The whole mileage v hourly pay thing is a red herring.All that matters is the actual wage figure and it makes no difference wether you divide that by hours worked or miles run.
However in general if it is distance work it is better to be paid by the mile because miles is mostly what the working day consists of and by the hour in the case of local work.Because ‘hours’ of ‘other work’ and/or waiting is what the working day mostly consists of in that case.‘But’ the point being that in the real world the guvnor is being paid either by the mile or job in most cases regardless.In which case as I’ve said an hourly rate is usually just a red herring of dividing the wage component of that fixed rate by the hours worked as opposed to literally getting whatever hours it takes on a carte blanche basis.At least if you want the job to last.
Which applies even here.IE the job and finish rate which I was paid,with the exception of some short runs,usually worked out at less than 18p per mile.Which I’m guessing that if I’d been paid on mileage as an owner driver I probably would have almost doubled my wages over that 15 year period.While when limiters were introduced and/or hub system running that ‘hourly’ rate looked even worse.
As for cold weather remembering the real winters which we had here in the 1980’s,let alone a North American one,there really is no substitute for leaving a truck running whenever and wherever possible.
The mileage/hourly pay combination is what you get at the better companies.
It’s what I got at PBT and it’s what I get now, it seems to be the way things are done around here.
Robinhood on the other hand is in a place where a trucking cartel that refuses to pay waiting time seems to be in place.
It’s the free market economy for you, the lowest common denominator sets the standards for everyone else. Just like the Eastern European companies have done with the rates in Europe.
sorry for taking it of course a wee bit RH ,but talking about wages …my neighbour hauls logs and gets paid by the load …and it works out because the main contractor is union $29 an hour ,BUT if the loader breaks down no money.
redi mix anything from the city at $24 union job and all that brings (seniority loads etc)…or out in the boonies where I am at at $18–21hr.
aggregate hauling, depot quarry depot as I do $18-21 hr in the boonies …some ag/redimix pay by the load /tonnage jimmy
How times have changed in Europe,in the 80,s and 90,s a German truck would have a German driver with a huge beer belly and wearing dungerees.
Dutchmen had huge coffee machine percolators in their windscreens.
A Spanaird wore lumber jack shirts and chewed on a foot long cigar while driving their Pegaso trucks flat out belching out fumes.
The Portuguese had 20 year old trucks painted in sick colours that they got on the cheap from shipping firms ,then all of a sudden they had new trucks thanks to the EU.
newmercman:
The mileage/hourly pay combination is what you get at the better companies.
There are some interesting points contained here concerning the inherent contradiction in an hourly based wage structure paid from revenues which are paid for and quoted for in miles or job rate.IE in most cases,with the exception of plant or other construction type jobs,there is no way that the hours involved in a job can be foreseen or therefore quoted for in the rate offered to the customer.Which logically means the same in the case of at least most of the wage component of that rate.
The best way is to be paid by the mile when you’re running and by the hour for everything else, but in Robinhood’s case even that wouldn’t work as if he’s scheduled to run down the east coast at the wrong time then he will be in heavy traffic earning far less than possible. Yet an hour or so later he could fly through at the speed limit and treble his per hour earnings.
There is no magic formula, but you should get paid for your time if you have to wait around for someone else to do their job so that you can do yours.
newmercman:
I agree with you about big fright, I only lasted four months there remember, but even they pay layover!
There are lots of crap jobs out here, no doubt about that and I’m not trying to be the ambassador for Canadian Trucking, but equally there are some very good jobs out here. If all everyone reads is your stuff (which is good reading BTW) all they will hear about is you moaning about stupid drivers, ridiculous traffic levels and unpaid waiting time.
Yet that isn’t the case everywhere, my old job at PBT isn’t the best job in Canada by far, I wouldn’t have left otherwise. I know company drivers pulling in $6000 a month and they’re in Alberta, I also know of drivers in Alberta that are really struggling to make ends meet at a terrible job.
But that’s the same the World over, location plays a part too, you’re in the equivalent of Cornwall which is a lovely place to live, but the wages aren’t the best. You choose to live there though so your terms and conditions are dictated by that decision, you could move to Alberta, get paid for every minute you’re in the truck and take home twice the money if you wanted too, or take the middle ground and live in Manitoba and earn similar money to PBT.
Now you have your reasons for staying there, no problem with that in itself, but there are other options and most of the other options would address the things you complain about.
I think we’re actually in complete agreement with everything there. I’m certainly not all doom and gloom about Canada, or even New Brunswick, I like driving trucks and I like to think that the fact I take all those photos and bother to write these diaries once in a while at least suggests I enjoy it and its a positive experience on the whole. I do often focus on some of the bad points because they’re usually the things that people in the UK don’t realise or understand about North America and are often the cause of them going back in the end because they didn’t research properly and fall foul of the cowboys. I try and give my own honest opinion on things based on my own experiences, both the good and the bad and if I focus on the bad so much its only because I get so many PM’s off people wanting to come to Canada after reading my diaries and I want to make sure people understand its not all plain sailing and so on and if you don’t do it right here, doing it wrong can be a real disaster.
