Trucking Levels of Responsibility

Primarily I use the levels of responsibilities to fix an argument for how one should and ought to be compensated in the trucking business. There are many parallels of the same idea in other businesses, but I hope this will help you to see, that those that go higher in business deserve to earn more. As you move up there is more invested, more risk, more headaches, more responsibility, more everything.

Unfortunately the way Truckers are paid involves a middle man that has no legal boundaries requiring them to disclosure the price the buyer "which is the shipper" is paying and no boundaries for how much they can help themselves to. Freight brokering is to the infinite degree, and by far more than anything other profession "a fiduciary responsibility gone horribly wrong". They are only intermediaries, in reality they don't even have a legal right to withhold this information from truckers, but since most truckers can't get it out of them, it is now a matter of forcing them by law.

Therefore Truckers oftentimes make less in business than any other business people in the world. After their expense they usually make less than or about half of what a company driver is paid. I’ll show you how this can happen later and I’ll show you how it can be overcome.

I Load Responsibility:

Load responsibility is merely a commitment on behalf of a driver to responsibly maintain and use equipment to pick up the load and deliver it safe, legally and in a prescribed day and time. Other things like paper work, logs, and maintenance, mapping etc. are also very important responsibilities learned at this level. In addition beginner level training can be done at this level. At this level one should avail himself to research and constant gathering information on how the industry and trucking market work to benefit him.
II Unit Responsibility
Unit responsibility includes the previous responsibilities of the load and bears the total responsibility of the Power unit, i.e. “the truck” not only is he financially responsible for maintenance, upkeep and ownership of the unit, he is responsible for any tax consequences and insurance requirements for the unit and the general financial responsibility and insuring the motoring public. In some cases he is responsible for finding loads and coordinating them with his Back-haul department. In other cases he is expected to choose all of his loads from the available loads provided on a company website.
III Business Responsibility
Business responsibility includes but is not limited to the previous responsibilities of the load and the unit, in addition to the total responsibility for the creation of the business, the structure of its services, the range and scope of the business, the choosing of all services for the business, all legal requirements, employment requirements, compliance requirements, record keeping e.g. maintenance, driver logs, qualification and medical/drug and alcohol screening and random test, filings, taxes, penalties, legal injunctions, negotiating of all contracts involved in the general day to day business, setting rates, finding loads, gauging the market, research and development “which is by the way is what you’re doing now, permits, buying and selling of equipment, trailers and other load securing devices and equipment, recovery in breakdown situations, training, office and location, rents, utilities, and all other overhead financial responsibilities, and the list goes on and on and on.