Trucking Industry Pay

by Jimmy
(Kingman,Az)

Hey everyone, this is Jimmy with a question. I suppose you could say it's food for thought re: pay in the trucking industry. For company drivers and O/O's. All we ever hear about is "the driver shortage". Just what can be done to retain drivers and stop the endless cycle of hiring, quiting etc.

I was curious about other transportation providers, such as the railroad industry, the airline industry and the steamship industry. I did just a little investigating on the internet just to confirm what I already knew.

Railroad personnel are paid hourly and must work up to engineer status. Airline pilots, also paid hourly. Steamship captains hourly/salaried. But in our industry, per mile. The railroad folks simply operate the equipment and nothing more. Could you see the engineer position a rail/box car at a consignee and then lump it off for the consignee as in "driver unload"? Could you see an airline pilot land and lump the cargo load off as part of his duties? How about the steamship captain?

What's the turnover rate in those industries? I don't know, but you can be rest assured it's not 125% yearly.

Do the railroad personnel get pulled over by the D.O.T. and have a vehicle inspection right there on the tracks? Does an airliner get orders to land and get an inspection? Steamships, possibly, but they can keep churning along as the inspection proceeds.

The technology is available to moniter the hours worked for the truckers and then pay him for such. Stuck at a shipper for 5 hours, no problem, you're on the clock. Delayed by weather,hey, you're getting paid. Waiting for repairs at the shop? Your time would start when you did anything pertaining to necessary functions, such as pre-trip, log book entry, fueling etc. And would end when you shut 'er down. You would not get paid to eat/sleep etc. So if you worked split hours, that would be OK.

Consider the money spent for new hires. Recruiters, motels at orientation, food, office personnel to process, physicals, advertising, newbie screwups that damage equipment, time lost because the newbie isn't experienced yet.

Who will be the first trucking company to pay hourly for O.T.R.? And who will be the first cellular phone company to charge by the hour instead of by the minute? As Obama sez, time for change! ! ! Jimmy