Newbie here, in the process of acquiring my CDL. I am a young, single male with no home-time obligations and willing to run hard. I am set on trying trucking, and flatbedding in particular, but I really want to get a REALISTIC idea of what I can hope to get pay-wise, both as a rookie and moving forward. So the purpose of this thread is to gather as much detailed information about Flatbed trucking wages as possible. Keyword here is detailed. I have browsed dozens of threads with people asking similar questions, but the answers are all over the place and provide no supporting statistics. Problem with these answers is they don't give you any real info, just some vague opinion. "Bad pay" and "Good pay" are very subjective terms. So here I want to ask people for some accurate, detailed information on their current earnings. In particular: Your CPM/other pay. Yearly Gross/Net. Average weekly pay. Average weekly miles. What you can expect to make from accessory pay like Tarping, Layover, Detention, etc. What company you work/worked for. Regional and OTR. How did your company pay? (Hub, practical, HHG?) How hard do you run? (Please be honest. Do you take extra hometime/downtime?) Any other relevant details I am missing. I would really appreciate any info from current/recent drivers! I have to ask though, PLEASE don't give some vague answer like I mentioned above. It doesn't help. Everyone on the internet has their own opinions, and the only way to get accurate info is collecting and comparing a lot of different sources independently. And before anyone says it, I am aware of sites that give average yearly salaries for truck drivers and companies, but these are all over the place and not specific enough for my questions. Nor do I consider them particularly trustworthy. As a last note, if you feel uncomfortable plastering your income on the forum for any reason, please consider sending it to me in a private message!
For what it is worth, here goes.... You are worrying too much about specific details about what someone else is getting paid. You don't even know if you can do the job and whether or not you will enjoy the job. Some ridiculous figure like 90% of new drivers don't last a year. I know, I know - you are different, better, more motivated, tougher than all those other guys. Except statistically, you aren't. You should be more concerned with the quality of training you get and the opportunity to hone your skills as a developing driver. The bottom line is your pay is not going to match up with someone who has been doing the job for a while. An experienced driver is going to be better and faster at every phase of the job from planning to tarping to conserving hours. This the reason companies like to hire experienced drivers. They have already fought through the frustration and home sickness and loneliness and the million other things you learn in the beginning of your driving career. So no I a cannot offer you detailed pay information but no one else can either - even guys drive for companies you are interested in. Who knows and chances are you are not going to like the job and are not gong to be that good at it anyway. I say this to help you gain some perspective going into this that squeezing the last penny out of the pay per mile is a waste of time and you should be looking at more relevant to you concerns. And no jumping into hauling heavy freight with no experience is not a great idea. Good luck
I'll add newbs SHOULD be getting paid less. I started at a starter company for .36 cpm, plus picks/drops and tarp pay. I'm no longer there, it was a starting point to get me on the right path. What Ron said. Try it for 6 months then decide if you like it. It's not for everyone.
Trucking is a way of life. Can you make money? Sure. Can you make $50k a year. Yep definitely. Can you make $100k a year again definitely. Can you do the job day in day out? Most likely not which is why most new drivers find another job within 6 months. If your prepared to listen, learn, and work harder than you thought was possible, be more exhausted at the end of a hard week than you have ever experienced. Then do it again and again and again. That's when you ask about the money you will make. Until then the figures above won't mean anything.....
