So you're telling me.. as an employee for central.. that you gross somewhere between $500-600 before taxes.. (you did say take home, but you also said gross.. so i'll assume it's gross) ...

Let me do some math here.. stay with me......

According to Central, the first $.08 a mile is per-diem and not taxable. In my case, they told me $65 a week for insurance because I will be putting a spouse on my insurance.

Let's take your highest average.. you said $600 a week. At $0.30 a mile, that's exactly 2000 miles.. (which is what I will base my calculations off of) .. $.08 * 2000 miles = $160 pocketed money (non-taxed per-diem) ..

Now, let's deduct:

So before our money is even taxed, let's take out insurance .. since that is tax-deferred .. $600-65 (I will be insuring a wife also). That totals $535 .. Now, let's pocket $160 non-tax money ... 535-160 = $375 ... Now, my guess of taxing $375 a week would be at 15% claiming 0 or 1.. 15% of $375 is 56.25 (which is really low .. i think more would be taken out since we have fica, state, city (Philadelphia has a city wage tax of like 2%), social security bla bla.. ).. but let's go with it) .. $375-$56.25 (taxes) = $318.75

Now, after going through their school.. they make you pay $25 a week + $4 for a driving lawyer you'd probably never use.. totaling $29 a week deduction after taxes.. so at $318.75-$29 we get $289.75 .. ...

Now, let's add our $160 per diem back into our net of $289.75 and we get $450 (well a quarter less, but we'll go with it).. So for a driver working for Central (or any other carrier making $0.30 a mile) averaging 2000 miles a week, only comes home with $450?!?!? .. .. Now granted, Chrome mentioned that he did 2600 miles (or would have) last week.. which would put a little more chump change into a pocket ... I would love to drive, but I'm seeing a super tight budget.. especially if the average driver is running only 2000 miles.. If I rent out my place and get rid of my car (and live in the truck).. perhaps it is doable. I REALLY hope with experience comes much better pay & miles..

Please ... someone can tell me I'm doing the math wrong here!?!?!?
It's a shame.. I really wanted to be a driver.. Between all the negative posts on this site (I have read EVERY post on this site) & this, I am not sure if it is even worth the "thrill" or the "love" of it..??????

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Knight Rider

Knight Rider, $400-$500 a week take home is about right for most new solo drivers at any of the big fleets (Werner, Swift, Schneider,etc). If you could get your wife to drive, even for just 4-5 hours a day, it would really increase your earnings and save hours on your logbook.

Yeah, that's about right. Don't forget if he gets him wife to drive, she will have to do schooling as well, which will add in another $2995.00 to the cost. The thing that sucks about the per diem pay is you make more if you take it out per day then you do if you get that .08 a mile crap. Figure you are out a week, you collect 7 days at $32 a day, you drive 2000 a week, you get $160, not $224.

Why do they do it? Well, companies save money on taxes that's why! And some people wonder why their are grumpy drivers out on the road. Me, I'm not grumpy at all, infact, I'm quite happy now. I've learned things, and I enjoy learning.

That would have only been a 5 day week though. I would have had another 2 days to run. Granted I may not have finished the next run in that pay week, so it would have been tacked onto the next weeks pay, where I may have gotten more miles.

You get paid for the trips you complete Thursday to Wednesday, as long as all trippacks are in on time. Yes that would have been a short week, but I would have normally had 2 more days of driving in that week. So I would have probibly actually driven over 3200 for the week, and as long as being home is not a priority that should normally not be a big issue. Just make sure you communicate well with your dispatch. If you cannot communicate with them then you may get shafted with allot of 2 day short mile loads that you should have been able to do in one day.

Also allways get there early when you can and try to get approved for a drop. If you can drop and start on your next load it is money in your pocket. Keep the wheels turning and not sitting.

Can really Make You Say HMMMM, now why do I want to drive a truck?

Okay.. Something doesn't add up for me.. Drivers everyday are coming home with a paycheck to feed their families (I've seen drivers here post that they have 4 or more kids) ... Coming home with $700 a wk after taxes may be possible to do that.. but $400? ... $500? That's rough.. In order to compensate, one would have to sell everything.. get rid of their apartment (or in my case rent out my apt), and have no obligations other than a cell phone & food (notice the order of importance here ) .. Moreover, I have seen plenty of jobs in my area with after 1 year experience they guarantee $1000 a week .. or around.. and 2-3 or more years of experience (seeing the ads in the paper, plus reading the posts here) can land you 60-70k a year .. These #'s don't seem to add up in my book.. how can one (or an industry for that matter) start out a driver making less than the average person on welfare.. and turn him into someone making a salary well above the median for his city (in my city for example, the median salary is an even $40k) ..

I hope in good faith that this post will not sound condescending to a drivers willingness to work for a pay scale I find to be a bit shallow. What I don't understand is how can a driver with less than one year experience make $25k a year .. and just with one year experience (and a good driving record) literally double his salary to $50k a year!!! Not to mention that these are local jobs I see advertised that state it's all drop & hook with a 5 star pension plan .. sleeping in your own bed every night.. That's kind of just unheard of in any industry. Is their seriously a logical explanation for this (not just an opinion by a passer by'er)?


If this is truly the case, then suffering at $0.29 or $0.30 a mile # an average of 2500 miles a week at Central would be worth it.. it would almost be a "all I need is experience and I'll say 'peace out'" ...


Btw, for credibability purposes, my claims for 50k a year job with a 5 star pension plan was from at least two companies I will not name that are local here in Philadelphia.. one of them posted a job listing to the Philadelphia Inquirer ... looking at their website is where I gathered the information. The cool thing here is they only require one year of experience.. raises, AND NO CAP!!

soooo.. hypothetically after 10 years of being with that company i get a 5 star pension, 401k, awesome medical, and $70k a year (should we even try to calculate what overtime would pay)? Why did I go to college? All of a sudden, trucking doesn't sound to bad of a career choice.. and Central seems like the place to get that jump.. I can't seem to find a better company from all the posts on this site that will help you get your cdl and treat you with some sort of dignity..

Just out of curiosity.. with Central .. are you allowed to eat the food in the trailer if your wages start getting too low?

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Knight Rider

I'm older and drove thirty years ago for the military and recently had been driving super 16s and transports locally. I just started looking yesterday and was told this morning that central has approved me and will be calling. So should I keep looking ?

Well, if you have a local job, and like it, why rush off to make it OTR?

Central is as good a company as any and my husband have been with them now for almost 6 years and have been happy with them and have been treated good by them, We own our own truck and make good money with central we team drive two weeks out of the month and the rest my husband drives solo. He gets good miles while he is out by himself, it all depends on your fleet manager but if you are not happy with your fleet manager you can change him. Good Luck and have fun no matter what company you choose. lonesome_dove

*claps*



Anyway, I asked why this person wanted to go OTR if he already had a local driving gig, not your love for central.