$20/hr minimum

Go be an oilwell troubleshooter. Get paid for every hour in that week, after the first 40, it's 1.5X standard rate. You work 1wk on, 1wk off. Get benefits and company F350. Not bad.

We're in the wrong industry.

 

lol, you haven't met our friend nate...

we affectionately call him T-4 (T-4 is what companies here issue you annually for your income tax reporting) because of the number of jobs he's had in the past year alone.

He's proof you'd be wrong about the job hopping and not making the money doing it..

The days of loyalty and staying with one company for 20 yrs are long gone.

 

I'm excited for you! Really. But, you know as well as I do, your case is very atypical. Most employers simply are too uncaring for people to do them right. The boss will give himself a raise before he will reward a loyal employee. It makes better "business sense" to churn the workers.

 

The only reason my case is atypical is because y'all want what I'm making up front. I have a news flash for you: Not going to happen even if you walk into a company with 30+ years of experience. You shouldn't job hop so much and then maybe you wouldn't be complaining about low pay.

 

Here in the Chicago suburbs a basic studio not much bigger than a truck sleeper costs a minimum of $800 a month. A two bedroom costs $1100-$1200. As you can see $16 an hour just won't cut it.

 

You've been listening to Rush too much!

Don't preach to me about sacrifice! I run my own business, I graduated college, I've earned a black belt, traveled the world, learned to fly...j

I KNOW hard work.

I also know that line you preach is mostly a bunch of garbage. If it was so horrible building a business, nobody would try it. It's exagerated nonsense from a ditto head.

 

More exagerations! I hardly had 30 yrs experience when I started doing LTL linehaul years ago. My FIRST year, I made $72000 with excellent benefits. It's all about the profitability of the business and how much character the boss has.

 

Well, that post went well over your head.

 

I graduated college and run my own business, too. I couldn't care less about your black belt or world travels, and learning to fly doesn't impress me any more than learning to drive or ride a bicycle would.

Businesses don't spring up from nothing...somebody has to put in the hard work and sacrifice....and when that hard work and sacrifice finally pays off and the business starts generating revenue, everybody else wants a piece of it without taking any risks and without putting forth the effort.

People are willing to take risks, work hard, and sacrifice to start their own businesses because they are working to better themselves and their families. They see the potential in their endeavor and are willing to put in long hours to make it happen. The alternative is to work for somebody else, which is where most entrepreneurs start out...acquiring the knowledge, skills, and the capital they will need to start their own business. Of course if your idea is good enough to find investors, you can start the business with other people's money...but then you aren't really working for yourself.

 

I will say one thing... This conversation has gone way beyond the level of being on the "questions from new drivers" section.

Whatever you do and however you view different segments of the industry, I personally would not touch a steering wheel for less than .50 per mile and $20 an hour for everything else based of my experience and record.

If I couldn't make that, barring it was just a job I wanted, I would leave the industry. Like a few others in this conversation have said, I'm also a college grad - just wanted to drive so I did. To this day I make more per year easily than most of the other college grads in my circle of friends and they have serious degrees. Factor in they are almost all contracted my career path is exponentially better because I have benefits..