Per Diem/Workers Comp/Ugly companies

It also can hurt you if you need to get a loan for a big ticket item such as a car or home.

It also can reduce your SS pension

It can cost 1k to 2k per year to be on it at some companies

If drivers want to save money and make more income they can simply adjust their withholding and get a Tax person to find all the deductions that otr drivers are intiled to.

If you are getting a big refund each year, then you are giving money to the Gov interest free. Better to get it each week and put it into a account that gets interest such as mutuals, stocks or even a CD.

 

For the life of me I can not find any of the posts where I made a few little comments about the per diem pay! Yeah right, ME and little comments is a joke!

I’ll start over.
Per Diem pay out of your pay check is a rip off ONLY benefiting the company you drive for NOT the driver who is getting bent!
Number 1 is the ORS gives you a better deal at as of last year $59.00 a day! Does your per diem package offer you this??

I very seriously doubt that and below somewhere is a excel sheet I did with the numbers but first a little about WHY a paid to the paycheck is not worth what they tell you it is!

First: As noted above the per day per diem you get from Uncle Sam out pays what BFI wants to pay you in your earned cash! When you file at the end of the year the deduction pays very well especially those of you with home car and children! Keep your log books or if on the EBOR have them print out your copies or put them on a CD for incase you get an URS Audit and they will be your proof. Paper is not necessary for the IRS they understand computers! If the company says they can’t give you them then argue that they are YOUR documents or get a logging peogram like DDL and keep them that way. You do not have to print them just have them so that the IRS can verify your days out.
Second: And here we go!
Your Social Security is based on your TAXABLE INCOME! They fool around with your taxes doing this PD (what I’ll call Per Diem from now on). This way when they figure out your PD they are actually paying less taxes for you and also for the company! Yeah screw the IRS but at the same time we are screwing ourselves when the country needs tax dollars to at least survive. You anti tax people are falling all over this but that is for the political section! BUT with the less taxes paid into your account when you file for ANY Social Security even disability at an earlier age you will get LESS! Your SSI is based on your income and when BFI is screwing with your taxes, which are based on what? Come on class do you know? YOUR GROSS INCOME! HMMM!
Third: With the lower taxes paid into your account your Workers Comp will be affected. How do you ask?
The same as what happened to your future Social Security! Workers Comp is based on what again? Your gross pay and the taxes you paid!
Next, You fall off the trailer trapping or slip on the step climbing into the cab or out the back of the trailer. You go to the hospital and yes the insurance will pay for your bill BUT you are out of work. You have a few bills that you’ve been paying since you left mommies house such as rent/mortgage, car, boat, motorcycle, child support, alimony and other things like FOOD and the electric bill! That is ok as you’ll get workers comp to tide you over! YEAH RIGHT! BFI, while dicking around with your pay with that oh so wonderful PD didn’t pay all of your taxes so you now get less money on that workers comp which didn’t pay crapola to begin with (been there done that and it bites big time!) so you’ll have to let a few things go up to and including the house if the wife doesn’t work! Gee thanks there BFI for that nice PD!
We’ve covered 3 important things in life Social Security, disability and workers comp now,
Fourth:
These BFIs are charging you a PER MILE charge of God only knows how much to do simple 3rd grade math to figure out how to screw you! To me I feel that any company that charges you anything is a rip-off, BUT I’ll say let them charge you $5.00 a year for the privilege of “doing you the favor” to figure out how much you owe, I’m sorry pay you the PD! Yep, the following excel sheet that I did on my widdle laptop using that free MS Work program with that dummies helper called easy calc in a whole 30 minutes! WOW! 30 minutes to do that silly thing which is longer than they would need as they only need 4 or5 lines at the most for their needs! That accountant at BFI must make some really big money to get that kind of pay which you’ll see in the sheet! However, ole CEO or company owner and stock holders are charging you in this scenario $.03 (three cents) per MILE to figure out how much you made in PD! WOW! There are just so kind to their drivers! (HURL!!)

The following sheet is pretty much self explanatory. I’ll put the numbers up here and you just keep them in mind. Some companies pay a different way for the PD and they charge differently for that privilege and they have more or less trucks so those number will change a lot. I will try to add the excel sheet as an attachment so you can mess with the numbers to suit your company. For your tax the 18% number, you will need to change to fit you. Is the very bottom number in the “floating” line. You can change any number like:
Miles
CPM or pay
The PD pay
The charge
And that’s all you need to change to fit your rip off pay!
Please do look at how much BFI will make off of their drivers! Look at how much you will pay them to do 3rd grade math! Ask your accountant i9f you can claim that charge on your taxes. I’ll give you a hint on that. NO! If you didn’t write a check for it you can’t claim it the same as with insurance payments!

The Excel Sheet that should help to open your eyes about the Rip Off called Per Diem pay!​

Miles driven that PC Miler or HHG says you drove or they will pay you for!

3000​

CPM or Cents Per Mile, your actual pay per mile!

$0.32 ​

Per Diem or what they are telling you will get added on to your pay check.

$0.04 ​

Per Diem Charge per mile or the "Doing you a favor charge" a grade schol

kid can do out of your check

$0.03 ​

Now for the numbers!

Gross pay before perdiem and taxes

$960.00 ​

Gross per diem pay. This looks good doesnt it?

$120.00 ​

Gross Per Diem Charge the 3rd grader could do it for free charge ripoff!

$90.00 ​

Gross pay after PD charge OR the you got ripped for WHAT charge!

$870.00 ​

Taxes figuring # 18% IF you claim your taxes smart!

