What Is A Good,bad Or Great Pay If You Are Getting Paid Percentage Pay Instead Of Mileage?

but no one was answering that

That's because no one can answer that with a solid answer. 77% of a high paying load could be considered a great percentage, where 77% of a crappy low-paying load will be considered a low percentage.

The answer will be completely subjective to whatever load the company gives you.

Thank you that is at least trying to answer the question for me as best you can

And the others also answered it for you.

but no one was answering that

That's because no one can answer that with a solid answer. 77% of a high paying load could be considered a great percentage, where 77% of a crappy low-paying load will be considered a low percentage.

The answer will be completely subjective to whatever load the company gives you.

Given my immediate reaction to your response, I think I may see where the OP's frustration is coming from. I don't see why it would be subjective. If 75% is a good percentage, then it is a good percentage, whether the pay itself is crap or not. 75% of a $10,000 load is a good percentage, as is 75% of a $2 load ... you just don't make much money on the $2 load. All of the other stuff is about the final amount of money one can make, which isn't what the question was about.

Someone did say they wouldn't take less than 28% which was an answer to the question even if a bit of a hedge. It doesn't sound like there is an industry standard, which may have been a better question (and one that Kearsey seemed to address).

Granted, this is coming from a complete newbie who welcomes ALL the other input as well; it just seemed Sean felt people were talking around the question, and I could see why. Perhaps there is something I am not seeing that would alter that perception. (Especially the idea about a percentage of a crappy paying load being considered a crappy percentage as opposed to just crappy pay.)

A previous member of ours, Solo, was doing percentage with TMC and was up to 33% (supposedly) .. his posts can be seen here:

Solo's threads

He put in his year, and then went local, for hourly. That in itself says something, IMHO. He posted 'a' paystub; its in his photo cache included in the link above, as well.

In the almost 20 years my husband has been driving, he's never done percentage; not even hauling asphalt. He DID have the option, but opted CPM and pay per run.

Wish you well~!

~ Anne ~

J.R., here is what makes it so confusing for us. The original post says...

Im about to leave my current company and try somewhere new, one of which offers percentage pay

We have to assume this person is a company driver. He says, "I'm about to leave my current company." He says nothing about leasing a truck. All he gives us is that one of the companies he is considering "offers percentage pay." There are companies that pay percentage as opposed to mileage pay. Those percentages are much lower than what a lease operator gets. As a lease operator I'd be nuts to work for 28%! As a company driver it might be okay. We didn't have any of the information we needed to help. And then the OP wants to act a little indignant that we are not answering the question. I would want at least 85% if I was on the hook for the bills involved in a lease, but anybody that can do math and understands that trucking companies run a profit of around 5 percent can see the writing on the wall. If I get 85% of the load and the profit margin is 5 percent - guess who is coming out on the short end? The company is getting 15% now that I have accepted 85%. I am losing money and they are making more money that they were before they suckered me in.

Am I making sense to anybody? I would appreciate any confirmation if that makes sense. I have been a business man all my life. I understand numbers, but sometimes I wonder if I explain them well enough. We have an old saying down here in East Texas: "You can't get blood out of a turnip." That's because there is no blood in a turnip. There is no extra money in a lease agreement. There is an average 5% margin in this business. That means the driver needs to get 95% of the load to make it come out right. No company writes a lease agreement like that. They are writing these leases so they can increase their margins somewhere.

So, now that we know what the OP wants to know, we can tell him 95% would be a good percentage. We still haven't helped him though. He simply can't find a lease agreement with those terms. I have two close friends who leased trucks and ran them on the same dedicated account as I at Knight Transportation. We were all hauling flat bed loads for "Hydro." We ran the same loads out of the same plant. We compared notes regularly. I still made approximately twenty thousand dollars per year more than either of them. They had many more years of experience than me - that didn't help them. They seldom ever even went home. You just can't pull rabbits out of a hat in trucking. The company knows the margins. They have planned accordingly. The lease operator thinks he can get lucky, but he's always wrong. Mean averages are there because that's what they are. They don't magically disappear due to someone's optimism.

J.R., here is what makes it so confusing for us. The original post says...

Im about to leave my current company and try somewhere new, one of which offers percentage pay

We have to assume this person is a company driver. He says, "I'm about to leave my current company." He says nothing about leasing a truck. All he gives us is that one of the companies he is considering "offers percentage pay." There are companies that pay percentage as opposed to mileage pay. Those percentages are much lower than what a lease operator gets. As a lease operator I'd be nuts to work for 28%! As a company driver it might be okay. We didn't have any of the information we needed to help. And then the OP wants to act a little indignant that we are not answering the question. I would want at least 85% if I was on the hook for the bills involved in a lease, but anybody that can do math and understands that trucking companies run a profit of around 5 percent can see the writing on the wall. If I get 85% of the load and the profit margin is 5 percent - guess who is coming out on the short end? The company is getting 15% now that I have accepted 85%. I am losing money and they are making more money that they were before they suckered me in.

