How do I prove lost wages if I'm paid by the mile or by the load?

Why per-mile pay is harder to prove

An office worker can point to a salary. You can't. Your weekly check swings with lanes, freight rates, weather, breakdowns and how dispatch treated you. Adjusters know that, and some will use the ups and downs to argue your losses are guesswork.

The answer is a longer look back. A few weeks can be misleading. Several months, or a year or more of settlement sheets and tax records, usually gives a fairer average.

The paperwork that proves it

Gather as much of this as you can. Your carrier or your own bookkeeping probably has most of it.

• Settlement sheets or pay stubs showing miles, loads, rate and deductions
• W-2s if you're a company driver, 1099s and Schedule C if you're an owner-operator
• Federal tax returns for the last couple of years
• ELD or logbook data showing hours driven and miles run
• Dispatch records, load confirmations or rate cons showing what was booked for you
• Any offer letter, lease or pay-rate sheet listing your cents-per-mile or percentage

Gross versus net for owner-operators

If you're leased on or run your own authority, your gross revenue isn't your income. Fuel, the truck note, insurance, maintenance and other costs come out first. An adjuster will look at your net, so be ready to show both sides. Clean records of your expenses help because they show what you actually took home.

Also think about losses that aren't wages. Missed loads you'd already booked, a truck sitting idle while payments keep coming due and lost detention or bonus pay may all belong in the picture.

Future earnings and your CDL

If the injury keeps you off the road for a long time, or for good, the claim may include lost earning capacity. That's the difference between what you'd have made driving and what you can make now. Proving it often takes doctors' opinions and sometimes a vocational or economic expert. It gets bigger if the injury threatens your DOT medical card, since without it you can't legally drive a CMV in interstate commerce.

How future losses are figured depends on your state's law and your facts. Nobody can give you a number up front.

Company drivers: comp's wage math is different

If you're a W-2 driver on comp, your weekly benefit is usually based on your average weekly wage over a period your state sets. For drivers whose pay swings, how that average is figured matters. Make sure bonuses, per diem and other pay are looked at, because states treat them differently. Check your first comp check against your own records, and ask how the number was calculated if it looks low.

In a claim against someone other than your employer, the goal is different. There you're trying to show your full lost income, not a comp percentage of it.