How Is Your Fuel Bonus Structured?

To those of you who get fuel bonuses from your company as a reward for getting good fuel mileage, how is the bonus structured? What is the minimum fuel mileage required to get a bonus and what is the best bonus you can get?

The rumor mill has it that Swift will be adding a fuel bonus. Or they will add it into the current tiered system, and alter the levels, and amounts per level, accordingly.

We have a point system. They want 7.3mpg this quarter to get the fuel points. We can get up to .06 cpm if we get enough points at the end of the quarter.

Pride Transport assigns a mpg goal to each truck. Mine is 7.5. If you average 7.5 for the month, you get to live*

For each .1 in excess of the goal, you get a tiny amount of money, which is said to be half the savings. I don`t recall how they calculate it, but it ends up being around $30/month per .1

We do not have APUs , so exceeding 7.5 is a challenge, but I had done it several months in a row until this month...I am sitting at 7.3 for November after averaging 7.8 previously. I had the shop check the truck and they did a major service on it but that did not help.

*actually, there is another system at work as well....at the assigned goal, you get career points which accumlate toward earning a raise...since I did not hit the goal this month, I will receive neither those points nor the bonus. They probably won't kill me though...I average over 12,000 a month

To those of you who get fuel bonuses from your company as a reward for getting good fuel mileage, how is the bonus structured? What is the minimum fuel mileage required to get a bonus and what is the best bonus you can get?

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APUs:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Here at Miilis, it's not about mpg at all. We get 10 cents for every gallon we pump, as long as we use the fuel stops we're told when dispatched. This includes fuel we pump at the terminals, also. As long as one is at 80% for the month, we see a bonus the following month. It's the easiest bonus ever. We actually make more if we burn more, because the lousier the mpg, the sooner we need fuel.

Wolding's fuel bonus is that they supposedly turn your truck up to 65. If you are in the top 15% of the fleet for your type of truck then you supposedly get turned up. In reality, certain individuals that have been around a long time get their trucks turned up. Others get luckily and moved into a truck that is already turned up. Then again, you might plead a case and if it makes sense you get your trucked turned up, lol. Most don't bother worrying about it.

I'd say it's unfair to expect a driver to hit a certain mpg if you don't have an apu. But just my opinion. Every company is different. Also, wouldn't speeding trucks up affect mpg negatively?

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Thanks for the replies so far everyone. Keep 'em coming!

The reason I'm asking btw, is that I'm thinking about pitching the idea to my superiors. Probably no chance they'd listen to me since I'm super new, but I might still try. I've noticed the truck I drive can get really good fuel mileage if I drive it carefully, but I really have almost no motivation to try to help the company save money in this area. As it stands right now, if I drive slower, I help the company save some money but I end up working longer hours for the same pay. The way it's set up right now, it makes more sense for me to drive as fast as I can so I can make my money as quickly as possible and spend more time at home, or take an extra run to make even more money.

I don't know why I even care about saving fuel costs anyway lol. I don't buy the fuel and they pay me well. I guess I'm just so used to trying to save money in my personal life I can't help it.

I don't know why I even care about saving fuel costs anyway

Because you're smart enough to be aware of the big picture and you realize that helping your company is going to help you in the end.

We always try to get people to dump the mentality of "the drivers against the evil empires" and understand how a business really works. The more you can do to help a business make money the better your chances of making more money along with them.

Now is that always the case? Heck no, or there never would have been any unions. But if you can demonstrate to the boss that you can operate your truck more profitably than the other guys you can make a very clear argument for why you deserve a raise or a bonus. So I love your thinking:

if I drive slower, I help the company save some money but I end up working longer hours for the same pay

That's right. If you make a sacrifice that helps the company make more money, it only stands to reason that they should reward you for it with a cut of those extra profits.

See, one thing that's interesting about trucking is that drivers are not all treated the same. We don't all make the same money. We don't all get the same miles. So it's perfectly reasonable to say, "Listen Mr Boss Man, I'm willing to sacrifice some of my time to operate your truck in a way that makes the company more money if you're willing to give me a little cut of the extra profits."

Everyone wins that way.

Will it work? Hopefully. It should work. Of course people don't always "get it" the way they should, and that includes the boss sometimes. But if you're going to attempt to make an argument for a raise, the best possible way to do that is to demonstrate that you can help the company make more money. That way you're not asking for more money for nothing, you're asking for a cut of the extra profits you're going to produce.

I like your thinking.

At Prime each dispatchers fleet is averaged out. the drivers are then compared to their own fleet.

So if my fleet average is 8.5mpg and I do 9.5mpg that week I'll get a bonus. Its is then progressive. So the more mpg, the more cpm.

Usually i get about 2cpm but, several times I've gotten 7-8 cpm. Add that to the safety/on time delivery bonus and it really makes a difference.

To do it, it's best to drive 57 mph and keep the RPM at 1100 regardless of gear. Weight and terrain play a major roll though, so some weeks are just tanked from the load itself.