Can you make good money as an OTR truck driver?
This is aimed towards the Over the Road (OTR) driver who is paid on mileage pay. Most OTR drivers are paid on mileage pay, or “Per Mile”. Below are some things you might or “will” encounter as an over the road company driver.
Whats the rule of thumb for driver pay scale?
Drivers are usually paid in the following ways:
Mileage(The largest majority are paid this way)
A company pays a certain amount per mile traveled, with some exceptions, The majority of company over the road drivers are paid this way.
A Percentage of what the load pays. This type is more common with company flatbed drivers, heavy haul and with Owner Operators.
Salaried or Hourly drivers are typically local drivers and those who run a specific, set route every day.
.By the Load This type of pay is seen often with aggretate haulers.
Understanding Mileage Pay…
As stated before, most OTR drivers are paid by mileage pay or, “per mile” pay. Which can run anywhere from .28¢ for the inexperienced driver to upwards of .50¢ for the very experienced. Usually on a scale of something line:
Experience level:
0 to 1 years .28¢
1 to 2 years .32¢
2 to 3 years .34¢
3 to 4 years .38¢
5 plus years .42¢
These will vary from company to company.
Seems simple enough huh? you drive the miles and get paid for them, right? Usually NOT!
Because mileage pay generally paid by three types, those being:
ROUTE miles and HUB miles and zip code to zip code miles.
Route miles are what a computer program says the distance is between Point A & point B.
Hub miles are the true & actual miles that the truck traveled to get from Point A to Point B.
Zip code to Zip code miles are the most uncommon and generally the least profitable.
There can be a big difference between Route miles & Hub miles.
Often, there’s a considerable difference. There are several computer software programs out there that trucking companies use to compute routes & miles. The most common ones being:
PC Miler
Rand McNally MileMaker
Household Mover’s Guide
With PC Miler and Rand McNally It’s been my experience that most of the time, there’s about 5-8% difference between the “paid miles” and the true miles and with the Household Movers Guide it’s higher 8% - 13%+.
What does this mean to you? This means that you are going to drive a certain number of miles for FREE, yes, for FREE. Doesn’t seem right, does it? Well I isn’t!! but that’s the way it is.
5% may not seem like much and it doesn’t seem like much when you’re running the load either. Take a 500 mile trip for example , 5% of 500 miles is only 25 miles extra. But if your making 3,000 miles a week then your driving 150 miles for free! or 600 miles a month or 7200 miles a year all for Free!!
You can do things to keep your “free” miles down. Good trip planning is at the top of the list. Add up the miles of a trip before you get started and compare your route to what the paid miles are going to be. In many cases, though, you will not be able to avoid extra miles.
There are some additional ways to earn money.
You may be able to supplement your main income with some of the following, depending on what your trucking company offers.
Loading/unloading pay: Do some of your own and make the money that the company would pay the lumper.
Bonuses: With most companies you can make some decent money with high mileage and fuel MPG bonuses. But there are a lot of companies that have devious way’s of screwing you out of them also. Make sure you have a good understanding of the bonus structure and have it in writing.
Idle time, Idling use’s about one gallon for every hour which will reduce your MPG and out of route miles will also have a big effect because they figure your MPG on route miles and not hub miles.
Referral pay: Most mid to large trucking companies will pay you if you refer a new driver to the company. Conditions are usually that this bonus doesn’t pay until the driver has been employed at the company 90 days.
[ad#ad-1]