Don't drive, but own a trucking company. All company drivers, paid hourly with full benifits. Do use O/O on occasion, have even used 058. Mostly during peak or if we need his flat bed experience.
Operate a wine whse in American Canyon, CA near Napa. Our drivers pick up and deliver Wine and related items. Mostly routes, mostly no touch. Know the job can be touph, but also know they are getting paid to drive around and listen to the radio all day up in the beautiful wine territory. Some loads are in/out of the piers.
As for driver pay, we pay from start to finish, and that includes time for checking oil, washing windows and truck inspection. they get paid for thier whole day, wether sitting at the customers door, at the pier or eating lunch. Yes we pay for thier lunch hour, too hard to regulate it. If they claim they did not get lunch, just tack it onto the end of the day, go home an hour ealier than they clock out. Probably ate thier lunch while waiting to get loaded. But also know that we dispatch them with a hard day and most times only have a few minutes to eat. They are happy to be home an hour earlier.
The difference, we have happy, hard working drivers. Most earn thier safety bonus, we pay overtime after 10, and on Weekends. Provide newer model trucks and all air ride equipment.
I have sympathy for the drivers. Allways let them merge in front of me, sometimes pissing off the driver behind me when I put on the brakes or leave a large window in anticipation of a driver wanting my lane.
We are also hiring at this time. Bought 2 trucks last week. Looking for locals at this time. We expect to be running betweenn the bay area and LA later this year.
I'm going to actualy get my CDL also. Want to be able to drive the rig for the race boat.
Jerry