I had a call with a driver recruiter today from a local trucking company. When I applied to the job it didn’t list any details I look for about the job, so I applied to find out if it was cents pay or hourly pay. I wanted hourly pay, I wasn’t interested in cents pay. It said a driver can make $70,000 a year, I don’t look at yearly pay as I know that’s irrelevant. So as far as the job posting, it didn’t tell me what I actually needed to know to make a pass or interested decision. So when the person called, after some back and fourth I got him to finally tell me the base pay, which was .42 per mile but then he said there’s a “bunch” of added extra pay “incentives”.
I mean, I’m not sure about you, but I go to work to get a job done, not “hope” on winning a few straw picks out of a jar that my pay will increase. I want to know what I’m being paid, before I even get out of bed. Otherwise, I’ll stay home and hope the dog doesn’t eat my dinner I left on the kitchen table. 🤣
So back to the pay, I asked him with all that included “incentives” nonsense what’s the actual per mile rate? He tells me it’s more like .63 CPM, and tells me it comes to $1,800 a week off 2,500 miles.
Also, WTF is up with the stop pay BS? So I make three stops and only get paid for two? But I did three stops worth of work! Ya, that’s never going to be an attractive selling pitch for me. 🤮
Ok, so let’s add for arguement sake .63 X 2,500 = $1,575. So is $1,575 the same as $1,800? This is the drama drivers deal with every day! Most truck drivers know how to do basic math.
$1,575 is NOT $1,800.
I know what the truth was here, it was .42 X 2,500 = $1,050 X 52 weeks = $54,600 - $70,000 = $15,400.
A $15,400 difference over what they advertised as $70,000. Again, I’m very EDUCATED on how truck driver pay works. Yes, I’m not clueless!
People throw out these super high inflated nonsense numbers and think oh $1,800 yup, sure $1,800! Most educated (hence why there’s a driver shortage) company truck drivers know they won’t get more than 1,800 - 2,200 miles per week over an average of 52 weeks.
.55 X 1,800 = $990 before taxes, at .42 it would be a lot lower!
It’s more like $1,250 a week at most and that’s on a GOOD week where EVERYTHING goes according to plan. Otherwise, it’s like $1,026 a week before taxes. I ask each person who lies about what a truck driver will make to stop lying and start telling the truth. If a truck driver isn’t interested after sharing the HONEST facts, then they aren’t interested. Move onto the next option, instead of wasting time selling broken windows saying they are brand new and not broken.
Otherwise, the trucking industry will NEVER change or get better long term.
©️Jonathan Hopkins
