Trucker launches online convoy for no-per-mile pay

BELLE RIVER, Ont– A veteran southern Ontario trucker is adding his voice to the anti-pay-per-mile chorus.

Elliot Wilson also thinks if enough people support him, he can get truck driving approved as a Red-Seal trade, like carpentry and auto mechanics.

"Our challenge," he tells Todaystrucking.com, “is to make this industry attractive again. We are a rapidly aging workforce and young people are deterred from entering an industry where the wage structure does not equate to the challenges."

He says he’s seen his base wage go from $0.32/mile in 1989 to $0.42/mile today. "That equates to an increase of less than $0.005/mile per year. I can’t be the only one that sees a problem with that."

To get his message out, Wilson has YouTubed a simple, but compelling six-minute video, featuring a text of his ideas overlayed on photos from the road and read to the sounds of that old C.W. McCall classic “Convoy.” 

Wilson is asking others to watch and then forward the YouTube message and to write to their elected representatives, echoing his sentiments.

"I am planning to do whatever I can to get my little project out there," he says. "I plan to contact media and government across the country, so they will know my story and my aim."

"I just keep thinking about something my grandfather used to say, ‘Doing something sometimes changes nothing but doing nothing always changes nothing.’"

Wilson says he’d like to reach retirement "knowing that I at least tried to improve things for the next batch."

The trucker is one of many drivers and owner-ops that want to see an end to the pay-per-mile system. They might not be alone.

Recently, even some fleet owners have hinted that the current system may not be sustainable as market dynamics and worker demographics shift.

The question remains, though, what replaces it?