Michael Ludwig
Well-Known Member
20
I love my job ... just because a big part of it simply involves thinking. So, just doing my job, I've been thinking about hourly pay for drivers.
These days we regulate almost everything a driver does. When he can start, stop, sleep, drive, how fast, how slow, pretty much right down to when he drop the kids off at the pool. Heck, we can even access their dash cameras and see what the weather is like where they are.
So, if we're monitoring and regulating drivers right down to that level, why aren't we paying them by the hour?
My thought on this is quite simple; Pay them by the hour for every hour they are on the clock. All of the on duty and driving time from their e-logs added up, multiplied by the per hour rate, and there you have it. Driver paid.
There are some inherent problems though;
1) How do you deal with the driver that had to wait 6 hours in off-duty status for a load?
a) Should you let him go off duty while waiting in the first place?
b) Is your shipper not somehow responsible for that time?
c) If it's a matter of dispatch sent him early of late, is that not dispatch's responsibility?
Why should the driver take the hit for someone else's inefficiency?
2) How do you deal with the driver that is seducing the canine?
3) What advantage is there to the driver to be paid by the hour? How can he work harder/smarter to make more money?
4) How do we determine what is a fair and equitable hourly wage?
It is my belief that this is eventually how we will pay drivers. For the most part we are all already calculating our rates based on revenue per hour. It's really a simple jump to pay drivers by the hour.
I would really like to hear from carriers and drivers alike on the issue.
For the broker community, here's one for you: How would you react if I told you the transportation rate from Toronto to Vancouver was $175.00 per working hour? That means you pay the aggregate on duty plus driving time, but you do not pay the aggregate off duty plus sleeper berth time.
These days we regulate almost everything a driver does. When he can start, stop, sleep, drive, how fast, how slow, pretty much right down to when he drop the kids off at the pool. Heck, we can even access their dash cameras and see what the weather is like where they are.
So, if we're monitoring and regulating drivers right down to that level, why aren't we paying them by the hour?
My thought on this is quite simple; Pay them by the hour for every hour they are on the clock. All of the on duty and driving time from their e-logs added up, multiplied by the per hour rate, and there you have it. Driver paid.
There are some inherent problems though;
1) How do you deal with the driver that had to wait 6 hours in off-duty status for a load?
a) Should you let him go off duty while waiting in the first place?
b) Is your shipper not somehow responsible for that time?
c) If it's a matter of dispatch sent him early of late, is that not dispatch's responsibility?
Why should the driver take the hit for someone else's inefficiency?
2) How do you deal with the driver that is seducing the canine?
3) What advantage is there to the driver to be paid by the hour? How can he work harder/smarter to make more money?
4) How do we determine what is a fair and equitable hourly wage?
It is my belief that this is eventually how we will pay drivers. For the most part we are all already calculating our rates based on revenue per hour. It's really a simple jump to pay drivers by the hour.
I would really like to hear from carriers and drivers alike on the issue.
For the broker community, here's one for you: How would you react if I told you the transportation rate from Toronto to Vancouver was $175.00 per working hour? That means you pay the aggregate on duty plus driving time, but you do not pay the aggregate off duty plus sleeper berth time.