Metropolitan Trucking is a family operated company. The company opened their doors 80 years ago as a one-man operation during the coal boom. At the time, they hauled coal from Pennsylvania to New York.
The company grew rapidly in the 1980s.
Today, Metropolitan has become a full-service operation that offers interstate and intrastate commerce. The company has its headquarter in Saddlebrook, NJ, and it serves consumers throughout the eastern half of the country.
The Basic Requirements for Metropolitan Trucking Jobs
The company always aims to hire experienced drivers to help the company grow and excel. A lot of hazmat driving careers are available for the company’s hazmat freight unit, and there is a sliding pay per mile scale.
What is a Sliding Pay Per Mile Scale?
The company will pay drivers different rates depending on the length of the haul. A good example of this is if a load is leaving Saddlebrook and going 30 miles away. Truckers would lose a lot of time with unloading and loading in such a short time span.
Shorter miles result in higher rates per mile for drivers.
Regardless of the miles offered, a fair rate is offered. This helps drivers who may be stuck doing local hauls all day still make their keep when on the clock.
The company states that the average driver will earn $0.48 per mile.
Metropolitan offers a slew of other benefits, too:
- Minimum Pay: A minimum pay is offered to all drivers. This is a paycheck every week that you’re guaranteed even if you weren’t able to secure a lot of loads during the week. The company calls this their “We Care Pay.”
- Hazardous Material Premiums: Hazmat drivers deserve to be paid more for hauling hazardous material. The company will pay an additional $0.05 per mile if you haul hazardous material and hold your hazmat certification.
- Referral Bonus: If you refer a driver to the company, you’ll be paid a maximum of up to $1,500 for your referral. This is granted in three tiers based on how long the driver remains within the company.
These are the immediate pay boosts listed. Every driver will be paid for 6 holidays, and additional pay is offered for:
- Detention
- Stop off
- Layover
- Vacation pay
- Safety bonuses
The company doesn’t clearly state the compensation for these points.
All drivers will receive benefits when working for Metropolitan Trucking. The company uses Blue Cross/Blue Shield as their health insurance provider, and all benefits kick in after just 60 days of employment.
The company’s benefits include:
- Health coverage
- Prescription drug programs
Delta Dental offers dental coverage, and life insurance is offered, too. Short-term disability is also offered.
Retirement benefits are offered through the company’s 401(k) plan. The company does match a portion of your contributions, but the exact figure isn’t divulged on the company’s website.
Metropolitan Trucking Pay Scale Based on Further Data
Working for Metropolitan Trucking doesn’t sound like a bad gig from the company’s website, but there is a lot of information missing.
A few of the benefits for working with Metropolitan are:
- Friendly staff
- Great maintenance
- Clean equipment
There are a lot of hauls that have a long unload time and really eat into your money. Many drivers will make $500 – $700 per week working at the company. Since the company is based on the expensive Northeast, this is a major concern, as the pay may not be enough to cover your bills.
Pay is lower for beginners and orientation only lasts two days, so many drivers are concerned that they’re not prepared to make their loads.
DIRECTV is offered in rigs as well as Qualcomm GPS, which is nice. Their ads say that drivers average $1,100 a week and $57,000 annually. The issue is that even when a driver works 6 days, the most they were able to earn was $950 per week.
Drivers working 5 days a week state they were never able to earn above $850 per week.
But there are some drivers who state they were able to reach $1,150+ a week gross.
One driver states that they sat for 50 hours with an empty rig. The layover pay was only $45, and the pay didn’t kick in until after 24 hours of sitting.
Rates for over 450 mile runs are:
- $0.36 for drivers with under 3 years’ experience
- $0.365 for drivers with 3 – 4 years’ experience
- $0.37 for drivers with 4 – 5 years’ experience
- $0.375 for drivers with 5+ years’ experience
And if runs are between 1 and 60 miles, the driver will earn $60 per run. This often doesn’t work in the driver’s benefit because with loading and unloading time, this can eat into your overall pay for the day.
Any runs between 61 and 450 miles are paid $0.37 – $1.015, depending on experience and other factors.
The company does offer 100% dry van, and all of the equipment is 2008 or newer.
The company states that the average pay is $0.48 – $0.58 per mile, but very few drivers claim to make this much when working for Metropolitan Trucking.
For a starting company, new truckers may find Metropolitan Trucking a good fit.