Truck Driver Pay

Truck driver pay is always a hot topic, but at truckerswheel we make it even hotter. We throw in a little politics, a dash of economic exploitation and some corporate greed to make your blood pressure rise a bit.




I was originally going to leave Truck Driver Pay for a later date with so many articles on my “to do” list. There were a few reasons why I chose to bump this one up the list.

First, I experienced this first hand with a recent job change that put the truck driver pay issue fresh in my mind. Another reason is listening to drivers blaming the freight companies. I felt this issue went further up the ladder than than just the freight companies and let’s not forget they’re squeezed by big corporations just like you’re squeezed as a driver.

There’s also been a lot of political and economic issues regarding entitlement, fiscal cliffs, higher corporate taxes, a shrinking middle class and a recession. I’m quite political, so this get’s me thinking of contributing factors to the truck driver pay issue like corporate greed and economic exploitation.

My personal career gave me an honest perspective on truck driver pay. I started shunting in a yard before moving to city P&D and out onto the highway. From highway work I moved to the off road trucking industry covering both the oilfields and the ice roads.

The oilfield work payed substantially higher than any other job. I was paid for everything I did in the oil and gas industry. I was quite surprised at how low the pay was for ice road trucking. Ice road trucking pays only marginally higher than highway work, but the difference is you’re allowed to work a lot more hours.

I’ve been rather fortunate to have some fairly high paying truck driving jobs, but it wasn’t always that way. I still gave away a substantial amount of money for things I felt I should have been paid for.

there are many truck drivers being exploited and it’s a lot of money, so we’ve got a lot to say starting with this,

Consider this fact

Truckers give a one billion dollar a month subsidy to freight costs.

Probably not what you expected to hear is it? Well it’s true and this may even be a conservative estimate, but answer me this question. Are you surprised?

Each month across North America truck drivers subsidize the cost of freight by giving free labor. So, does this money benefit the shipper, receiver, or the freight company? Who knows, but the next time you hear “Thank a trucker”, you’ll know why.

We have some important terms to define, so let’s start off with the difference between “Sense of Entitlement” and “Greed”.

“Sense of Entitlement” is an employee expecting something for nothing.

“Greed” is the company expecting the employees to do something for nothing.

Pretty simple? Life’s always about balance isn’t it?

Think about this. We’re just one industry that makes up a small percentage of the overall economy.

If truck drivers are giving over 12 billion a year out of their pockets, how many billions (or trillions), are being subsidized elsewhere in the economy? Where does all this money go? Whether they’re salaried, hourly, or contract, people work for free all the time. This is not a problem specific to the transportation industry.

Here’s an interesting excerpt for you to let you know where the money is going.

“The richest 10 Americans increase their wealth by over $50 billion in one year. That’s enough, according to 2008 estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN’s World Food Program, to feed the 870 million people in the world who are lacking sufficient food.

By Paul Buchheit. Click for the full story.

GREED. This world is full of it.

Go ahead and say it, I know some of you will. Most of us believe in capitalism too and don’t have a problem with the potential to make unlimited amounts of money. The problem is moral lines are crossed frequently in doing so. By moral lines, I mean that no company should exploit workers to increase profits.

We boycott companies that exploit workers in other countries, but we turn a blind eye to this problem in our own backyards.

Continue reading Truck Driver Pay…..

We’ll be using truck driver pay to prove our point about exploiting workers, but let’s define a few more important terms before we do. When we refer to exploitation, we’re using the Wikipedia definition that reads as such,

“Economic Exploitation: That is, the act of using another person’s labor without offering them an adequate compensation.”




Here’s a couple more definitions we’ll refer to:

Subsidy – A subsidy is money given (in the form of wages) to keep prices down.

Entitlement – A reasonable expectation of pay, reward, benefit, or gifts. The expectation is usually based on legislation (laws) or another form of rights.

Sense of Entitlement- An unwarranted claim of benefits, or favorable treatment in the way of “gifts”.

We’ll get into all these throughout the article.

So company drivers are usually paid either by the hour, a specified amount per mile, flat rate per trip, or percentage of the gross profits to the truck. Truck driver salaries are not quite as common, but these are the most common ways to be paid.

It seems like the basic fundamentals of supply and demand don’t seem to be working in the trucking industry. When there’s a shortage of qualified workers in a particular field, wages usually rise to attract more people to that occupation. So what’s the problem with the trucking industry? The driver shortage has been an issue for almost 20 years with little or no positive change. Low wages, lack of respect, poor treatment and long hours have made it an unattractive industry to enter.

