A question for owners and their drivers

[Slacktide]

I was recently talking with another team and the subject came around to pay, not how much but more how and the documentation used and provided. I/we fill out a weekly report with all the run information ie. run number miles pay ect. While they do mostly the same that is about where the similarities end. When we get paid we are provided a setelment sheet that the owner gets from our carrier showing the breakdown for all runs being paid that week, and we also get an accounting of fuel tax that also comes from our carrier. They on the other hand get NONE of that, they get paid off of the spreadsheet/ report that they submit to their owner.

Not getting the fuel tax breakdown seems like a bigger issue at tax time. Not to mention that not getting some kind of settlement sheet from the carrier showing final pay on a load could open the door for an unscrupulous owner to skim extra for themselves. Now I am not saying that their owner is just that there is that possibillity. The owner that we are with provides us with any and all documentation that we request and then some, further solidifying in our mind that they are hands down the most honest buisiness parteners we could ask for.

So here is my question. To the fleet owners what documentation do you provide to the drivers that lease your trucks?

To the drivers, what do you receive from your owners?

The team that we were talking to has since inquired to their owner and he claims not to get that information from the carrier.
My conversation with these drivers got me wondering which owner was the anomoly, theirs or mine.

 

[davekc]

We give them the statement info right from the carrier which they in turn can follow via the carrier web site. That also is available for fuel taxes and usage.
Drivers see everything we see so no secrets.
That is how it should be.

 

[pelicn]

We are drivers, Our owner sends the statement from the carrier each week. As Dave said, no secrets. We also receive a settlement report for our individual runs.
We have envelopes provided by our owner, after each run we place all paperwork in that envelope and mail it to our owner.

 

[Bruno]

We print out our own settlement sheets of the loads that was paid from our carrier. It has a break down of everything but FSC as we pay the fuel and tolls. Our drivers know that they can see our settlement from our carrier at anytime they want as we have nothing to hide. People that say they don't get road tax information from their carrier I wouldn't trust, if your paying the road tax's. If you are not paying them you don't need to see them. We ask our drivers to fill out a sheet each week of what the pay and the miles of the loads the truck has done. This sheet has helped us a few times and one load the miles on our settlement was off by 134 miles.

 

[moose]

Same here.
drivers see what the owner see.
another problem is drivers who pay for fuel, and owners keeping the fuel discounts.

 

[Bruno]

Same here.
drivers see what the owner see.
another problem is drivers who pay for fuel, and owners keeping the fuel discounts.

That is wrong and sad Moose. If the driver is paying for the fuel and paying the road tax's then they should get the fuel discount.

 

[MissKat]

Neither owner we drove for at the Fed shared these settlements. First one paid the fuel, second one we did and had fuel tax withheld from our pay. Enlightening discussion.

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[Slacktide]

The more I think about this the more I can see oportunities for an owner with questionable ethics to skim some extra for themselves. We have had multiple loads that ended up paying more than we thought and only found out that it paid more and why after seeing the settlement from the carrier via our owner. As for the road tax breakdown that opens up a huge area for an owner to be less than honest especially if they have a fleet of trucks. If a driver never sees the breakdown of charges they may not be aware of tax rebates from the states that you over paid in by buying more fuel than you needed to cover the milage traveled in that state. What an owner charges may indeed have been owed to a given state but IF the unknown rebate was not taken into account they would be making a profit off of the drivers. Then there is also the fuel rebates that have been mentioned above as well, while TA/Petro are discounted at the time of purchase, Pilot/Flying J rebates are passed straight to our owner and then he passes them on to us. Just one more way for a less than honest owner to make a buck off their drivers.

As I type this it makes me so grateful that we have the owners that we do.

 

[moose]

. If a driver never sees the breakdown of charges they may not be aware of tax rebates from the states that you over paid in by buying more fuel than you needed to cover the milage traveled in that state. What an owner charges may indeed have been owed to a given state but IF the unknown rebate was not taken into account they would be making a profit off of the drivers...

There's the IFTA agreement to deal with that.
if the driver 'over fuel' in one state, those tax rebates are passed on to the other states where the driver 'under fueled'.
it's actually quite a money maker, if the driver 'over fill' in states that have more 'fuel tax' build into the 'pump price', that 'tax' will get you going further in states with low 'fuel tax'.
here's the tool everyone paying for fuel should be using, to determine in which state to fill'er'up. :

Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Truck Insurance, Hot Issues, Educational Tools

i'v never ever seen a positive quarterly fuel tax report.
somehow the gov. always need my money.

 

[DragonLadyTN]

As a former lease contractor and current fleet owner. The only advise I can give to any contractor is, if your owner does not allow you access to all the carrier's settlement information related to the truck, their is a problem. In addition you should always recieve a detailed breakdown showing how every "penny" of the revenue you generated to that truck was disbursed . All carriers provide a detailed quarterly breakdown for IFTA tax and provide that report for each unit to the owner at the time the deduction is taken. If you are paying fuel, you should be provided a copy of that report!!!

If these basic things are not being provided to you, it is time to rethink your current situation!!!

This is basic information, that any truely honest busniess partner provides without being asked!!!


Just my 2 cents!

 

[Pirate2X]

I am not up to date on fuel taxes, road taxes, etc. In my position, it really has not been a worry. I am a 40% driver, my owner pays the fuel and maintenace costs. I do however, see everything that concerns my truck income and expense wise. I take care of my truck and they get all the reciepts. I see all the load info and fuel surcharges probably before they do. It is my job to make my money. I also understand that in that way I make them some too. I guess, to answer you correctly, my owner doesn't hide anything from me. If I ever have a question, all I need do is ask. They have always been very open with me about business. If they were not, I would probably have doubts.

Just my 2 copper pieces,
-Bill

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