What is good pay? And what’s fair now in trucking?

I think having ELDs is way better and safer. Having paper logs sometimes creates bad habits. There were times where I would cheat the log book just because I hooked up with some girl, took her down lol then tried to drive afterwards. I would do that in the midst of a run in those days. Then I get tired because of that. Now I'd drive those 50 to 100 miles afterwards and go to sleep. Then id fall behind, and have to drive a longer shift to make sure the load got there on time, sometimes I'd drive faster with a wide open truck. Some guys keep pushing, they'd snort the powder, load up on caffeine to a point of having a caffeine overdose, and sometimes that caused crashes. Admittedly, I didn't always take the industry seriously. I didn't manage my time well, but ELDs forces drivers to learn how to do that. Still, drivers have not learned to do that. I think now, more than ever, it takes a very specific driver to operate in this industry. Driver wages I think have gone up compared to popular belief. I was making 29 cpm as a rookie. Lol. I'm making better money now than I did 16 years ago when I started. I just don't think most drivers manage their money that well. The problem is the fact that corporations have too much power to raise prices and they're unwatched. They've got the powers that be in their palms, and us citizens have lost the concept of collective power, too distracted with TikTok.

 

The only meeting that decided which way the industry was going to go happened prior to deregulation in 1980.

The issue many employees face is when they’re living paycheck to paycheck and they decide they need a higher paying job. They increase their wages and their lifestyle creeps up to keep up with their friends and they’re living paycheck to paycheck again.

Trucking is diverse and so are the people who make up the industry. You can have two guys at the same company and one is comfortable, saving money and contributing to retirement, and the other can’t pay all their bills.

 

When you are deciding about whether to work for a company that is when you have a certain level of control. Once you hire on, you get what you get. Imagine ordering chicken parmigiana at a restaurant and eating it and then complaining it wasn’t vegan enough for you. You made your order, you got your order, you ate your order. You should have picked a vegan meal. It’s not fair to pick an employer that isn’t paying what you want to earn now, and complain the employer is at fault. You wanted to start right away, so you made a choice you knew was not paying well, was not the cream of the crop. When you saw the reality of that choice you chose another employer with no reputation for high pay. I’ve made those kinds of decisions and lived with them or moved on. One side of my family was prosperous and the other half was ,ahem, not prosperous. Non-prosperous people make decisions very very differently than the prosperous. The difference between prosperous and non-prosperous IS NOT just amount in the bank.

THEY didn’t decide what you will or can earn. You did when you picked what job to take. There are millions of shippers, millions of receivers, and millions of drivers. The pay is determined by each player deciding what they will do, what they will pay, and how much “stuff” they will put up with. What will produce higher pay is a huge increase on the requirements to be a truck driver. The ATA, big shipper/receivers want an unlimited supply of minimally-qualified drivers because it lowers the cost and increases the flexibility they have when doing their job. I’ll guess you would like to have 200 trucking companies in a desperate bidding war to attract you to work for them. There is no King deciding what each job will pay. There are a huge number of individuals deciding what they want and how much they will pay to get it.

 

It’s when the trucking industry was deregulated, opening the doors for anyone who wants operating authority to get it.

If you value your time I’d look into the LTL route. Or Walmart.

 

Keep a clean record for 30 months and you can get on at Walmart. You'll make over a $100k a year at Walmart without even trying. Get home weekly for solid hometime. Get treated with respect. You'll be able to max out your 401K contributions and also buy some discounted company stock to pad your savings/earnings. And retire a millionaire in 30 years (if you're that young). Don't waste your time working for multiple freight hauling companies then 10 or 20 years later realize you just wasted a lot of your career. Stick it out at Western and don't run over anything or get any tickets. Then take a real step up at your next job.