Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1002866
July 2018 | Overdrive | 27 tract for dedicated hauling service. With more company-driver minimums in place, however, owner-operators look- ing for a parachute of employee-based stability when the next downturn comes might not have far to look. Murrell is cofounder of CarriersEdge, which administers the Truckload Carriers Association's annual "Best Fleets to Drive For" recognition pro- gram. Of the top 20 in last year's pro- gram, eight carriers had a minimum guarantee in their pay programs. Looking further into the top 20 and including fleets with part-time/tempo- rary or dedicated-type guarantees that aren't available to all haulers, only four of the top 20 "don't have any kind of guarantee," Murrell adds, "and two of them are all-owner-operator fleets." The finalists are companies with the kind of workplace environment in which "driv- ers will raise their hands" to nominate the fleet, Murrell says, which is not "a representative sample of the industry." Likewise, the 40 percent of those top fleets with guaranteed pay is far from the industry at large, based on Overdrive's compensation survey. It shows that 17 percent of company and leased drivers reported hauling for a company with a guarantee system in place. Most of the packages were structured with a weekly guarantee that amounts to less than $60,000 annually. Tank hauler Don Christner pulls for a small fleet contracted to the Linde company, hauling industrial gases. The fleet has had a minimum guarantee of around $600 a week in place for as long as he can remember. Christner says he's never actually had to take that guarantee in his more than 16 years there. If you call in to the terminal and "they tell you we don't have any loads this morning," Christner explains, "you just show up and have a few cups of coffee and talk a bit, and you'll be going somewhere." Plans born in recent years, though, have higher minimums. It's common to see offers of $1,000 a week, in some cases structured as $200 daily as long as the driver is available to work. Flatbed fleet Boyd Bros., headquar- tered in Clayton, Alabama, has a basic guarantee of $1,000 weekly in place fleetwide, up from $900 late last year, says Lori Furnell, Boyd communications vice president. As with many similar guarantees at other fleets, it's been in place for just around two years for the company's roughly 400 company drivers. About a third of the 600 total haulers are owner-operators or in lease-purchase or straight-lease programs where no guarantees apply. Furnell adds that most haulers at Boyd have opted for percentage pay lately. Given the rise in freight rates, operators on percentage average "a few hundred dollars more per week," she says. Smokey Point isn't the only flatbed carrier to pitch a pay package as a salary in recent months. Flatbed spot market demand has shown incredibly tight con- ditions and upward pressure on rates in the wake of the December and April compliance deadlines for the electronic logging device mandate. Boyd, too, made something of a splash early in the year with the announcement of a "new kind of driv- ing position," in the words of Chris Cooper, the company's president and chief executive officer. Driving for Boyd's "Mission Fleet" would yield a $1,300 weekly salary ($67,600 annually at 52 weeks), as well as 48 consecutive hours of guaranteed home time per Does your carrier guarantee minimum pay regardless of production? Yes 17% A weekly/daily guarantee 15% A monthly or annual guarantee 2% No 83% Source: Overdrive 2018 compensation survey Overdrive's 2018 compensation survey looked at the prevalence of minimum guarantees in pay packages offered to company and leased drivers. Of the mostly company drivers responding, 17 percent noted the presence of a guarantee. About a third of those respon- dents said the guarantee was put in place within the last five years. Smokey Point Distributing company driver Dereik Rich, with his grandson in the seat of the 2013 Freightliner Cascadia Rich drives, believes a move to the fleet's salary program will more than double his former pay for doing local hauling work for the company. "Not many companies do a salary for their driv- ers," Rich says. "I see this taking off, Smokey Point being a leader in setting a new precedent." Courtesy of Dereik Rich