What am I missing?...

11 hours drive/3 on duty=14 total on duty hours.10 hours in the bunk. I will not get into what whomever pays as there are plenty of drivers willing to drive 62-63 mph trucks for .50/mile and all the electronic monitoring available in their truck that the industry has.THAT is not driving a truck IMHO,and we all know about opinions-

 

Well for one, as a company driver with no experience it will be several years before you see .38/mi. And of course you are missing: detention, layover, maintanence, weather shutdowns, traffic, etc

 

There are many more trucks available and manned than there is freight. You need to understand this first and foremost. It is rare to be with a carrier (as an experienced driver) where you can consistently run at 100% efficiency. And running for the "mega carriers" where most new drivers must begin, 2,500 mpw is about all you can hope for consistently. Running mainly shorter, regional loads will run this average down even further. A lot has to do with how much you care to work, keeping yourself in the best position possible to get dispatched quickly (arrive and unload ASAP), and making yourself a good hand for the load planners while not setting yourself up for abuse (it's a fine line that must be learned)

 

.38/mile is doable, straight out of cdl school. Their are a couple of companies paying more than that out of school with no experience. i.e McElroy (also get weekends off) and Maverick (glass division) are both starting at .40/mile fresh out of school.

 

Now that is a powerful declaration. READ,HEED,and PROCEED with it-

 

Let's say as a rookie you land a relative dream job paying .38 cpm and consistently hitting 2500 mpw.
That's a cool $950 gross.
Now at 14 actual WORK hours per day, that comes to about 100 hours per week.
That means you're literally making $9.50 an hour.
This is IDEAL. More than likely you'll be working more hours to gain more miles.
Say 120 hours a week and 2000 miles - quite possible this winter.
That's $750 gross and $6.25 per hour.
This not not include the fact that you sleep in a compartment in your truck at a truck stop, and pay to eat truck stop food every day.
Think hard about this and do the math. There's a reason truck drivers are in such high demand.