My current job is pretty good, I certainly work for very good people who bend over backwards to look after me, I’m home every weekend and do get paid waiting time, although like I say, its nowhere near as much as if the wheels were turning for the equivalent time. My job is probably as good as its ever going to get doing “long haul” in New Brunswick but I do like living here by and large. My wife is from here and earning the money I do here and considering how cheap property is, I think I can provide a pretty decent standard of life for myself, her and the baby we’re expecting this year. I wouldn’t have been able to claim that if we wound the clock back five years and I was still at my first company, which was by far the worst experience and that’s the sort of company I’m warning people off, not all Canadian companies, just the bottom dwellers and unfortunately there are far too many of those around and they’re usually the one feeding out of the TWP trough, which many prospective readers on here will be part of potentially.
newmercman:
The best way is to be paid by the mile when you’re running and by the hour for everything else, but in Robinhood’s case even that wouldn’t work as if he’s scheduled to run down the east coast at the wrong time then he will be in heavy traffic earning far less than possible. Yet an hour or so later he could fly through at the speed limit and treble his per hour earnings.
There is no magic formula, but you should get paid for your time if you have to wait around for someone else to do their job so that you can do yours.
I agree 100%. I can usually work around the Eastern Seaboard traffic unless its down to accidents though. Unless I’m delivering our own plants, which only accounts to about 2-3 months work a year, the rest is general freight and I’m free to leave when I want and I’m all about planning ahead to avoid any ■■■■ ups. Fortunately if I’m delivering our plants, they hardly ever go further south than CT so its not that bad so by and large its a good job and with the plants I may have 20 drops and I get $20 for each one and can sometimes do a few an hour if they’re close together and I get $2.50 for each empty rack I bring back, some weeks with multiple trips I bring back up to 100 empty racks. Some weeks I take home in the bank more than $1000 for doing something as low as 1800-2000 miles over five days with loads of drops and a huge amount of empty return racks. Not a bad wage when you can buy a fairly decent house for less than $100,000.
Like I said I like your diaries, they’re good reading, I also understand that you’re giving a true picture of the job in general and trying to answer unasked questions for those that are thinking of making the move, or just generally interested in how things work.
It’s not a bad idea, but maybe add a little more depth to that part of it so that the message you send is not so biased. Even though it does apply to your situation, it’s not a one size fits all deal.
Anyway, enough of this, hope you’re not caught up in that weather, it looks like it’s going to get pretty messy in the next couple of days.
newmercman:
Like I said I like your diaries, they’re good reading, I also understand that you’re giving a true picture of the job in general and trying to answer unasked questions for those that are thinking of making the move, or just generally interested in how things work.
It’s not a bad idea, but maybe add a little more depth to that part of it so that the message you send is not so biased. Even though it does apply to your situation, it’s not a one size fits all deal.
Anyway, enough of this, hope you’re not caught up in that weather, it looks like it’s going to get pretty messy in the next couple of days.
I’m on my way to Knoxville, TN but due to the weather they let me go the long way round via Toronto and cross at Detroit and run down I75. Its 200 miles more but better than being stranded for 24+ hours in the hell which must be the eastern seaboard right now. I was talking to a mate who’s in Calgary at the moment and he said it was +17’c there yesterday?!?!
That temperature range seems horrific to me! - I’m expecting it to be -21 in Canada and all - but +27 down Florida way in mid-winter? That comes as a surprise!
S’gotta be around 100f difference there…
As a matter of interest - where is the big swing gap between temperatures? SC-GA?
Southern Florida is pretty warm all the time, its really quite tropical, think alligators and the Everglades etc. It does vary a bit but I usually find that it starts to get significantly warmer somewhere in Georgia as you’re heading south, but even then, GA and northern Florida aren’t usually going to be anything like +27 in the winter.
In my last job I did a huge amount of Georgia runs and in the winter I found thet northern and central Georgia would be around 0-+5’c during the day but the southern third of Georgia would be up as high as +15’c on the same day.
This trip, the one in the diary, it was hovering around 0’c all the way south as far as southern South Carolina and then in the space of 30 minutes it jumped to +15’c so like it say, it differs as to where that jump is, but there is usually a very noticeable jump somewhere in that general area of the south east US.
North America has some of the maddest weather in the world.Which isn’t surprising for such a large landmass that covers such a large area of latitude and with massive changes in elevation in certain regions compared to others.I think some of the worst aspects of it is the unbelievable humidity of the east/south east in mid summer and the inevitability of big tornadoes in early Summer in those regions worst at risk.In addition to those large differences in temperature North/South and often silly Winter storms and low temperatures.
I don’t know if the same applies over at the north east border, but out west as soon as you cross the border into the US it gets a few degrees warmer, it’s almost as if the Americans got so far north and said ■■■■ it, Canada can have the rest
There are other distinct lines that have big temperature changes, northern and southern Georgia as Robinhood says, but that line goes all the way from coast to coast, anything below I-20 on the east coast and I-40 on the west coast is noticeably warmer in winter and crazy hot in summer.
The hottest I’ve ever seen is 48c in Las Vegas, but the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been is close to that temperature in Arkansas, you could almost chew the humidity.
You have to be careful jumping out of an air conditioned cab in those temperatures and you have to drink more water than you think is possible and you still show signs of dehydration in your pee. You also lose a lot of salts and minerals through sweating so those sports drinks come in handy for that.
You have to feel for the flatbed gang who have to put serious graft in, one day strapping and sheeting a load in the high +20s and a couple of days later taking it all off in the -30c or vice versa.
In all fairness I don’t mind mile pay at all. Most of my loads are waiting for me by the time I get there so a case of chain/strap it down and off I go.
Nice run down to Kansas City MO tip reload St Louis MO and back up this week and take a reset. Might have a nice run next week but mums the word don’t want to jinx myself
hitch:
good stuff
cant recall seeing a wagon n drag in
Yank pics before (fed ex)
They aren’t wagon and drags they are short trailer A trains which provide similar flexibility of demount drawbars for multi depot trunking operations.The Americans use plenty of wagon and drags in the western states like California.