Am I making sense to anybody? I would appreciate any confirmation if that makes sense. I have been a business man all my life. I understand numbers, but sometimes I wonder if I explain them well enough. We have an old saying down here in East Texas: "You can't get blood out of a turnip." That's because there is no blood in a turnip. There is no extra money in a lease agreement. There is an average 5% margin in this business. That means the driver needs to get 95% of the load to make it come out right. No company writes a lease agreement like that. They are writing these leases so they can increase their margins somewhere.

So, now that we know what the OP wants to know, we can tell him 95% would be a good percentage. We still haven't helped him though. He simply can't find a lease agreement with those terms. I have two close friends who leased trucks and ran them on the same dedicated account as I at Knight Transportation. We were all hauling flat bed loads for "Hydro." We ran the same loads out of the same plant. We compared notes regularly. I still made approximately twenty thousand dollars per year more than either of them. They had many more years of experience than me - that didn't help them. They seldom ever even went home. You just can't pull rabbits out of a hat in trucking. The company knows the margins. They have planned accordingly. The lease operator thinks he can get lucky, but he's always wrong. Mean averages are there because that's what they are. They don't magically disappear due to someone's optimism.

Makes TOTAL sense to me, O/S . . . exactly why I referenced Mr. Solo ~ we got into this banter with him over a year ago. Same shebang. As many years as Tom's only been driving truck, even closely with and for an O/O, the #'s didn't come to fruition overall to run percentage. We knew Ted's #'s, we knew 'peak' season and prices for product, both asphalt AND the occasional precast in the winters, in between. Nope.

I DO agree with you that the O/P is looking into lease, perhaps. That's why Turtle's post 'made sense' to him.

That's why one must look at not only the mean, but the median and the mode as well.

Great post, as always~!

~ Anne ~

Well my original question was just trying to find out what percentages are considered good bad or great but no one was answering that they only kept telling me the same thing that I already understood. Which has been paid off of percentages the pay will vary. So I decided to ask it differently with including the least part I get all the risks and understand but I really just want to know what percentages of pay is considered good bad or great?

Actually I did answer you. You have to know the percentage of WHAT. There is a difference between the freight rate and the rate the broker gives. So getting a higher percent of the brokerage rate MAY be less than a lower % of freight.

Many times company drivers get a percent based on miles...so lower mile loads and high mile loads could get different percents at the same company.

Percentage isn’t a bad thing if the company is straight forward with it. Yes it is a variable, but can be ok. Some companies play hide and seek with the information then makes statements so difficult to read you will never figure it out. If that is the case run away as fast as possible.

Mileage pay can be more consistent, however it is based strictly on the mileage the company sets as the total. There are basically 2 standard models used industry wide, and of course none of them are actual hub miles. So this could be looked at as a variable.

Bottom line is neither system is perfect, both can work so its up to each driver which they prefer.

J.R., here is what makes it so confusing for us. The original post says...

Im about to leave my current company and try somewhere new, one of which offers percentage pay

We have to assume this person is a company driver. He says, "I'm about to leave my current company." He says nothing about leasing a truck. All he gives us is that one of the companies he is considering "offers percentage pay." There are companies that pay percentage as opposed to mileage pay. Those percentages are much lower than what a lease operator gets. As a lease operator I'd be nuts to work for 28%! As a company driver it might be okay. We didn't have any of the information we needed to help. And then the OP wants to act a little indignant that we are not answering the question. I would want at least 85% if I was on the hook for the bills involved in a lease, but anybody that can do math and understands that trucking companies run a profit of around 5 percent can see the writing on the wall. If I get 85% of the load and the profit margin is 5 percent - guess who is coming out on the short end? The company is getting 15% now that I have accepted 85%. I am losing money and they are making more money that they were before they suckered me in.

Am I making sense to anybody? I would appreciate any confirmation if that makes sense. I have been a business man all my life. I understand numbers, but sometimes I wonder if I explain them well enough. We have an old saying down here in East Texas: "You can't get blood out of a turnip." That's because there is no blood in a turnip. There is no extra money in a lease agreement. There is an average 5% margin in this business. That means the driver needs to get 95% of the load to make it come out right. No company writes a lease agreement like that. They are writing these leases so they can increase their margins somewhere.

So, now that we know what the OP wants to know, we can tell him 95% would be a good percentage. We still haven't helped him though. He simply can't find a lease agreement with those terms. I have two close friends who leased trucks and ran them on the same dedicated account as I at Knight Transportation. We were all hauling flat bed loads for "Hydro." We ran the same loads out of the same plant. We compared notes regularly. I still made approximately twenty thousand dollars per year more than either of them. They had many more years of experience than me - that didn't help them. They seldom ever even went home. You just can't pull rabbits out of a hat in trucking. The company knows the margins. They have planned accordingly. The lease operator thinks he can get lucky, but he's always wrong. Mean averages are there because that's what they are. They don't magically disappear due to someone's optimism.

Thank you for the clarification. Now that I see where you are coming from, it makes more sense.

And the only way to know what you are getting paid is to get paid by the hour. I know my hourly rate and I know how many hours I work each day. When I was regional , I was paid by the mile. Not actual miles, but zip miles and it was always less than what I actually drove.