Got my first check from my company the other day and I found it a little disturbing.
My very first trip they paid me at a van rate. I am not a van. I have a 16-foot box truck and I am listed with the company as a truck. I don’t mind getting van rates on return trips because they help pay the fuel for the ride home. What was worst about this trip was that it was a split load and the second load going an additional 45 miles and they only paid $31.50 for that to get me there and back to my first drop point which was 90 miles return. As I looked through all the work I had done and what I was getting paid, a lot of the work was less then truck rate and higher then van rate.
I called the recruiter who put me on and talked I also talked to a couple of dispatchers about this and they told me that is just the way it is sometimes and they really don’t always know what we are getting paid before we go, only sometimes they do. This puts me in a bad spot, as I never know what I am getting paid.
The recruiter basically told me they don’t know the pay rate all the time and basically I shouldn’t ask, because at least I am still making money “and I shouldn’t stir the pot” as he put it. Then he told me that there are a couple of guys there who complain about getting different rates and they usually end up leaving or the company gets rid of them. And as he put it that it is stupid for owner operators to refuse trips over money because then we don’t work for three days.
So in a nutshell what I got is the rules are as follows:
1 we won’t tell you what the trip pays so don’t ask
2 you refuse a trip you won’t work for 3 days
3 you should accept what you get paid because at least you’re making some money
Is this the norm in this business or am I being taken advantage of because I am relatively new to this business?
My very first trip they paid me at a van rate. I am not a van. I have a 16-foot box truck and I am listed with the company as a truck. I don’t mind getting van rates on return trips because they help pay the fuel for the ride home. What was worst about this trip was that it was a split load and the second load going an additional 45 miles and they only paid $31.50 for that to get me there and back to my first drop point which was 90 miles return. As I looked through all the work I had done and what I was getting paid, a lot of the work was less then truck rate and higher then van rate.
I called the recruiter who put me on and talked I also talked to a couple of dispatchers about this and they told me that is just the way it is sometimes and they really don’t always know what we are getting paid before we go, only sometimes they do. This puts me in a bad spot, as I never know what I am getting paid.
The recruiter basically told me they don’t know the pay rate all the time and basically I shouldn’t ask, because at least I am still making money “and I shouldn’t stir the pot” as he put it. Then he told me that there are a couple of guys there who complain about getting different rates and they usually end up leaving or the company gets rid of them. And as he put it that it is stupid for owner operators to refuse trips over money because then we don’t work for three days.
So in a nutshell what I got is the rules are as follows:
1 we won’t tell you what the trip pays so don’t ask
2 you refuse a trip you won’t work for 3 days
3 you should accept what you get paid because at least you’re making some money
Is this the norm in this business or am I being taken advantage of because I am relatively new to this business?
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