pay?

[Anonymous]

so i have a question for all you engineers and etc. how do you guys get paid? is it by the mile, by the hour...are you salaried...?

[MP173]

I have always wondered that too.

It used to be 100 miles = 8 hours of pay, but that was also in the days of 5 crewmen on a train.

Is there different pay scales based on intermodal (no switching) vs manifest freights (with possible switching en route).

What about runs from say Elkhart to Chicago, with multiple destinations such as south side intermodal yards vs. UP Proviso Yard which is considerably further.

thanks,

MP

[csxengineer98]

you get payed by the mile.... 130 mile basic day is equal to 8 hours work... now if a run is under the 130 mile mark..you get the 130 mile day pluse after 8 hours you get time and half over time.... now a run over the 130 mile mark you get the milage for the run...the money for a mile brakes down to something like a buck 10 or soemthing like that...now some rail roads have garrentee extra boards...that is like a salery that they pay people to stay marked up and avabible to work.... the penilty is for evey 1 day you lay off of being able to work..you lose 2 days pay....also... you can make more the the garrentee...if you work alot in a pay period
a yard day is only 100 miles...but it also brakes down to 8 hours of pay..and time and a half after 8 hours..
csx engineer

[mvlandsw]

130 miles = 8 hours pay now. Over time after 8 hrs. If you run more than 130 miles you get paid more for the extra miles but overtime starts later. Yard jobs get paid 8 hrs with over time after 8hrs. on duty. All through freights pay the same rate. You may get more miles for different terminal destinations or they may be lumped together under a standard milage. Some extra boards are sort of salaried. They are pay a certain amount per week if you get called to work or not. If you make more than the minimum you get the higher amount. This cover the basics. Then it gets complicated. There are additional payments for doing certain things not included in normal trips, different rates for deadheading by taxi, payments for being held at your away from home terminal, payments for being called without full rest etc. etc. Newer employee start at 75% of the full rates and are given 5% per year increases to reach 100%. All of this is covered by many different union agreements resulting in many disagreements between the employees, the payroll department, and the union representatives.

[Mookie]

Ok - take this one step further. How do you register your hours? Dad used to do what they called a timeslip - but since you don't have timeclocks and most employers don't want to do it by the honor system - how do they know what and when you did it and for how long?

[MP173]

One would really have to keep track of each trip and what was done and when.

I hear quite a few trains that go dead due to 12 hours of service and have wondered about the relief crew. Say for instance the CN (in my area) runs from Battle Creek to Chicago and outlaw in Griffith, In. The train is westbound to Chicago.

Does the crew come from Battle Creek (over 125 miles) or from Chicago?

If they come from Chicago, and take the train to Chicago, then do they normally complete their run and layoff for 8 or more hours, or do they take an Eastbound back to Battle Creek?

It is interesting listening to both the NS and the CN.

The NS district is from Fort Wayne to Chicago and I hear very few relief crews being called. The CN is always calling relief crews.

Why would you think that would be?

MP

[Mookie]

And how many miles are you permitted to go - real miles - in your district? It used to be the longest distance was about 130 miles and then you came back home. What is it now? If you put me in the engineers seat, I could go quite a ways in 8 hours.....

Mook

[jeffhergert]

Mookie,
I'm currently working the conductor's pool out of Boone, IA. This pool can work east to Clinton, IA 197miles, overtime after 12hrs 7mins (last week they forgot about us dead on a train and I got 2hrs23mins overtime). We can also run west to Fremont, NE via Blair or via Omaha. Via Blair is 161miles, overtime after 9hrs 55mins. Via Omaha it is 186miles, overtime after 11hrs 27mins. Normally we run west via Blair and return east via Omaha. The engineer's pool is still split into seperate east and west pools.
Now if a person has whiskers clear to the floor (lots of seniority) there is a long pool out of Clinton that runs to Missouri Valley, IA. That's in the range of 327 miles. There was a notice that the UP eventually would like to establish pools out of Rochelle working to Boone, Des Moines, Mason City, and Missouri Valley. I have not heard anything about these proposed pools for quite a while.
Jeff

[gabe]

Man, if you get paid by the mile, those of you who work yard service need a raise or something.

