Not making enough money!!

There ARE better paying jobs. Thing is, you are going to have to have something to bring to the picnic to attend. What sort of things?

1. Experience
2. Knowledge/Intelligence
3. Excellent work history/work ethics
4. Ambition

"Hey, I have my CDLs with endorsements" is not going to get you invited to the big dance. What do you want to do? You have no direction, and you work for a bottom feeder and you are complaining about the pay. If you wanted to be a Seal, would you join the Airforce? If you wanted to be an MMA fighter, would you take up line dancing?

Be more specific. Figure out what you want to do, and then go to that particular forum and see if theyre making the money that you want to make.

 

Right now you need to concentrate on your skills. The money will come as ypu become a better driver. As you gain experience, talk to other drivers in others fields of trucking and gets a glimpse of their side, be it Tankers, flat bed, ext. Low New driver pay has been discussed since I started in 99. It shouldnt have been a surprised. Plus this period of the year is usually the slowest and the Chinese new year and the plethora of storms are not helping freight at all

 

"Hey, I have my CDLs with endorsements" is not going to get you invited to the big dance So VERY TRUE yet others on the site tell newbies it will open the door to BIG $ LOCAL Tanker jobs right out of school.

 

OTR sucks coming right out of school.... I was blessed to get on a dedicated fleet where i made $38K my first year while being home during the week sometimes. The pay isn't going to be great out the box. Dispatcher isn't going to throw you out to the wolves and say go run you butt off!!! They'll work you in and probably in a month or so things will be rolling. Not to mention right now freight across the board is kinda of sluggish. Things will pick up soon....

 

Give it more time. You could also try teaming since you are at a good company for that.

 

How are you defining low income? Heard guys gripe abput 45k their first year and experienced guys gloating over 30. Its hard to put a price on what your time is worth for this job. Very few drivers feel theyre paid what they're worth no matter what tho, so again, hard to know what you mean by low pay, lol.
3 things you can do to increase your income. You can do any of them together.
1 Team
2 Get on a dedicated
3 Drive better

About 3... you're new and gave a vague description of your problem. For all we know you drive half shifts and start your days at noon. How long have you been driving for them? Your dispatchers may be waiting to run you hard. As someone else mentioned, how you treat your dispatchers is important. My advice is to keep communication short and sweet. Keep messages reasonably short, accurate, dont gripe and on occasion show a little humor, gratitude, appreciation, etc. More important than that, is to get the job done as best you can without making their job harder, even when they could care less about you or your day.

 

When you said "my own truck", I took it to mean you either went lease purchase or bought a truck. But from the rest of the post, I gathered you meant you aren't with a trainer any longer. You didn't specify how long you'd been solo. Trucking can be a feast or famine job much of the time. Realize that your feast paychecks need to be rationed to get you through the famine ones.

Give your dispatch a chance to get to know you. If after a few months you aren't getting the miles other drivers in your company are, have a chat with your fleet manager and ask what you can do to bring the number up.

"Enough money " us a relative term. 40k a year may be great to one person and seem like poverty to another. You should of discussed with your recruiter what to expect for your first year. Of course they will high ball the number so knock 5-10 k off that number. If you make their number or more, great! If not, at least you aren't shocked.

 

"just upgraded and now in my own truck " Sounds more like he upgraded when training was finished and is on his own in a company truck than in a leased or purchased a truck