Need To Find A New Company, Any Suggestions?

I respectfully but strongly disagree with Brett's assertion that detention pay should be dismissed or that expecting it somehow potentially makes you look bad. As an OTR driver out for weeks at the time there are numerous instances of uncompensated work associated with this profession. HHG miles, for example, rarely if ever seems to work in my favor. I have been allotted an unknown number of minutes in my lifetime and have chosen to sell some of them to a trucking company in exchange for money to provide for myself and family. Hundreds of miles from home, sitting alone in a vehicle I'm expected to operate safely and on time on behalf of the company, I don't think it's out of bounds to expect compensation for delays out of my control that affect my income, especially at locations that have poorly motivated and unsupervised staff that through their inefficiencies and incompetence are perpetuating my delay. Any assertion otherwise I believe diminishes the worth of both the driving profession in general and the driver specifically.

After almost 25 years in this industry I've learn to take little clues and indicators and be able to figure out what a driver is like pretty quickly. When someone tells me their company sucks and there are no miles available and they're not getting paid for detention time I immediately think,"This guy really doesn't understand how this industry works. He doesn't understand how to establish a great reputation and work together with dispatch to get top miles."

-Brett

Frito, it's fine with us for you to disagree with us, but you seemed to have missed the above part of Brett's post on this subject. Every sentence you typed above is full of all those "little clues and indicators" that Brett was referencing. There are ways to make some really good money at this business, but worrying and fighting over detention will never be one of them. Talk about diminishing your worth as a driver - that is a great way to do that. Turning miles is where you turn this job into a cash cow, and the top drivers in this business know how to minimize their times of sitting around.

Brett knows that it is going to happen on occasion, and there is nothing you can do about it, but getting all bent out of shape and fighting for it will never accomplish anything good for you.

There is another little secret that the guys at the top share, and that is that their dispatcher is constantly throwing extra money at them for what seems to be no reason at all.

I did not ask, nor do I feel I need your permission nor anyone else's to disagree, but thank you. I tried to do it as politely as possible but got the initial response I expected in the same short order I expected.

I hesitated to even respond because I know just how quickly people with different opinions or even the slightest subtle suggestion of a complaint are immediately excoriated or become suspect on here. I haven't visited for well over a year for this very reason and the only reason I have recently is a renewed interest in the training materials (which are great) for a friend I'm helping get into the business.

I've done lots of things. As an airline pilot I was compensated for canceled flights, down time and maintenance delays. As an RN on the night shift once the patients were medicated and asleep I was paid to "sit and watch TV" at times. This is what businesses/professions that value and want to retain good employees do. I'm an accident free, on time, generally non complaining, self motivated, self reliant, trustworthy 600+ mile per day driver that is respected by both my company and my coworkers. I know at least a tiny bit about "how it works". If I'm delayed, I value my time and expect to be compensated. I make no excuses for that nor do I feel it reflects negatively upon me. I'm not even close to being bent out of shape over the 3 hours of detention I was paid fairly, on time, without hesitation or argument last week that pushed the take home to over $1000. Ive made my point and have no plans to visit the subject again nor argue further about it.

I'll give you permission to feel excoriated, but it was far from that.

I know just how quickly people with different opinions or even the slightest subtle suggestion of a complaint are immediately excoriated or become suspect on here. I haven't visited for well over a year for this very reason

omg are you kidding me? Seriously???

Old School's exact response was:

Frito, it's fine with us for you to disagree with us

And you call that being excoriated????

You said:

I did not ask, nor do I feel I need your permission nor anyone else's to disagree, but thank you

Talk about a self-righteous, pompous jerk!

Cry me a river brother. My God are you a Sensitive Sally and you're totally full of it too. We can see through that crybaby control drama from a million miles away. You're one of those people that gets their feelings hurt if someone has the audacity to disagree with you so you immediately start in with the "Poor me, I'm a victim. Look everyone, these bullies are attacking me!"

Cry me a river, seriously.

But hey, the customer is always right so I have to do this.....

Old School, how could you be so vile and contentious as to say it's ok to disagree with us? You're being way too hard on Sensitive Sally. Now we all have to join hands and sing Kumbaya!

Frito, we don't mind in the least if people disagree with us. In fact, we enjoy those type of discussions. It gives us a chance to really cover complex topics thoroughly and take a deeper dive into the finer points.

But one thing you can count on from me is if you're gonna cry like a little baby over absolutely nothing then I'm definitely going to give you hell for it. So toughen up, Sally. Believe it or not, I've heard people say way worse things than "It's ok to disagree with us"

I would love to help you feel better, but I don't have a large enough box of tissues for your issues.

Good grief.

Anyone reading this can agree, disagree, or play pinochle.

In my estimation, the rate you are paid for detention (marking your "detended" time as On Duty Not Driving) does not come close to what you can make in the same amount of time rolling the interstate. That's why I suggested to go Off Duty, and save these allotted minutes to make better pay.

