I've seen many threads on other sites where people have said they have gone up more then 10k in income every year in their first few years getting to about mid 60k to mid 70k. How viable is this? What are the fastest ways to earn more money in trucking? Specializing; getting the right company; getting lucky with dispatchers; experience; and other things have been listed. What about here? Any experiences, stories, or advice is welcome.
Fastest way to higher income in trucking?
Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by Timinator351P, Jan 30, 2015.
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That is fairly accurate.
Life and work is not easy in the irregular OTR segment. -
If you want to work for a living, LTL guys can do 80-110k. Fed Ex, UPS, Estes, Saia, Oak Harbor, ABF, Old Dominion, Con-Way Freight
Before the bust, you could do $100k+ in the oil fields. MBI, Halliburton, Schlumberger, etc
But if you want the typical "no touch" dry van gig, you'll probably top out around $80k. Walmart or owner ooperatorzackery2011 and blairandgretchen Thank this. -
Double Yellow what would you like to realistically net in a year ?
Last edited: Jan 30, 2015
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After you finish school take a long hard look at the LTL sector of trucking. Many of the better companies have their own finishing schools where you come straight out of school and then you will go to their school. You will make a decent buck just starting out but its going to be just like any job "You have to put in your time". All LTL's have a wage progression of three years. Figure on starting at around $19.50 and up at most of the good carriers for city P&D. Around .45-.55 cpm for linehual in the beginning.
Here is a list of good LTL carriers with driver finishing schools.
Old Dominion
ABF
Conway
Saia
YRC
Holland
Fedex Freight
If you decide after a couple of years to go the owner operator route thats fine but work for a company first and DONT LEASE on with some bottom feeder carrier. Thats a recipe for financial suicide. As far as hitting the 60-70k mark its very realistic after your second or third year. In most cases you should be able to exceed those numbers. Its all up to you and how hard you want to legally run. Ultimately keep that license clean; it pays excellent dividends down the road. Good luckbubbagumpshrimp, double yellow, YoungGuns and 4 others Thank this. -
If you kept your record clean, after 2 years you can probably qualify for hazmat tanker jobs that pay well and aren't too physically demanding $60-100k
That's all gross. Net varies way too much from person to person.Boy Howdey Thanks this. -
im sorry Double Yellow my bad typing skills did me in .
What i meant is what would you personally like to net your 1st year in your new venture you are in? -
It's all in what you want to do. Double yellow has good info, ltl and oilfields will be up there.
I haul fuel, made $57k my 1st year doing that. If all goes as planned I should be looking to make around $65k this year. Maybe moreUKJ and double yellow Thank this. -
Get all the endorsements plus a TWIC card. All this is money in the bank.
Tonythetruckerdude, bubbagumpshrimp, double yellow and 2 others Thank this. -
The plan was to have the business pay off my initial start-up capital after 1 year -- which I still think is an ambitious goal for any new business. With a lot of help from this forum, I reached breakeven after 6 months and by 12 months ought to have pretax income of ~50k (on top of completely paying for tractor, trailer, & misc start-up costs totaling about $35,000).
Year 2 ought to have pretax income of ~$100k as long as the market holds and I don't slack off too much. In subsequent years, I suspect I'll eventually plateau around $120k unless I take on employees.
I suspect most independents earn closer to $80k though, with my two main advantages being:
1) my willingness to go anywhere, anytime, for as long as necessary (as opposed to needing to get home every few days/week)
2) My analytic skills combined with adopting the Toyota philosophy of "kaizen" -- continual improvementChinatown, Stormdriven, wore out and 9 others Thank this.
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
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