What am I missing?...

yup. learned this one quickly. Run your butt off but push back when you need to for your own sanity sake.

 

NADA, you haven't missed a thing. It's very simple, pick up on time, deliver on time, don't hit anything on the way there.

Unfortunately the big bottom feeder companies don't get this simple equation. Somehow they mess it up for you.

Once you get just a year or two 50k a year and out all the time is a joke. Try 60-70k a year, home every weekend and a day or two at home in between. But you need a game plan starting out.

The crap companies will have you sit for days on a load or wait for one. The good ones will get you moving because they like good drivers, and they can count past 10.

I think with your attitude you will be a great driver and make good money. Get a little experience and get with a good company, IE less the 100 trucks and they will never let you go.

 

Don't know where you're getting your math education...but my log can only manage to do a maximum of 70 hours in 8 days....and generally I'm only "working" 48 hours each week. Now this is running the I-5 so generously limited to miles accumulated per day....

But if you insist on counting every hour away from "home" as part of the equation for figuring an hourly rate....then you shouldn't be in trucking! That is part of the life for an OTR driver, I don't see when I'm flirting with the waitresses, BS'ing with other drivers over coffee, that there is any compensation coming.....I guess your "wannabe" status demands more perks that experienced drivers don't get!

 

Your right most rookies do get efeddd.. and your math is correct. The sad reality is that your mostly right. But most rookies don't know how to get into the industry and are looking for a quick fix. In this job a quick fix, IE you name the bottom feeder, means a quick yes (!) indeed.

I've personally worked with total rookies,(3 months) that got on making 60k a year and home every day. It can be done but it takes work.

 

Now that, is some very critical thinking.
Keep up the good work.

Very seldom will you actually work a full 14 hours, every day of the week, while only averaging around 360 miles per day.
That's only ~6 hours of actual drive time.
Even if you had a 2 hour live load and unload each day you would only be averaging 10-11 hours a day.
So, say 75 hours per week.
That puts the hourly wage to $12.66.

But, most likely, you would only have a few live load/unloads per week - which would only increase the hourly wage.
Get at least one long load per week and it increases further.

If you did manage to work 120 hours in a week, that would be over 17 hours per day - and you wouldn't be running legal.

 

The key is looking beyond the companies that you and everyone else has heard of. How many trucking companies have you heard of that you could immediately list? 20? 40? 100? There are 400,000+ trucking companies in the U.S. Don't fool yourself into thinking you must work for one of the biggest 10 or 50 or 500 because you think those are the only ones that will hire a new driver. Pull out the yellow pages for your area and start hitting the pavement. Many great trucking companies never advertise for help. They figure if you don't have the motivation to find them, then they don't want you anyway. You might be surprised about what great companies are in your own backyard............

 

This only way i could keep going is with box trailer's and get in good with your dispatcher , but i did alot of drop and hook and moving trailers around at other terminals or home terminals or shipper and rec really like it too, i never could sleep a full 10 in a sleeper, most i could sleep was 5 and i was going again , but yes if you drop and hook , you can go up too 3200 a week so i don't think e -log's gonna like me if i go that route , i be pushing that button and write in comment's box all the time,

 

I know there are dream jobs out there like that, but where do I find a good company someday once I am more experienced? I never see a company advertise that isn't a large carrier.