How driver pay is figured

Miles times rate, plus live loads, stop-offs and detention, minus advances — with a worked week.

A driver's pay for the week is the loads they ran, added up. Each load pays miles times the driver's rate, plus a flat amount for any extra work on it. Then the week's bonuses and paid-back receipts go on, and any cash advance comes off.

Miles

Pay is figured on calculated miles — the driving distance from pickup to drop, the way a truck goes — never the odometer. Wrong turns and food stops don't count, and neither driver nor owner has to argue over them.

• Loaded miles — pickup to final drop. LoadTally looks these up from the map when you type the two places; the carrier's sheet usually shows the same figure.
• Empty miles — from the yard to the pickup, and back to the yard after the drop. Many owners pay these at the same rate, because those miles get forgotten and the driver still drove them. LoadTally counts them when the load says to.

If a number looks wrong you type your own, and yours always wins.

The rate

Each driver has a per-mile rate with a start date. A raise never rewrites old pay: a load is paid at the rate that was in force on the day it ran. Every driver is paid from their own rate — nothing is added or taken off for anyone.

A run with its own price

Some runs pay a set amount whatever the driver’s usual rate — the weekly Holland → Chicago load pays $350, even for a driver paid by the hour. Open Change the amounts for this load under Driver pay on the load and type it in the flat box. The next time that driver runs the same pickup and delivery town, the form offers it back — Pay $350.00 flat, what load #… paid on Sep 18 — and one tap fills it in. Nothing is filled without the tap, and it is never another driver’s price. A raise to the driver’s usual rate leaves the run’s price alone.

Paid by the hour

A driver paid by the hour says how long the day took, not how long each load took — and they shouldn't have to. When two loads are linked as one trip, the box on the load asks for the hours for the whole trip, and LoadTally divides them across its loads by miles. Two even halves come out even; a short leg and a long one don't. The driver is paid the same either way — eight hours at their rate is eight hours at their rate — so the split only decides what each load cost you. Detention is not divided: it stays on the load the waiting happened on.

Extras on a load

• Live load — the driver waited while the trailer was loaded. A flat amount, set per driver, and changeable on any one load.
• Stop-off — an extra stop between the first pickup and the final drop. A flat amount per stop. The final stop is the destination, not a stop-off, even when the carrier's paperwork labels it one.
• Detention — waiting past the expected time. By the hour or a flat amount, whichever you use; what the carrier pays you for it is a separate matter.

Pickups of a pre-loaded trailer don't pay an extra. See the stop codes for which is which.

The week's lines

• Bonus — any amount, with a note.
• Paid back — a receipt the driver turned in on a load and you approved: a toll, scales, a wash, a motel, or fuel they paid for at the pump with their own money. It is a reimbursement, not pay: it isn't on their 1099, and it is your expense, under its own pile. Fuel on the carrier's card is never paid back — it comes off your settlement.
• Cash advance — money handed over before payday, taken off this week's pay.

A worked week

Mike's rate is $0.70 a mile. Three loads, some extras, and an advance he took on Wednesday:

That is the whole statement, and it is the one the driver sees too — every line, the way you'd check it yourself.

When a load gets paid

The usual order: the load is done, the carrier's settlement for it arrives, then it goes on the driver's pay run. Paying before the settlement is in is allowed — LoadTally flags it and never blocks it.