i have my cdl class a and i wouldnt get behind the wheel for less than $21 per hour for eight time and a half after eight, saturdays time and a half and on sunday double time. If the day is a legal holiday its double time and a half.. and if the truck isnt air conditioned , or it doesnt pass my pre trip inspection i dont care how much youre paying me i dont drive it. call me a PITA but im still cheaper than the union guys
i drive once in a while for a couple of guys i know and they are happy to have me i just wont work for slave wages and thats fine cause our president wants to bring in a whole nation of people who will

 

I was in the process of pecking out a treatise about the conditions of that time and suddenly there was a big clap of thunder and my computer went down ...... I think God is warning me to back off (it was only 4 miles).

 

Holy cow. No wonder some people can afford to buy new trucks every couple years or so.

Well, I'll tell ya right now..unless you're union or being paid government wages, around here you may as well forget looking for a job driving. We've got a lot of OTR outfits begging for drivers. I'm at the point of brokeness that if my body would allow me to do it, plus if the OTR companies insurance would allow someone who lives on pain meds... I'd be driving or anything else that pays decent. But no matter how they bawl for help..the insurance industry rules like the Mafia.

I can't imagine making that kind of money. Never have. Never will. Sigh.

As for why these guys quit... I'll have to agree, though, that $12.50 hr is not good pay now days. I worked part time for that wage and my nose was still right at water level and I was kicking like mad to keep it there. I had insurance, but it was and still is, cheaper to go to the VA for my meds.

The laws in your state sound almost worse than Montana used to be. I thought that mountains and scenery were a part of my paycheck... at least that's what they had us brainwashed into believing. Of course.. it was either work for my wage or starve..I don't care. And my body's paid for it!

I know.. I shoulda left Montana years ago..to some big city where I could earn the big bucks. Did that, matter of fact... went out to Portland, Ore. Found a good $7.50 hr job right away! Didn't take long to come home. No use being poor that far away from home.

Bottom line is ya gotta give people a LIVING wage if ya want to keep GOOD help around. Lots of companies around here still haven't learned that. Now they're asking "Why can't we get people to work for us?" Slave wages, no respect and poor treatment.. that's why. ( Not saying you treat your people poorly.)

 

I think a lot of it has to do with the work ethic anymore. I work in management for a union LTL company and am always in the process of helping our facilities find local and over the road drivers. With everyday passing, it is getting harder and harder to find people that want to go to work in the industry anymore. Our company even has a driving school (which the company pays for) to help people get their license and get through the TSA requirements for haz mat, etc. I don't know how many I have seen walk away because they may have to work nights, work weekends, etc. These are people that are unemployed at the time also.

The other hard part of finding people has gotten to be finding people that have virtues and discipline. I have gone through countless applications where people have major felonies, multiple DUI's, etc, and expect companies to put them to work at the schedule they want. Having a criminal record or multiple DUI's seems to be more and more the norm that people do not have a care in the world about having on their resume or application. I can remember a time when it bothered people to have a couple of speeding tickets against them - not anymore.

 

No offense, but so long as your justify that rate and hours to yourself you'll also keep wondering why your employees don't stick around.

 

Sorry, but I have to laugh... Your crying about keeping/finding good employees, yet pay them not much more than they could get flipping burgers

Time to wake up and try to pay a decent wage, things will get better..

I think it is horrible what he did to your truck, however, like the old saying goes. "You get what you PAY for!"

 

Cobra brings up a good point. I spent 18 years (amazing huh?) in Air Force Recruiting with the last 14 in management postions. I supervised both high school recruiters and college recruiters and every year (without fail) the number of applicants who requested waivers for drugs, morals violations and/or medical conditions just kept growing.

It got to the point where a recruiter had to aggressivly screen young folks to maintain the standards the Air Force adhered to. The sister branches loved my guys because they would consistantly approve waivers for the folks we couldn't use when our upper management stuck to it's guns. It helped the sister branches achieve their goals and it made it harder on my guys... but we maintained quality.

Joe

 

ok for most of the reasons listed above is WHY workers dont stick around IS why the imagrents come take jobs away from the average joe. think ill hire a mexican,cuzz i wont be able to understand what he says and he'll put in a days work without bi*chen and be happy he's got a job.id like to see someone that flips bugers get 750 a week. i draw $200 a week for myself and my wife gets $200 and we can live comfortably on that.so i dont know why if ya aint geten 4grand a month your starving

 

the Airforce wouldn't let me in because i just had a GED, needed 23 college credits also. the navy let me in no problem and i had an outstanding career, its a shame the Airforce puts blanket policies on everything.

i make $9 an hour now, part time but with flexible hours so i can go to college full time, it took me forever to find this job and i am enjoying it.

in 1995 i was making $10 an hour though with full benfits...mmmmm.........oh well, better luck to me once i get my degree.

as far as people quitting, well, you get what you pay for, not to many aspiring intelligent people are going to dedicate their working lives to $12.50 an hour. thats the same as complaining about the person messing your order up at mcdonalds...what, you think someone smart would be doing it?

not saying truck drivers are dumb, and not saying all mcdonalds workers are dumb, but someone who think a $12.50 an hour job is a life career is. i understand if that is all you can find, but to stop your progress right there is ridiculous.

so go ahead and hire your mexican, comprimising values, ethics and laws all in the pursuit of the mighty profit, what, you can't make a profit by playing the game fairly?

