Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/596928
Voices 4 | Overdrive | November 2015 Most readers favor industry-based solutions to the problem of uncom- pensated waits at shipper/receiver docks, as was noted in the "Detention détente" feature. Many opinions came in response to the calculations made in that Septem- ber feature, which arrived at $64 an hour as a fair target rate for an inde- pendent. While most readers favored such an income-based approach to setting hourly detention rates, many argued for more aggressive tactics. An income-based approach doesn't adequately compensate in situations where long waits create a domino effect of missed appointments and reduced drive times, noted Kenneth Williams. $64 an hour is "not going to cover the lost time," he says. Such situations have become the norm for many truckers, forced into a rock-and-a-hard-place choice of dealing with the delay or not taking loads out of problem docks, refusing business out of principle. It's time for all truckers to "get smart," says a Florida-based inde- pendent with the handle "Red Light Bandit." "Demand, don't ask for, detention money to be put into the lease agreement. If the owner-oper- ator has their own authority, make sure that the customers know about this. Brokers will try to sidestep and evade this topic as much as humanly possible, or try to pocket that money for themselves." The operator urged a more aggres- sive formula based on total revenue to compensate for time rather than in- come. "Lost time is potential revenue lost," he said. Via OverdriveOnline.com: Thomas Lawson: I once was told by a dock foreman that unloaders should be paid, and I agreed that the receivers should hire them since it's their freight that's being unloaded. If you buy some- thing at the store, do they supply some- Strong calls on pay for waits BEST WAY TO TACKLE DETENTION? OverdriveOnline.com poll Detention pay clauses in carrier contracts after reasonable unload times should be industry standard, with guaranteed detention pay for drivers 63% 10% Other/ I don't know Government should mandate detention pay from carriers to drivers 27% Only about a fourth of poll respondents favored the regulatory/legislative approach to deten- tion pay. That minority spoke out in one of our "mailbag" podcasts on Overdrive Radio (OverdriveOnline.com/overdriveradio or via iTunes and other streaming services). Others supported a solution a little different than the Obama administration's approach in the Grow America Act highway bill draft, which proposed that carriers pay at least the minimum hourly wage for all on-duty not-driving time. "If the government wants to step in and regulate us, they need to regulate the shippers and the brokers," said Rochester, N.Y.-based Jeremiah Hurley of J&T Transport. "Otherwise, everybody's just pissing in the wind." Search "Shippers and brokers too" at OverdriveOnline. com for more. Max Heine