It’s a darn good thing that an official of the FMCSA is not here in my office. My 7-year old dog is curled up sleeping next to me and he’s snoring up a storm. He awoke a couple times to shift his position. He might have been dreaming or something, because his nose was wrinkling and his tail sort of wagging. Poor dog.
Maybe he ate too much for dinner at the doggie buffet. His BMI seems OK. But, we all know what the experts at the DOT and ATA would say, he most definitely, without a doubt, yes, sadly, must have sleep apnea. I need to get him a $2500 test at one of those cheesy clinics – then buy him one of those oxygen gizmos so he can sleep better at night. Thank goodness I discovered it early.
Speaking of the ATA – the American Trucking Association – the “enemy” of the American trucker – has just released their ATA Driver Compensation Study. I’m sure Evan – Kevin whatever Lockridge already has a call into their palace – I mean office – to get one of their overpaid “I’ve never been in a truck before” overpaid official mouthpieces to come on his satellite radio show to BS – I mean – discuss – the results.
"The trucking industry continues to face a number of challenges," ATA President and CEO Billy Graves said. "Retaining top-quality drivers as the economy recovers as our industry is called upon to haul more freight is of paramount importance. This study provides fleets critical regional and national data they need in today’s market." The PR release also states: “With data from 2010 and 2011, the new driver compensation study updates the previous report from 2007 and 2008. The 96-page report synthesizes information from 155 motor carriers of all types and sizes and includes a variety of data including:
Employee driver salaries on national and regional levels; Employee driver salaries by carrier type (flatbed, refrigerated, tank truck, and more); Employee driver benefits, including bonuses, insurance, retirement and vacation; Employee driver recruitment, training, and retention practices; Owner-operator employment and compensation structure; and Technician employment, salaries, and benefits.”
Isn’t this just special? Not really. I’m glad they “synthesized” the data for us. Read many of the posts on this blog and you can get a pretty good idea of what the pay and benefits are for driving a truck. Look at the first two bullet points – “employee driver salaries” – huh? What salaries? They must mean cents per mile or percentage of the load, because they’re the ATA - they certainly must know what their talking about. Right? Perhaps not.
The ATA would just love it if drivers were on salaries – then they – that is the rich elite trucking company owners who run the ATA – would not have to pay us for the miles we really do drive. Most of “them” already don’t pay real world miles. We are all paid like we’re driving (flying) a pigeon. Do you drive a pigeon? I didn’t. I used to call them fantasy miles when I looked at what the QUALCOM paid miles were and then glanced at my GPS for the reality. It’s not like we’re punching a time-clock.
The ATA – “always takes advantage” – of truck drivers. They’re the Earls and Barons and we’re the serfs. Read the post I wrote yesterday about “working” without net – I wrote that The New York Times reports that “The average American worker was taking home $752 a week in late 2010, up a mere 0.5 percent from a year earlier. Believe me that’s more than many truck drivers earn. I’m not taking about those “fringe” owner-operators, or specialty trucker drivers who earn much higher compensation for what they haul. There are those exceptions in every industry.
The proof of the pudding is that this “study” will set you back $350, and I don’t know any truck drivers that can afford it.
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