 

SURE you go hire joe illegal and then when he ships your truck south of the border piece by piece or ya find out his license is fake and he has an accident and he scoots like he** back across the border and someone comes to auction off whatever you have in the way of assets to settle the lawsuit then youll wish you had my fat behind in the cab of your truck.. i may cost more than some of yall but i treat your truck like my own, maintain it( checking the fluids and all and annoying the crap outta you when i hear an odd noise or something dont feel right), spend a bit of time cleaning it out and washing it off in the yard, and not driving it like im either in the local demolition derby or the Indy 500 you may come to appreciate a driver like me. Ive had idiot owners try to send out trucks with cracked chassis, non working lights ,leaking air hoses, missing mirrors , bad breaks etc.. as long as they milk the last dollar out of the truck they are happy.Funny how they sit in their nice air conditioned offices or the nice truck making way more money than me as i kill myself for them aint happening anymore i want my FAIR slice of the pie. Im still less money than a teamster and i do admit when i mess up not get my union to cover my butt
rgw last owner i drove for had three houses in the hamptons of Long island , a couple in Bay Ridge and a condo in Florida not to mention the FLEET of mercedes benzes they drove in...
as to the guy who suggested that their company has problems cause noone wants to work nights or weekends let me say this... before anyone and anything comes my wife. If i had kids they would come right alongside the wife ( as is i have a step daughter who i treat as my own and two grandkids) they come first before your job and your truck and everything else in this life. If that means i want to spend weekends or nights home to be there for the number one thing in my life i dern well will. SOME things in this life such as a loving wife and raising my kids mean way more to me than a truck load of chemicals that has to go cross country..
Myabe im conceited or something but like an old Aaron Tippin song goes "we may have been better off if daddy had done more backing down or let things slide , but we always had plenty living his advice whatever you do today youll have to sleep with tonight.. youve got to stand for something or youll fall for anything" thats as near as i can remember the song ... Pay a living wage is all thats to it..those are NY metro area wages

 

Those who don't aspire to, reach for and work towards something better will forever wonder why it never arrives.

 

where i live :
rent on a three room apartment $1600-2400 median rent $2000
Groceries for a family of three $ 100 per week at least $ 400
Car insurance for two cars $3500 year clean record) $ 300
electric/gas/phone $ 235
clothes and toiletries per month $ 200
Laundry/dry cleaning $ 65
gas for car per month $120
medicines after deductibles per month $150
thats $3370 per month before i but coffee and a paper or put money away for retirement so i dont have to work for the next ninety five years SO FOUR GRAND A MONTH IS NOT ALOT TO ASK FOR ESPECIALLY WHEN SOME SMART ALEK OUTTA COLLEGE IS GETTING $100,000 A YEAR TO FIGURE OUT WHERE TO SIGN SOME SPORTS STARS NAME ON A PAIR OF SNEAKERS TO SELL

this country has more millionaires that ever before.. the money is there except the fat cats wanna keep getting fatter and making the little man sweat more for less.. perhaps you need to start driving up the acceptable wage in your area .. if the trucks all stick together and demand a decent amount of money for the job the wage will go up... look at the guy youre hauling for what is he driving and where does he live???you have every right to live as well as he does or before you know it we will have a few paris hiltons and the rest of us will be like little pedro working our tails off for a glass of water and a hand full of peanuts

 

Wow,,,Car insurance is very high up there!
I have 2 cars and a truck that has full coverage on it and I'm only paying a little over $1000 a year.

 

yeah 12.50 an hour isn't right . esp 10 hour days and only one day off a week. thats two days every two weeks which is what OTR drivers get. You can hire illegals just remember when the truck kills people on the highway its your butt thats on the line as well. I was OTR for 3 years and got out of it purely based on the bosses and companies taking advantage of drivers, I loved driving but when it came down to my company making me sit and not paying layover, driving a truck with no AC, Wal mart having me hook back to a trailer and move it over 1/2" so they can get the dock plate out when they have yard dogs that could hook up and move it in 2 min. being jacked around 200 miles a day. Told we were the most important part of the company but they wouldn't even learn our names and referred to us as numbers its not worth it. Its expensive to get your CDL and especially hazmat. and to pay so low. maybe it is best that you just drive the truck yourself

 

He said mexican, not illegal...

Tim