i am making over 2 times more than i have ever made in my life...

So how much should drivers be paid?
How about enough that being exempt from the overtime stipulations of the Fair Labor Standards Act becomes irrelevant?
For instance....

A new driver making 32 cpm working (driving at an average speed of 45mph) for 70 hours a week grosses about $1,008 in that week. That's an average of $14.40 an hour.

Given that truck driving is like working two 35-hour jobs, a person working outside trucking earning regular overtime would earn 30 hours of OT in that week, so wee need to add in 30 hours of pay at $7.20, which is $216 more, which brings the total to (1,008 + 216 =) $1,224.00 per week.

Factor in that trucking is firmly in the top 10 most dangerous occupations in the country and an additional pay seems appropriate. Let's call it danger pay and let's make it 200 more dollars per month, which ups the number to $1,424.00 per week.

Forty-five cents per mile should be the absolute minimum for beginning drivers and all scales should rise from that point.
[At 45 mph for 70 hours per week (3,150 miles), a gross pay of ($1,424 divided by 3,150 miles =) 45 cpm]

And the company should pay for ALL the health insurance, including comprehensive dental care, or provide a pay rate that makes the driver able to afford this insurance because healthy drivers are an asset to the company and healthy drivers make more money than broke sick ones. So let's add five more cents per mile to that pay rate.

And I didn't even factor in the peeing in an orange juice bottle and brushing your teeth in a plastic bucket and being away from loved ones for weeks at a time into that pay rate, which should add at least a couple of hundred more to the total.

So about 50 cents per mile seems to be a FAIR RATE for brand new OTR drivers.

That's bottom of the pay scale. Tired of the flip-flop and pajama wearing headset jibber-jabberers?
Pay truckers a professional wage and you will attract more professionals to the trucking industry.

Fifty cents per mile should be the absolute bottom, entry-level pay rate.
And that's really still not enough, considering the amount of liability a driver is exposed to every minute in the course of doing his job.

Better yet, let's just scrap this idiotic CENTS PER MILE nonsense and go to a straight hourly rate. This acknowledges the value of the driver's time even when not driving. He is on the scene at a shipper or receiver as a representative of his company and should be paid as such. So 50 cents per mile spent driving at 45 mph for 70 hours a week would equal $22.50 per hour, straight rate. So $22.50 per hour for all time spent on line four, on duty not driving.
But what about that DOT-mandated 14 hours on duty nonsense?
No problem, we can do that.
Fourteen hours on duty times six days = 84 hours x $22.50 = $1,890.00 per week, base gross pay.

And that's starting to feel a little bit more fair.
Getting close to the $2,000 a week mentioned above, aren't we?
That would probably be about $1,250.00 per weekly net paycheck.

That would sweeten up the game.

Fifty cents per mile AND $22.50 per hour.

 

Ok so he has stress so does everyone else. At least he doesn't have to worry if he'll make the rent and electric payments for the month. He's financially set for life, I'd take his stress any day.

 

Wow. .50 a mile for new drivers. You guys are the entitlement society.

 

I think that's fair.
Nothing is inexpensive any more, not food, not rent, not medical care or insurance, nothing.
Trucking is a skilled trade that's critical to the national economy and drivers should be paid appropriately.

Edit: And anyway, I was getting paid 45 cpm right out of CDL school and it still wasn't enough. Eventualy the trucking companies will wake up and get with the program. It's already starting to happen. I'm not leaving my kids for less than a very fair wage -- think the equivalent of offshore oil work. Same kind of deal here. Even working offshore is safer than driving a truck!

 

Wow, learn something new every day.

Not sure how this 84 hour mandated week fits in with the 60/7 or 70/8 but I was almost dazzled.

 

And like any other trade, you should have to earn it. Not be given it. All of us have had to earn it the hard way. We paved the way for you. But not so you can be given it.

 

Im not saying people shouldnt work for it but you cant call them the entitlement socity just becuse they want better pay. If you worked all your life only getting 3 bucks a hour, never asking for more its not entitlement if the guy next to you says screw that i want 5 a hour. I did the otr thing wont touch it again unless the wife comes with and i get at least 75 a mile. So in other words im not going back. I have my price and you have yours. You are cheaper otr labor than me so you get to stay away and deal with all the #### you otr drivers are constantly complaining about and i will see my wife and girls every day, every weekend at home a 8 min comute all the bennys that go with ot after 8 hours. I could keep going but im just entitled so i will shut my mouth.

 

I'm not buying this, "I suffered and ate dirt so you have to suffer and eat dirt too!" nonsense.
That's nothing more than pulling the ladder up after you now that you've got yours.

Gasoline and food didn't cost what it does now when you were "earning it" either.
Wages have been flat or in decline for 30 or more years. Buying power has been declining for decades.
People deserve to make a decent living in a field that demands much more than your average job.

 

What you give are asking for is to make more money first starting out than many make with 10+ years out here. That's entitlement.

 

Eleven and 14, but you're Canadian so I'll forgive your clueless socialist condition.