Is it just us or is this happening to everyone?
Last month we ran close to 14,500 miles. That's a pretty good month, every week we got round about $1000.00, give or take. This month on the other hand has not been so good. I can't say anything about the first week of November because of our truck being in the shop. However since then I can complain all I want.
Our week runs from Thursday night at midnight to Thursday night at midnight, a full seven days. We got our truck out of the shop on Friday morning, so we were only minus eight hours = six and half days left. In those six and half days we ran 1811 miles. That number is correct! We have actually driven 1913 miles but the extra 100 miles is accredited to practical miles, which most of the bigger companies pay so that they can line their wallet a little better. Hence the reason I have vultures flying over mine!
Now we already have our first load for next week, it drops at six a.m on Friday (tomorrow.) This will start our week off with 683 miles. We also have a preplan setup that has an early pickup time for seven a.m Friday (tomorrow) morning. That load is setup to take us just outside of Philly with a practical mile of 901, maybe! It also has two additional drops, which our dispatcher will not tell us where the third is located or when it delivers. My guess is since the first drop is on Monday at six a.m and the second is at eleven a.m, this means the third won't be delivered until Tuesday morning. Why? Because we all know how receivers work, deliveries in the a.m. normally. Now she knows that we will more than likely deny the load if that is the case. So why tell us before hand when she can wait til the last minute making it almost impossible to get another load out. This means we will be stuck with that load and another load that has maybe 1300-1500 miles capping our week off with about 2800-3000 miles. This wouldn't be a bad week if the previous ones weren't so bad.
We have figured out how this whole thing works with the company we are leased to. They give you a half way decent month and then give you a really crappy month. They rotate this system so that they keep you where your hands are tied. Meaning you can't leave because your not able to save money. You pay all your bills in the good month and then they go past due in the bad month just to be paid (two payments) again in the good month. Therefore it's a never ending cycle.
You may be saying, "Why would they do that?" Good question, I'd sure like to know.
You can't make a living at this job unless your truck and trailer are paid for. We have a truck payment, insurance, maintenance and fuel. We do get a fuel surcharge but it is no where near enough to offset the rising cost in fuel.
We as drivers get hit all the way around. We pay the high price for fuel to transport the products, then we pay the high price at the register for the things we need. One hand is always slapping the other. When will this change? What do we need to do to make people realize that the drivers are being pretty much starved? I'm not saying that we don't make a decent living, we do but we have to be very careful with our budget. One mistake and it takes months to fix.
I ask again, What are we supposed to do? If we demand higher pay the cost for the product goes up, SLAP! If we demand lower fuel prices the shippers see it as an opportunity to pay less for the loads they want transported, SLAP!
Yet the companies are still making the high profit that they have always gotten because instead of raising the pay for their drivers at the rate that everything is rising, they are keeping it for themselves. So in essence the big companies profiles look great and business is booming! When in reality it's not. SLAP, SLAP, SLAP!
Till next time....
Last month we ran close to 14,500 miles. That's a pretty good month, every week we got round about $1000.00, give or take. This month on the other hand has not been so good. I can't say anything about the first week of November because of our truck being in the shop. However since then I can complain all I want.
Our week runs from Thursday night at midnight to Thursday night at midnight, a full seven days. We got our truck out of the shop on Friday morning, so we were only minus eight hours = six and half days left. In those six and half days we ran 1811 miles. That number is correct! We have actually driven 1913 miles but the extra 100 miles is accredited to practical miles, which most of the bigger companies pay so that they can line their wallet a little better. Hence the reason I have vultures flying over mine!
Now we already have our first load for next week, it drops at six a.m on Friday (tomorrow.) This will start our week off with 683 miles. We also have a preplan setup that has an early pickup time for seven a.m Friday (tomorrow) morning. That load is setup to take us just outside of Philly with a practical mile of 901, maybe! It also has two additional drops, which our dispatcher will not tell us where the third is located or when it delivers. My guess is since the first drop is on Monday at six a.m and the second is at eleven a.m, this means the third won't be delivered until Tuesday morning. Why? Because we all know how receivers work, deliveries in the a.m. normally. Now she knows that we will more than likely deny the load if that is the case. So why tell us before hand when she can wait til the last minute making it almost impossible to get another load out. This means we will be stuck with that load and another load that has maybe 1300-1500 miles capping our week off with about 2800-3000 miles. This wouldn't be a bad week if the previous ones weren't so bad.
We have figured out how this whole thing works with the company we are leased to. They give you a half way decent month and then give you a really crappy month. They rotate this system so that they keep you where your hands are tied. Meaning you can't leave because your not able to save money. You pay all your bills in the good month and then they go past due in the bad month just to be paid (two payments) again in the good month. Therefore it's a never ending cycle.
You may be saying, "Why would they do that?" Good question, I'd sure like to know.
You can't make a living at this job unless your truck and trailer are paid for. We have a truck payment, insurance, maintenance and fuel. We do get a fuel surcharge but it is no where near enough to offset the rising cost in fuel.
We as drivers get hit all the way around. We pay the high price for fuel to transport the products, then we pay the high price at the register for the things we need. One hand is always slapping the other. When will this change? What do we need to do to make people realize that the drivers are being pretty much starved? I'm not saying that we don't make a decent living, we do but we have to be very careful with our budget. One mistake and it takes months to fix.
I ask again, What are we supposed to do? If we demand higher pay the cost for the product goes up, SLAP! If we demand lower fuel prices the shippers see it as an opportunity to pay less for the loads they want transported, SLAP!
Yet the companies are still making the high profit that they have always gotten because instead of raising the pay for their drivers at the rate that everything is rising, they are keeping it for themselves. So in essence the big companies profiles look great and business is booming! When in reality it's not. SLAP, SLAP, SLAP!
Till next time....
Photo taken at Louisville 2009 Truck Show by myself.
Also our hearts and prays go out to the family of Tahir Sheikh Fakhar who died on November 10th 2009 when his rig drove off the side of a bridge and plunged into the water below in San Francisco.
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