Ok, I can see I might be very well involved with this thread, but that's a good thing.
Question to think about, You say Dave that the owner should get the detention time pay if he's paying the fuel? I agree with you on whoever pays the fuel gets the surcharges and all, that only makes sense, but the detention pay I think should belong to the driver.
why? it's the driver that is waiting, it may be the fuel of the truck being used, but it's the driver whose waiting, possibly missing a good load 'cause he/she has to wait to get unloaded. I just have to disagree with that, that the owner being the one to get the detention pay. Detention time happens because shippers and recievers at the dock just don't pay attention to time schedules of the docks. Drivers are the ones who are delayed getting home to family and loved ones because of detention time, not owners. Why should the owner get payed for my time away from my family?
The owner should get EM pay (empty move), should get DeadHead, and that's it. Dry Run pay should be split perhaps. Multiple stop pay should go to the driver-we're the one's doing the stops, not the owner. Load/unload pay should go to the driver, it's not like expediting has alot of "fingerprint loads". All Canada money should go to the driver-after all, we the drivers are the ones who get the wonderful pleasure of dealing with customs and border officers and brokers.
"whatever deposits the owner has to give the company, the driver should give the owner? But then would anyone ever drive???"
Answer from a driver, and many more will agree with me... NO. Why should I have to give money to the owner for his deposit on the QC or insurance? yes, I'm using it, but it's not going on my truck, it's going on his truck. I can see an arguement here, but I personally don't think the owner should require a driver to fork up money for deposits to the company. That owner will have a hard time finding drivers to do so. For an owner, deposits to the company are the cost of doing business in my opinion.
"if a loaded vehicle gets rolled and wrecked, the driver can walk away with no real financial liability"
Can a driver really "walk away" as you say? even if they don't suffer any "major" injuries, there's still the driving record, the consequences the driver has to pay in form of tickets (and there will be a ticket issued to the driver, their fault or not), what about the mental trauma the driver goes thru, the possible need for physical therapy? The driver does pay in some form or another.
Would you rather pay $800 for a towing fee? or deal with the loss of a hand or limited use of a leg or foot for the rest of your life? Those in my mind are "Real". The owner can recover, maybe the driver can not. Once that truck rolls or wrecks, injuries or not, that drivers record is marked for atleast 3 to 5 years.
"drivers should demand to be paid as soon as the owner is"
Something better, drivers should demand to be paid every Friday, for the work they did the previous week, like a "normal" job<whatever that is.
Make sure you're paid every Friday, so that you can use that money Friday night and over the weekend. The owner has money to use over the weekend, why can't the drivers?
My owner would pay me every Friday, but deposit it late... then it would not go into the bank until Monday or Monday night, so really I'd have to wait for my pay until Monday night or Tuesday morning.
"get copies of all payment papers that the owner receives, so that the driver knows exactly what was paid for every load"
This is a good idea, no actually it's a Great Idea and Highly Recommended to drivers driving for any owner. That lets you make sure that your 30% or 40% is 30 or 40% and not 28% or 38% as some owners have been known to try to get by with doing.
"the owners are limited in what they can do for a driver, or the driver will be classified by IRS as an employee"
I agree and disagree, owners can make sure the driver is happy with the equipment and has everything to do the job well.
Examples: 2 good seats, plenty of straps (atleast 15), enough load bars (atleast 4 to 6), a pallet jack helps, moving blankets help, good appliances in the sleeper, a good stereo, a generator on the rig will save the owner money-as well as provide a better nites sleep and provide the driver with more rest. How can a generator provide a driver with more rest? the driver does not have to fuel as much-less time fueling means more time... or less time fueling means more time available to accept loads, shower, watch TV, read, rest, and just plain old relax.
"owners are limited in what they can do for a driver"
No, their not really... they can provide the driver with a laptop (more for work than play), a cell phone, maps or mapping supplies/devices-like GPS units, satallite TV and/or XM radio, gift certificates as bonuses, storage boxes on the outside of the truck to free up space in the cab and sleeper. The owner could provide the driver with a mail box somewhere in the drivers regular freight lanes.
Naturally there'd be a contract signed between the owner and driver for any of these "perks" offered to the driver.
The owners should treat the drivers like they want to be treated...
I read somewhere that for every 6 drivers, they get one "good" driver. I'd say that same thing applies to drivers seeking owners to drive for. Only I think for drivers it's for every 2-3 bad owners, there's one "good owner".
That's my 2 cents worth-so far.