As far as

numerous instances of uncompensated work associated with this profession,

drivers are not paid for their time. You get paid based on a mileage calculation between pick up and delivery. If you're stuck in traffic, get a flat, have to fuel, or have the opportunity to the a 10 hour break, you get paid the miles only.

Finally, Frito, this is not a profession for the thin skinned. The best drivers are self starting, non-whiners who get the job done and ask for more. They are the ones Old School has in mind when he said

their dispatcher is constantly throwing extra money at them for what seems to be no reason at all.

As an airline pilot I was compensated for canceled flights, down time and maintenance delays. As an RN on the night shift once the patients were medicated and asleep I was paid to "sit and watch TV" at times. This is what businesses/professions that value and want to retain good employees do.

No, that is what businesses have to do after negotiating contracts with unions.

If I'm delayed, I value my time and expect to be compensated. I make no excuses for that nor do I feel it reflects negatively upon me.

As a business owner myself I realize that my time is valuable to me, but has no value to anyone else. The same holds true for others. If I hire someone to work for me, as an employee or as an outside contractor, I do not value their time. I value their productivity. I gauge my return on investment (ROI) based upon the results they get for me.

The opposite also holds true. If someone hires me it's based upon the results I get for them. We never discuss my time. The time I put in never comes up. I know better than to even mention it.

Anytime someone talks about valuing their time it throws a huge red flag for me. Mark Cuban and the others have talked about this quite extensively on Shark Tank when potential partners talk about getting paid for their time. It tells a business owner that this person is feeling awfully self-important and entitled, for starters. But worse than that it shows they have their focus on the wrong thing. They're not focused on their productivity. They feel they should be compensated whether they produce or not. That is not the type of person an employer wants to rely on.

I also never felt that detention time limited my income. I always wanted to average about 3,000 - 3,200 miles per week and I never came up short of that goal because I was detained by a customer or two. Regardless of how long it took to get loaded, I was always able to turn the miles I wanted in the end.

Frito, you are clearly quite pompous based upon some of the statements you have made so the fact that you think you should get paid to watch tv or take a nap is indeed an indicator of your personality and your attitude. If I were interviewing you for a job I certainly wouldn't hire you regardless of how good you may be at your job. Being good isn't good enough. Being good and having a great attitude toward the people you work with and the results you get - that's the type of person I'm looking for. I want to hear about how great your results are going to be, not how valuable you think you are.

I also think a person should have a certain level of self-awareness and a good understanding of the role they play as part of a productive team. The fact that you think it's ok to talk about how valuable your time is shows you're lacking self-awareness and it shows you're overvaluing the part you play in the team you belong to.

A person who sees themselves as so valuable that they expect to get paid for producing nothing is way to self-important for me.

So yes, I certainly feel that fighting with my company over detention time reflects badly upon me. However, that's my opinion, it's not a fact. Others are free to disagree. But I always wanted my company to know that I truly was a team player and a partner in their business that intends to focus on producing results. That's how everyone wins in business, and a deal where everyone wins is the type of deal I'm looking to make. My company makes sure I get the opportunity to turn 3,000 - 3,200 miles per week and I make sure I make every appointment on time and get the job done safely every time. That's a deal I can be happy with and I believe both sides can hold each other to that standard.

At my company, while I don't expect detention pay, part of our paperwork requirements is to put out in/out times at shippers and receivers on our bills before scanning them in to payroll. The reason for this is my company bills customers for delaying their trucks (and the driver's). it's a part of their service contract to carry their freight.

I've never asked for detention pay but I've received it frequently on live loads and unloads. Different companies pay different rates and at different delay times.. some as little as 30 minutes and some after 4 hours. I don't have a clue which customers pay what and after how long, i just know they have a contract with West Side to pay whatever, so we have to report our in and out times so my company can bill them per that facilities contract with us if that makes any sense. All the detention money billed certainly doesn't go to the driver, but a portion of it does.

When detention pay is added to my check, I don't know which loads or companies it was paid on. I don't worry about it and have never bothered to ask.

Though not being a trucker, most of the contracts I have seen between trucking companies and shippers ALWAYS includes detention pay so maybe I am naïve... why should the company get paid and the driver should not receive his share of it? And I have seen many of those not one does not include detention pay... and all the financials I have seen include ALWAYS include detention pay income

Though not being a trucker, most of the contracts I have seen between trucking companies and shippers ALWAYS includes detention pay so maybe I am naïve... why should the company get paid and the driver should not receive his share of it? And I have seen many of those not one does not include detention pay... and all the financials I have seen include ALWAYS include detention pay income

If shippers and receivers were actually paying the money they owe for detention do you think they would be holding trucks for many hours at a time? Heck no. It's nearly impossible to get the companies to actually pay the detention time.