Paying by the Mile is Obsolete

I frequently search for new topics when I am writing these articles. While glancing at the news headlines, I came up with this month’s topic. In fact, it was two different headlines that caught my eye. First was “Nearly 13% of Inspected Commercial Vehicles Taken out of Service During Break Safety Week”, and the ATA headline stated: “70% of Truckers Forced to Violate Hours of Service to Find
Safe Parking”.

Both headlines got me thinking that every year we have far too many vehicles put out of service during the break inspection week. And everyday, truck drivers push the hours of service to their absolute maximum and beyond because they drive to the 11th hour (13th in Canada) and then look for a place to park.

This got me thinking. Why are drivers not doing a complete and thorough vehicle inspection and why do drivers feel that they must squeeze every possible minute out of the hours of service to make money?

I believe this all comes down to how some truck drivers are paid. Too many truck drivers are paid per mile, and they feel that they are not compensated adequately for their time spent doing a great vehicle inspection. Let’s be honest, a great vehicle inspection will take much longer than the five or 10 minutes many drivers who are paid by the mile take to perform their vehicle inspection. Being paid by the mile encourages the driver to get the truck moving as quickly as possible. And because they are paid by the mile, the driver often feels they have to get 10.5 to 11 hours of driving time in every day or else they are ripping themselves off.

The common denominator in both problems I believe, is that the drivers are paid by the mile! Drivers feel they are only compensated when the truck is moving and therefore try to get the truck moving as soon as possible and take less time to perform a vehicle inspection. And to keep the truck moving for as long as they possibly can, they wait until the last moment to look for parking to maximize their driver pay. And honestly, I don’t blame anyone for maximizing their driver pay. We all owe it to our families and loved ones to work hard, to work honestly, and to bring home the most amount of money that is possible in our role.

I certainly don’t blame the truck drivers. It is the system.

So, what is the solution?

Some companies have started to pay drivers by the hour. Oh, by the hour! What a unique concept. In today’s world, do we really need to continue to pay the drivers by the mile?

In the old days before GPS and ELD systems, the management of trucking companies had no idea if the truck driver was working or not. That’s not the same in today’s world. With all the tracking solutions available to trucking companies today, they always know if the wheels are moving. If the wheels are moving, the driver should get a fair compensation. The driver should also receive compensation for performing vehicle inspections. The driver should get compensation for waiting at loading docks. The driver should get compensation for driving in heavy traffic.

I think you see where I’m going. Paying truck drivers by the mile is an old-fashioned way and does not promote safety. It does promote drivers to take shortcuts whenever possible so that they can maximize their pay.

What are your thoughts?

Chris Harris
Top Dawg, Safety Dawg Inc.
905-973-7056
chris@safetydawg.com
@safety_dawg (twitter)