Old Tariff vs New Tariff

Many of the old timers in the trucking industry can remember the tariff being much different where you use to get paid for long-carries, stair carries, packing per box all of them goodies are long gone. Many well known moving companies decided to get together behind closed doors with no drivers input and make up their own tariffs in return doing away with the good ol days.

Different types of moves

Firm Binding
Optional Binding
Standard Binding

Firm-Binding: These moves can be great for the driver only if they are small shipments, a lot of salesmen will sell these jobs for example 22,000.00 lbs. Firm-Binding, what this means to you?

You get out to the job have to walk through the house and try to guess what the weight is as you are a mover and not a salesperson or estimator, on COD shipments it can be very tricky guessing the weight because most customers do not know how to pack or put books in 4.5 CTN.

Say the job was bid 20,000 lbs. as a driver you have a right to contest the weight if you believe it is going 22,200.00 or more, say it goes 25,000.00 lbs. you will not get paid for the first 10 percent only after 22,000.00. so, the company is taking advantage of you and asking you to work for free.

Optional binding is set up for the customer only and not you the driver. Here is why if the weight goes under, you get paid less, if the weight goes more, you don’t get paid for any overage unless you contested it prior to loading.

Most carriers have come up with their own tariffs and let me tell you these are cheap compared to the military rates in the summer but why companies raise the discount in the slow season? 68% vs. 10 percent discount It has nothing to do with supply and demand it has to do with the carriers all fight amongst themselves in trying to get the move or haul the freight.

Ask yourself this why in the hell during the slow season it should pay less? You have bad weather to contend with, ice snow, hurricanes, tornados and not to mention being away from your family. The trucking industry is not for everyone. It takes a hard mindset to do the job.

We have heard of companies out there paying lower then 2.00 per mile including the fuel surcharge, for you truck drivers coming on board do not do it for that.