As stated before, most OTR drivers are paid by mileage pay or, "per mile" pay.  Seems simple enough:  you drive the miles and get paid for them, right?  Not quite.

 

Mileage pay is further broken down into two types, those being:

  • BOOK miles and HUB miles

BOOK miles are what a computer program says the distance is between Points A & B. 

 

HUB miles are the true & actual miles that the truck traveled to get from Point A to Point B.

 

So how big of a difference is there between BOOK miles & HUB miles???  Thought you'd never ask! 

 

Often, there's a considerable difference.  There are several computer software programs out there that companies use to compute routes & miles.

  The seemingly most common ones are:

  • PC Miler

  • Rand McNally MileMaker

  • Household Mover's Guide

With the top two, in this driver's experience, it seems that most of the time, there's about 5-8% difference between the "paid miles" and the true miles.  With the bottom one, it's higher -- 8% - 13%+.

 

What does this mean to you? This means that you are going to drive a certain number of miles for FREE, yes, for FREE.  Doesn't seem right, does it?  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

 

5% may not seem like much and in all truth, it doesn't seem like much when you're running the load either.  Take a 500 mile trip for example -- 5% of 500 miles is only 25 miles extra.  If you look at this from an annual perspective, though, you can really rack up a lot of extra unpaid miles. Over a year's time, assuming a 120,000 mile year, you're talking about 6000 miles driven for free!!! 

 

You can do things to keep your "free" miles down.  Good trip planning is at the top of the list.  Add up the miles of a trip before you get started and compare your route to what the paid miles are going to be.  In many cases, though, you will not be able to avoid extra miles.  The problem is that when the computer routes the trip, (also depends upon the settings the company uses) it might be using all kinds of backroads that in a truck, you're not even allowed to be on.  It may use gravel roads as well.  I hate running freebie miles but I hate gravel worse!