$172.80 ​

Net pay after taxes before any Per Diem anything is removed

$787.20 ​

Net pay after taxes after Per Diem removed or $960 x18% x $.003

$697.20 ​

net pay with PD added $787.20 + $120.00

$817.20 ​

How much you ACTUALLY made with that per diem over your regular net!

$30.00 ​

How much a year you'll pay for this priveledge to figure out jow to rip you off

$4,680.00 ​

amount of time it took me to make this whole joke up

0.5​

Total cost a company with 1000 drivers will make in one year with this

"favor charge" that ANY 3rd grader can do in a few minutes!

$4,682,000 ​

 

Sorry the above excel sheet didn't come out the way I had it but it should give an idea and of course the attachment of the working sheet didn't pose either! Anyone tell me how to add a real excel sheet here. BUT hopefullty you get the idea!

Someone ain't making the money that they should be are they??

 

These are all great points. At orientation for my first driving job they were pushing per diem pay really hard, and telling us what a great deal it was! Tax free income! (We just need to take a couple of cents off the top to give you this great deal). I had never even heard of it, but because they were pushing so hard I decided to opt out of it until I understood it better. I'm glad I did, what a ripoff. Just another way for these companies to benefit off of driver ignorance.

 

Several good points. I didn't bring up the loan angle as I wanted to focus on the tax returns in several ways.
BUT the loan part is another major factor.
As joey pointed out, the big ticket items with a loan.
just because your pay stub shows one thing it's the W-2 and your tax returns that help to count towards the credit score.

Lower taxed earnings will slam you when you want that car, or home or the most important that business loan to get out and on your own.

But when you find that house you've been looking for or that piece of Gods green earth to grow on and you know that the pay stub shows a great in your opinion income it just doesn't measure up to what BFI did to your credit rating to benefit their bottom line! Yep spelled "threw you under the bus" for their own profits that you made for them! You gotta love big business!

My best friend with the BS in management argued all for that per diem WEL took from him until he filed his taxes last month! He' quit driving for them last week! He went ballistic when all he argued for was a lie when it finally was shown to him in real life and not on paper as WEL played the play for him! His credit score is down, his SSI is down and he's thankful he didn't get hurt on the job!

As for that thing that Ronin said about

is the truth and ANY so called man that would or has stooped so low as to do something to his own children I pray he falls off the running board and breaks his arse! In my eyes you are nowhere close to being a man! Just a POS sperm donor and that's something else I hope you break beyond repair!

Now to get out of alimony I can see that but your children no way! Quit smoking, drinking, snacks, coin operated baby dolls, toys and all the other fun things of like untill those children have reached legal age! As the saying goes if you can't afford the baby you can't afford the sex! You made it support it at the best you can do!

Not the really sad thing about that Covenant thing is and I know most of you have seen the back of their trailers and that little sign that says something about a child? Then they push that Per Diem as a way to screw a child! What a Christian company they really are! Oh pick my silly old arse up off the floor as I just laughed that arse of mine off and now I'm crying for the children they have screwed out of food, clothing, power, clothing, and many other things a child needs because Dad "can't" pay enough to keep him/her above the poverty level! Covenant just went way below BFI status in my book! And the same if any other company even mentioned this to their new hires! It really chap's my arse when I hear crapola like this!

If any of you fell or went for a Per Diem because of this crapola, MAN UP and get out of it and be a REAL man and pay for that 3 minutes of pleasure running around the living room called your child!

OK I'll calm down and just add,
I hope you all see that a per diem does you NO good! I don't care what that idiot standing in front of you selling you a per diem says! if it's so freaking good ask them if they would pay for the per diem on their hourly or their salary. you won't even have to be quiet to hear the crickets singing on that one like you did when Obama Health Care was passed and those who passed it that oh so wonderful thing they actually put in writing that opted them out of! If it's so good then jump on the wagon! No excuses as to I'm paid hourly or I'm not eligable! They wrote that BS Plan up for you they can write one up for them! That should tell you how good per diem really is! If you can NOT opt out from day one it's a scam and they know it! Go back and look at 2 lines in that excel sheet. What they stole (charged) from you in a week and what they will make in a month or a year off of you! Nice income don't you think for a 3rd grader math problem! How much did YOU make that year for actually working over their spread sheet magic or a software single line entry! Actually it's all a single entry that the whole pay program runs on which is the miles you drove! The taxes don't change but at most twice a year! How do you or the BFI justify even a whole penny a mile to enter your miles driven in a program that's going to figure your pay first?
Does any other company charge their company drivers to figure out their pay?
If anyone knows of a company that does please post their name so that they can go out of business as any driver that has to pay to get paid can find a better company to drive for!
Per Diem charges is nothing but a RICO chargeable offence and I would love to see a few go to the feds or a good lawyer to bring them to justice and to see them have to pay every single driver they "charged to do them a favor" a nice check of the exact amount and a little extra called interest for the "load" of that money!

I bet Werner will get the biggest slam and then the sheet will just fall down hill from there or is it uphill as they ARE pretty much at the bottom of the barrel!

 

also dont forget the savings to the company in matching social security and medicare taxes not paid. which will lower the amount you would draw in social security when you retire or the amount you would get if you had to apply for disability. that is their primary angle. the trick with workmans comp is the premiums paid for workmans comp is based upon a percentage of paid wages. each industry is rated at a different percentage. logging for example is 40 to 50 percent of payroll in many cases. so when the per diem lowers total payroll the company pays far less premium and if you get hurt you receive less benefits . add that with what they cut in ss and medicare matching payments and you get this, they save a bundle and you get screwed on ss, medicare and workmans comp.