Most drivers in the trucking industry are dealing with unfair pay, in exchange for the work they perform. Truck drivers consistently give free labour throughout their day. Even some of the largest and best paying companies claim to pay you for everything, but in reality they don’t. Often there’s a wait period absorbed by the drivers before any compensation is paid for the issues we’ll be addressing below.

Some companies may give you the option to select one, or a combination of methods to be paid like by the mile for driving and by the hour to deliver or load.

So let’s get back to where we started about truck driver pay. Where does the billion dollars a month comes from?

Miles driven, but not paid for. Many of these pre-determined mileage programs were implemented for progressive changes, like allowing salesman to provide rate quotes. It quickly became the standard practice for paying their drivers. It’s unacceptable that mileage shortages are still an issue in trucking, considering the GPS and mapping technology that we have, but still the norm.

Most companies have manipulated this system as a way to generate additional revenue at the expense of the driver. they’ll pay you for the miles to the nearest pre set location before your destination. Drivers have been consistently shorted miles and pay (in some cases 5% to 10%) since this system was implemented.

Furthermore, any company that has set runs shouldn’t be using mileage programs to pay their drivers. If a company regularly sends drivers to specific destinations, they should easily have the ability to determine the accurate mileage.

Customer detention time. Waiting to load, or unload at a customer. This is a basic operating cost in the trucking industry. If something has to move by truck, it obviously has to be loaded and unloaded. The basic costs of doing business shouldn’t be absorbed by the driver.

This has become even more unfair for drivers with the new hours of service regulations. In many cases drivers log book on duty time is being charged, but they’re not being paid. If you drive 3 hours to a receiver and wait 3 hours to unload, you’ve just lost 3 hours of your day to earn an income.

Fueling trucks. Many companies automatically assume this is your responsibility. On average, it takes around 15 to 30 minutes for a refuel. It could easily take longer if there’s a waiting line. If you stop for fuel twice a day, you’ve just given an hour of your time.

Pre-trips. It takes another 15 to 30 minutes to pre-trip your equipment. This is a responsibility of the driver to prepare the companies equipment, but this cost should be covered by the company. There are still numerous companies that don’t pay for pre-trip inspections.

En route inspections and walk around checks. Most professional drivers will take about 15 minutes for an en route inspection. Quick walk-around checks should also be done at every stop. It’s much better to find deficiencies in a safe stopping place or town, then to end up stranded on the road. Does your company cover you for your diligence as a professional? After all, you’re doing this for the safety of everyone.

Brake checks. For those of you running the mountains this is something you’re all aware of. Brake checks account for an average of 3 to 5 additional stops on any given day of running. Also included in Mountain driving is chaining up.

Traffic. Many highway drivers dread running into major cities. Being paid by the mile can take a big toll on your pay when sitting in traffic. If you make $20/hr at 62 mph, how much do you make sitting in gridlock traffic for three hours? Again, this is a part of doing business that the driver shouldn’t have to absorb.

Weather. Another cost associated with doing business in the winter is lost time due to bad weather. Speeds must be reduced in accordance to the conditions meaning another reduction in truck driver pay. This can also be a safety issue as some drivers will push these limits to maintain their rate of pay, or to make delivery appointment times.

Another added pressure in recent years is companies penalizing freight haulers with fines for being late for appointments.

Break downs. Are you paid for any break down time? If so, you’re one of the lucky ones. It pays to work for the most reputable companies as they often have the most reliable equipment.

Road closures. Bad weather, accidents, avalanches, and floods are a few of the unforeseen problems that can affect truck driver pay. Although some companies will pay delay time, they still require you to absorb some of these costs.

Per Diem pay. This is one thing that could be positive or negative depending on your personal situation. It is usually more negative than positive for drivers. This also gets complicated depending on your financial situation, so we’re going to leave it at your discretion. Companies often advertise this as part of their truck driver pay, when in it’s a deduction you receive anyway.

Summarizing the loses

This may not look like a lot of money, but these things can easily cost a driver thousands of dollars a year. On any given day, a typical long haul driver will absorb between 1 to 3 hours between unpaid fuel stops, pre-trips and delivery time. On a stormy day in the winter, a driver can easily absorb 3 to 5 hours on a full day of driving. These are typical numbers and as drivers we know the worst case scenarios.

Continue reading Truck Driver Pay…

So how much money are drivers really subsidizing the industry?

