every week and get paid very well per load. That’s all I worry about.

For us OTR drivers, it's not so cut and dry, especially those of us hauling reefer.

Here's a knowledge nugget for you since you're so new to both this site and to truck driving, Ryan.

Pay attention to this part:

Some local and regional drivers, like Bird One, actually drove OTR prior to their current gig.

Your foolish responses continue to make many of us shake our heads behind the scenes, Ryan.

I was using myself as an example as to how sitting as a driver doesn't always mean not making money. I know for a fact this is not foolish and is quite accurate.

No you weren't. You know it and we know it.

This is another great example of how trucking varies wildly from job to job. This is a great conversation.

Opinions come from all points in the spectrum on this topic. Some people get almost no accessory pay and don't care about it at all. Others make a significant portion of their income from accessory pay.

This is not a reflection of a difference between drivers but rather a reflection of the type of job requirements they have and the pay structure the company has. It's important to understand how you will make the most money in the long term with your current job.

All of the OTR and regional jobs I had over the years offered some form of accessory pay, but rarely did I pay any attention to it. Why? Because mileage pay dwarfed the tiny bit of accessory pay I could make in those jobs. The pay structure and the job requirements simply didn't favor accessory pay.

If I wanted to maximize my earnings, I needed to focus on keeping those wheels turning at all times. It was all about mileage pay for me. Once in a while, my truck would break down for a few days, and I would get breakdown pay. Overall, I rarely got any form of detention pay or extra stop pay. I didn't even pursue it. As long as they kept me rolling, everyone was happy.

Yet someone like Turtle would lose a ton of money if he didn't make sure he got all of the accessory pay coming to him because his job and his company's pay structure favor it.

As I mentioned, you must understand how to make the most money in the long term with your current job. I've seen a ton of drivers get themselves all upset and wind up in fights with dispatch over little things like $50 detention pay, not realizing how much money they're costing themselves in the long run.

If you're getting upset regularly, you're burning up the energy you need to stay awake and focused. If you're getting in fights with dispatch, I can almost guarantee your mileage will suffer, costing far more money than you were arguing over. If you spend half the day arguing with dispatch, making calls to the bosses, and venting to your wife over $50 you thought you deserved, you've given up the opportunity to find ways to keep those wheels turning.

So don't get caught up in the petty details of accessory pay if your job and pay structure don't favor it, but pay close attention to it if your job and pay structure do favor it.

Remember, all that matters is how much you make at the end of the year. It doesn't matter how they break it down. For example, would you rather have a job that paid you nothing for the first 51 weeks of the year but paid you $90,000 for the last week, or would you rather have a job that paid you for every little thing you did, and you made $60,000? The answer is obvious now because we've zoomed out and we're looking at the big picture, but many people get lost in little details and unknowingly cost themselves a lot of money by focusing on the wrong things.

I get quite a bit in accessory pay.... But I don't get out a spreadsheet and figure it out and track it..often I get a big chunk and don't know why I got it. I don't care either. It's there 😂

Like Brett, I do a great job and it comes to me.

Brett makes a great point. Every driver needs to understand how to maximize his particular situation. My job has a considerable amount of accessory pay. In particular there is tarp pay and stop pay that will add considerable amounts to my paycheck. I run a flatbed account which almost always has multiple stops on my runs. This week I had an additional $325.00 added to my mileage pay. I ran over 3,500 miles this week and you can imagine how that additional accessory pay adds up over an annual period.

I completely agree with Brett's points about not focusing on accessory pay. You always want to focus on being productive and safe. Get out there and make things happen. The main way you want to make your money is by being way more productive than your peers. Everything else will fall into place as you prove you can be the best there is out here.

For us OTR drivers, it's not so cut and dry, especially those of us hauling reefer.

That is good info for people who have little or no experience driving OTR/Reefer. Not everyone here at TT has the experience to know that different driving jobs pay different types/amounts of accessory pay.

Some newer folks might appreciate Ryan for pointing that out.

I want to clarify something. I often get to choose my runs. I shy away from the runs that have a lot of stops on them. That may seem counterproductive if I am getting paid extra money for each stop. I have a buddy here who always chooses the runs with eight or nine stops on them. He loves getting that extra money for each stop. The problem with those multiple stops is that you can really hinder your ability to turn some big miles. With each stop you open yourself up for possible delays. If you have three or four stops that take close to two hours to get to you then you not only lose time, but you won't get detention pay because they managed to get to you before the two hour limit kicked in.

He and I have a very different experience when you look at that big picture that Brett was talking about. My friend actually makes just a little more than half my annual pay. He's happy with it and I guess that's okay, but it makes very little sense to me. I have tried to convince him how much money he is leaving on the table. He just isn't interested in working hard. He likes to take it easy and get money that he considers as extra.