What I thought was crap was actually top pay & home balance stuff

Read the fine print in the ads. Notice the words "could make up to....". It's said differently in different ads but the meaning is the same. You could possibly make that much but it's not very likely. They've been doing it for years and they know exactly how to word their ads to rope in the rookies who don't take the time to read the fine print and think about what it really means.

 

I just had this same conversation with a friend. The minute they say "up to or our top drivers make this" you're talking to the snake oil salesperson

 

Exactly. I'd ask what their average driver made or even what the lowest paying guys were bringing home.

 

You are a little hard to follow. So if i have read this correctly, you grossed 1,150 per week driving a truck while being paid on a 1099??

I would say any driver making 1,150 on a W2 has you beat hands down 10 times over again. The W2 driver has medical insurance and his/her employer is paying their fair share of the taxes associated with their employment.

As a 1099 you probably don’t have health insurance, your truck owner doesn’t pay your payroll taxes like he should, you get stuck with big tax bills at the end of the year. You don’t qualify for benefits or protections from the state that a W2 employee does.



On another note, $1,150 is ok money but a seasoned driver should be making $1,300-$1,500 without to much trouble. Even more with some effort.


Even a low paying hourly job can earn you $1,150 if you can work the hours. At $16/hr with time & 1/2 after forty, 61.25hrs per week would gross you $1,150.

 

Maybe it’s just sheer luck with good dispatchers, but I’ve never made less than the average projected salary and most of the time, I’m earning 5-10% more.

And this is a big country with lots of different pays/costs of living. Where I live in Western KY, making 85k OTR/regional is living like a king and the only high paying local jobs are Union gig LTL and food service. The rest are paying 1000-1300wk/gross. No Kentucky company is going to pay San Francisco pay, so I’ll probably never be on here talking about how I grossed 120k and was home everyday working 4 days a week where I live.

 

I think you’re 100% right on that. A lot of people embellish their numbers to make it sound like they make more than they do.

before i bought i bought my truck, i thought 65-70 thousand a year was great. Things have changed since then though. Company drivers can make that pretty easy today.


I know the last company job i had gave a series of raises over the last few years because they couldn’t hire anyone. A job i was content earning $65,000 at, if i had stayed i would have grossed $110,000 last year.

Hindsight being what it is. I kind of wish i never quit to buy my truck. On the other hand i love what i do now & wouldn’t trade it for anything.

 

Starting about 5 years ago I started seeing the phrase "Our top X percent of drivers AVERAGE $$ per week/month/year." So it might be our top 85% of drivers average $75k per year. Imagine applying for a mortgage or car loan and getting to submit not your W-2 income, or even an average of your monthly income, but you get to select your best 9 months income for the last year and claim that was what the bank should understand you bring home.

NEVER WORK ANYWHERE UNTIL YOU TALK TO CURRENT WORKING DRIVERS WORKING ON THE SAME ACCOUNT FOR THE COMPANY YOU ARE PUTTING IN AN APPLICATION.

Kids and newbies are just dedicated, maybe it's the only thing on the planet they are dedicated to, making the entire job search and research process a non-human contact action. They literally prefer to receive pleasant lies online than RISK talking to someone with the actual info they need to make a decision. "I'll just ask the lying recruiter and then pretend to believe their answer."