[Anonymous]

hmm...interesting. i would've thought you get paid by the hour, don't ask me why. but i guess you get paid for 8, whether it takes you 3 hours to go the distance or 8.....nice job to have...in that respect anyway....lol

[wabash1]

that is right we get paid for 8 if it dont take that long then we make money. engineers are at 100% no matter when they are hired. conductors are the only ones who are still on a step rate. yard guys do ok they dont need a raise . they are done in 5 hrs for 8 hrs pay. with holiday pay they do fine..

Mookie i am not aware of a milage limit. it is what your bulitin limits are for the job set by the carrier and union. as far as time slips they are still used its just electronic now. when you are called you are in the computor as being called and on duty when you get to destination you tie up. all done by computor now .

[MP173]

Jeff:

Thanks for the info.

Please clarify. You said on the Clinton (EB) pool you get OT after 12 hours 7 minutes. Does that mean that you only get OT after you run afoul of the HOS (12 hours)?

Or do you get paid from the time you are "called" until you log off regardless of how few hours you actually operate?

So, do crewmen want the longer runs ....higher pay? It would seem obvious they would.

In my opinion, a pool from Rochelle to Missouri Valley would see frequent HOS problems. But, then again, anything out of Rochelle would probably be intermodal wouldnt it?

MP

[jeffhergert]

Yes, going to Clinton you have to run out of hours plus 7 minutes to go on overtime. Going to Clinton pays the same if you do it in 4hours, very rare, or 10 hours more the norm. We are paid from start time until final tie-up. Overtime after 12hrs is called tow-in.
When a long pool crew looks like it won't make the other terminal in 12 hours, a lot of times they re-crew at Boone. That way they don't count it as an hours of service re-crew in there service indicators.

[Junctionfan]

How long does it take to take an intermodal from Chicago to New York? How many crews are paided for that run?

[tnchpsk8]

I didn't think there was a mileage limit either. My Dad worked for the PRR/Penn-Central/Conrail for thirtey-five plus yearsand worked alot between Enola, Pa. and Conway or Pitcairn, Pa. and those runs were well over 130 miles. Closer to 200 miles. We lived in Altoona, Pa. and on a couple of rare occassions that I can remember they were relieved in Altoona due to HOS rules putting them out of service. You had to have a lot of whiskers to work those road jobs. One story my Dad told was of the time they were going around a long sweeping curve and looked back along the train doing a visual safety check when it was noticed that a door was open on a livestock car and the cattle were jumping off. He said they stopped the train and tried to round up the escaped cattle and to get them back on board. That seems like awfully difficult work for a crew of men that were all well over fifty years old.

[Anonymous]

Yes there was a mileage limitation at one time, an engineer or fireman could only make 3800 paid miles in his/her checking period. each month was broken down into 6 different checking periods and each engineer and fireman was assigned a checking period.

[gcbear257]

While most of these posts deal with how we are paid most of the freight carriers are paid mileage. Seeing I work for Amtrak we are paid hourly. I put in 6 days and my district is from Chicago-St; Louis 282 ,iles. but then I make that in under 6 hours.
Most of the freight guys are paid twice a month. Amtrak pays us weekly. Our hours of service is also submitted on our timeslip. As far as to what work gets done while on the job the conductor keeps a delay report that should show just what work was done.

Steve

[CShaveRR]

As a yard employee, I'm also paid at an hourly rate, with overtime after eight hours. My job routinely lasts the normal eight hours; some of the jobs that work in the yard will occasionally get a "quit" (they're finished early); they still get the full day's pay. In the CNW days, I caught one transfer job that was out of there in four hours almost all the time (Zardoz, did you ever work out of Weber Yard?). Nowadays, transfer jobs are often at the mercy of the other railroads, and that's the way some "hungry" railroaders like it-- their battle cry is "twelve and tow, or we don't go!", meaning they'll work until they die at twelve hours, then get extra "tow-in" money while they're being carried back to their home terminal (and while they're waiting for the ride!).