According to truckinfo.net there are around 3.75 million truck drivers in North America. It was rather difficult to find accurate statistics with a breakdown of hourly/local, line haul drivers, and long haul drivers. I had to do some improvising with my stats to be fair making this a conservative estimate.




Let’s work with some numbers here. Let’s take 2,000,000 drivers (just over half of the CDL drivers in North America), and an average wage of $16/hr. If every driver gave 1.25 hours/day of their own time for 25 days/month, that’s pretty handy to a billion dollars. Anyone that currently drives in the industry knows this is a conservative estimate.

Don’t forget:

• Most hourly drivers punch in/punch out, and are covered for almost all their time.
• Line haul drivers are mixed in the equation being paid almost every which way, salaried, by the mile, hourly, etc..
• From my research, the number of long haul drivers in North America is roughly 1.5 million and they’re economically exploited more than any other group. They’re usually paid by the mile for driving time and by the hour for delivery/pickup.

Advice for new drivers

It’s up to you to find out all the things regarding truck driver pay before you take the job. Take the time to research the company as they’ll do the same to you. The cleaner your driving record, criminal background, and more experience you have, the more likely you are to avoid truck driver pay issues. The best paying truck driving jobs usually go to the most qualified candidates.

Make sure you work for someone that deserves your 110%. Put the company on probation as they do with you. It’s completely acceptable to leave a company that didn’t come through on what they advertised. You’re usually better off to leave than try to “make a go of it”. If they aren’t upfront and honest at the beginning, you can expect that to continue.

On the flip side, It’s OK to give a little in your life too. There’s nothing wrong with “going the extra mile”, or doing something for the benefit of a good employer. Just be aware of when you’re being taken advantage of. This is my personal quote of the progression of good will abuse.

“A favor becomes an expectation, which becomes a demand.”

Most of the exploitation happens within companies with lower hiring standards. It’s much easier to take advantage of “victims of circumstance”. Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of these companies that exist. It’s easy to say “get a better job” or “work somewhere else”, but some truck drivers have limited choices due to other factors in their life.

Expose companies that exploit drivers to make it more difficult for them to operate, but do it in a professional way. Bashing a company makes you no better than they are.

It would be nice if we could make the companies stand up to the plate. If there’s truly a driver shortage, than the wages should be reflecting that. It’s the companies responsibility to sell their services, and negotiate rates that allow you to be paid fairly. No company should exploit their drivers to subsidize their operating costs.

Have a fair and balanced understanding between “Entitlement” and “Sense of Entitlement”.

I’m sure we all know someone that has an unwarranted “sense of entitlement”. These are people that feel they should have this “new truck”, “best run” or position within the company. They believe they are entitled to beneficial treatment from their employers. Remember that no one ever starts a business or company to make employees rich, or owe them things.

In other words, an employee should never have an unwarranted “sense of entitlement” for anything more than fair treatment and pay, in exchange for the work they perform.

At the same time, the business or company has to pay fair wages in accordance with the law, supply and demand, and market conditions. There should never be an expectation of an employee to do anything for free on behalf of the company (exploitation).

Recognize the best employers for what they are. Volunteer to pull together on behalf of a company when you’re treated, paid and respected exceptionally well. There’s a large number of good employers out there that deserve your all and will pay it back to you. It doesn’t take long to recognize who they are.

Corporate greed in relation to trucking

Corporations are growing bigger and stronger every day which also increases their level of arrogance in the way they do business. Once they reach a certain level in the marketplace, they become dictatorships in their own realms. They dictate they way they do business, what they’ll pay and set all the rules of engagement. If you don’t like it, you don’t work with them.

If you can afford to shop fair, do it. If more people would make a statement with their buying power, we wouldn’t have the corporate greed we have today. Consumers should be the ones deciding the fate of companies or corporations that exploit workers.

For those of you that don’t understand what corporate greed is, watch this 5 minute youtube video. It’s not meant to pick on CAT, but it did have some relevance to this article. You can apply this to many corporations today.

How do you feel about this video? Do you feel these employees have an unwarranted sense of entitlement? Do you feel this is corporate greed on behalf of the company? Do you feel companies should have a responsibility to contribute to a more balanced distribution of wealth?

I don’t have the answers to the issue regarding truck driver pay. I’m just a driver with my own personal opinions that I express on my site. You don’t have to agree with anything I’ve said and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject whether you do or don’t.

You can read comments by others in the driver pay discussion forum. You can also have your say, ask questions, or start your own topics by registering as a user.

Thanks for reading Truck Driver Pay

Truckerswheel Team