Company drivers operate a company truck and trailer and they are paid cents per mile (cpm) most of the time. For them it’s important how many miles they will drive during the week.
They drive empty (to pick up the load) or loaded (to deliver the load) and in most cases they are paid for the miles regardless if they were empty or loaded. As company drivers they don’t choose the loads and the areas they are assigned, meaning it is a “forced dispatch” (term used in the trucking “slang” )
Drivers can be:
- Employees of the company – Meaning they are hired in the company and receive a paycheck that is taxed (W2 employment)
- Independent Contractors or Business Owners – Meaning they work as contractors and receive a gross pay that is not taxed (1099 employment)
The most important things that drivers are asking and have to think about are the following:
- Payment and employment (how much they will be paid) (is it W2 or 1099)
- Medical Benefits (Only for W2 Employment)
- Mileage (how many miles they will run)
- Detention and Layover (Is it paid or not if “so” – how much is paid).
- Equipment (what they will be driving)
- Routes and loads (where will they run and what type of loads)
- Hometime (how often and how many days for hometime)
As a recruiter you need to have great knowledge for all of these subjects in order to explain the offer, see what is important for them and what they are looking for and follow up on the questions they have for each subject. Based on the conversation with them, you form a primary opinion about the candidate: If he is a good fit for the position or not.
Payment and employment
In most companies, drivers are paid weekly or bi-weekly by receiving a settlement and getting their money in their bank account (direct deposit) or as a paycheck.
If they are on a W2 employment (employee of the company) the company might offer the driver a health insurance program that he can join. (more about the health insurance is explained further down in the “Medical Benefits”)
If they are on a 1099 employment (independent contractors) the drivers are paying for occupational insurance – that covers any injuries while they are working. They are being charged for the occupational insurance on the weekly settlement or they pay per month.
Per Diem pay – some truck drivers may ask for how much is the per diem pay.
Translated literally, per diem is Latin for “per day”. It is an allowance or payment made for each day that is non-taxable reimbursement for meals and other incidental expenses, because as drivers they are staying longer periods of time away from home. Right now the per diem rate is $63 per day so for example, if the driver makes $200 in one day – $63 of that will not be taxed the rest ($137) will be taxed.
Taxes – Every individual or legal entity (taxpayer) that receives income is paying a financial charge to a governmental organization in order to fund various public expenditures. A failure to pay, along with evasion of or resistance to taxation, is punishable by law.
Medical Benefits
There are different types of insurance, like general health, dental or vision insurance (only on W2 employment). The price for these insurances depends on the rate the company has and other factors like the person’s age, his health record etc. The good thing for the drivers is if they join the company insurance program, the company pays a certain percentage of their insurance so their cost is lower and more affordable than getting insurance by themselves.
Mileage and detention time
The mileage that the drivers make during one week depends mostly on the loads they receive to haul(the distance), their time management skills (if they drive their full working hours and deliver on time) , their safe and clear driving and loading & unloading time at the clients.
The average mileage drivers make on a full working week is from 2000-3000 miles but if the driver knows how to manage his time well and there are no delays for loading and unloading, he can easily make more than 3000 miles during a full week (7days).
Governed Speed In most cases the trucks that are assigned to company drivers are governed at a certain speed limit, meaning they can not get higher speeds than the governed one. For example if the truck is governed at 65 miles per hour, it means that the maximum speed the truck can get is 65 miles per hour.
Detention time is the time a driver spends waiting to get loaded or unloaded and it usually gets counted after 2 hours have passed and the load is still not in place. In this case carriers can charge the client for detention time and the driver can be paid for each additional hour he waits to start the trip.
Sometimes loads can be delayed for a full day in which case there is a layover pay for the wasted day.
Equipment
As part of your explanation about the job to the driver you also need to explain the equipment – the truck that the driver will operate with the basic info like what brand it is, what year was it made, what type of transmission it has (automatic or manual and how many speeds as manual) what kind of equipment it has inside, what type of elog is used…
Routes
Drivers want to know where they will run most of the time (what states and what regions) and type of freights.
Dedicated lanes – A dedicated route is when a trucking company services the same company or location regularly. More often than not a truck driver will pick up a load at a regular location and then deliver it to a dedicated customer. The pickup and delivery location are the same.
Consistent lanes/steady freight – Consistent lanes means the drivers run the same routes often. A lot of what they do goes back and forth on those highways. It’s great if the driver lives along a consistent lane.
Drop and hook – Meaning the trailer with the freight is dropped at delivery and hooked to a new loaded trailer, minimising the time for unloading and loading.
No touch freight – Meaning the freight loaded or unloaded by someone else, the driver is only driving not touching the freight he carries.
Scheduled loads (pick up and delivery) – There is a scheduled time to pick up the load and deliver the load (usually for refrigerated freight)
First come first served – The picking up of the load and the delivery of the load is done as soon as possible when the driver arrives (usually for dry van freight) so if he arrives earlier he can get back on the road earlier.
Home Time
As OTR Company Drivers they will be hauling freight to various customers throughout the company’s hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time. After that period they have free home-time days that can be 2-3 or more days.