Not if they cut miles of the true distance. I don't think any method is immune from abuse if desired. I'll take a percent of load plus fsc any day.
Sent from my Fisher Price ABC-123.
Carrier Settlement Structure Preference
- Thread starter VTurri
- Start date
Not if they cut miles of the true distance. I don't think any method is immune from abuse if desired. I'll take a percent of load plus fsc any day.
Sent from my Fisher Price ABC-123.
it sure could have.....with the proper negotiated pay for every stop charge and any hand unload charge....and any accumulated detention time....
Last edited:
Murraycroexp
Veteran Expediter
Let's face it, there's no pay structure that works perfect 100% of the time. Carriers need a standard structure for the lion share of the loads, then the ability and willingness to override pay to add assessorial charges and pay any time those are justified. Bottom line? The carrier needs to be willing to work with the driver and not against the driver. Carriers giving away potential revenue in Assessorial charges are giving away profit. Also, carriers not paying those assessorial charges and abusing the trust between Dispatch and the driver are likely to lose more drivers when they end up working for free on occasion.
To operate in this climate, it has become a necessity to know and operate with a understanding of the law. Most of course has been forced on owner operators. It isn't just limited to carrier issues, it is slowly turning drivers into lawyers just to navigate through all the safety and operating regs.
With regard to carriers, much of this started years ago in the household goods side of trucking. The scamming of drivers and customers was unbelievable. Today it more subdued, but yet still exists in large numbers. Raising the bond requirement on brokers to 75k is just a recent example.
With the age of technology, past ways of operating are forcing carriers to evaluate policies to minimize liability exposure.
The definition of bonus is "something given or paid over and above what is due; a premium paid beyond a stipulated amount; money given to someone in addition ro regular pay in appreciation for work done, accumulated favors, or extra effort." If you are paid a contracted rate per mile, which many people are, then your pay per mile is what you deserve. Anything that is paid out above that is rightly considered a bonus, including accessorial pay, since bonus also covers extra pay for additional work or accumulated favors. Same thing holds for those on a percentage, and they negotiate additional monies above their contracted percentage, those negotiated additional monies can rightly be considered a bonus.
Diane and I are, by contract, receive 62% of the pay on a given load, but we frequently negotiate dollar amounts higher than that. The additional money received is not a bonus, at least not in our view. It is the minumimum amount of money (total pay) required for us to do a load.
Example: 1,000 mile run offered at $1.50 per mile, loaded miles. Total pay offered is $1,500. We tell agent that we will do the run for $1,800 and agent agrees.
The difference between $1,500 and $1,800 is $300 but the $300 is not a bonus. Indeed, it is nothing at all, except part of the $1,800 the agent paid to have us do the load.
Last edited:
You signed for 62% You agreed you could run loads at 62%.... anything over and above is a bonus...
I'm just going by the definition of bonus. You can call it whatever you like, view it in whatever terms you prefer, but as OVM noted, you agreed by contract to run loads for 62 percent. In your example above, you simply negotiated a $300 bonus, the same way some drafted baseball players negotiate a signing bonus above and beyond that of their contract. But if you don't want to call it a bonus, don't. It'll still spend the same, regardless of what it's called.
Some people call it a swap, some call it a transfer, some call it a cross dock, but it's the same thing - freight being moved from one vehicle to another.
Extra compensation over and above contract rate.... As turtle said call it what you like...
Possibly the A Team contract say's "62% minimum of load"
We can go back and forth about the application of the word "bonus." To me, there is no bonus because without sufficient money to run the load in the first place, there would be no deal at all.
If a merchant was selling an item for $15, and a customer said I'll give you $10, and the merchant said no deal, there is no deal. If the customer then says I'll pay you $10 plus a $5.00 bonus, the merchant would say yes because the $15 price was met. If you want to call that $5 a bonus, go ahead. I won't because to me, it is not a bonus. It is simply part of the $15 required to complete the purchase.
Diane and I (merchants in this example) do not provide services for 62% of the line haul. We provide services for a certain rate per mile. Agents who pay that rate, get our truck. Those who don't, don't.
Last edited:
I agree that the dictionary definition you cite for "bonus" is the correct definition. It is in the application of the word that we differ.
You are presuming that the deal is already done, but in my example it is not. Yes, Diane and I are contracted with our carrier to receive 62% of the line haul pay (plus fuel surcharge and accessorials paid at various rates depending on the item). But we are not obligated to haul even one load at that rate.
IF we accept a load, we receive 62% of the line haul (plus accessorials); end of story. But note that the beginning of the story is more important in this discussion. It is the beginning of the story that determines not whether a bonus is paid, but if there is a deal at all. Once a price is agreed to and we are committed to do the load, a bonus would be something paid after the fact and paid over and above the agreed upon rate.
The only time we have received anything like a monetary bonus in expediting was when we got $50 from FedEx Custom Critical when we passed a Level 1 inspection at a time that the company was offering that incentive.
Last edited:
I can meet you half way there, if we say "extra compensation over and above the "agreed upon" total pay for doing the load. The 62% contract rate is but one piece of the bigger picture.
If an agent initially offered us $1,000 to do a load and then agreed to our counter offer of say $1,200, $1,200 is the agreed upon pay and a contract is then established. We will do the load. The agent will pay us $1,200. If the agent later pays us say $50 because he or she is delighted with the extra-good effort we provided to the customer, the $50 would be a bonus.
Last edited:
zorry
Veteran Expediter
Wow....I need a bonus for reading all of this.
Lawrance will be right on it.
62% of zero is zip. Nada. Nothin'
I agree totally with you guys. I have 3 straights on with my carrier and we do the same. I don't look at it as a bonus either. We look at the offer and negotiate