Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/655281
Trucking Topics 12 // COMPANY DRIVER // APRIL 2016 By Todd Dills An hourly future for driver pay? P aying more drivers by the hour instead of the mile has been discussed for years. An hourly rate of at least the federal minimum wage paid by carriers for all on-duty not-driving hours was considered as a potential new mandate by the White House, included with its for-a-while perennially proposed Grow America Act highway bill. That didn't survive in the highway bill that eventually passed, but such attention to time- based compensation has helped spawn growing conversation among drivers about what many consider an ideal for driver pay: pay for all time worked. In the evolving trucking marketplace, various versions of time-based models continue to emerge, even for contracts between independents/small fleets and brokerages — earlier today I wrote about technology-enabled brokerage Cargo Chief, for instance, who revealed plans to launch a time-based contract system. Independents would be paid a set lump sum for a set period of time in exchange for an agreement to haul the broker's shippers' loads, putting more pressure on the broker to work effectively for both of its customers in the transaction. One form of hourly compensation for company drivers and many independent contractors, too, detention pay, is already fairly commonplace and growing more so, but it's still short of the all time ideal many have long sought.