truck drivers must make some serious money

Here in a few hours I'll be spending some of my millions on a new 500" wheelbase Pete with titanium frame, custom billet 30" wheels, real gold brightwork, 5000 watt stereo for when its too wet to go for a ride on my custom Ducati during my 10 and I cant find anything on my 50" satellite TV. After that I'll be hiring one of you not so fortunate drivers to actually steer it down the road.

 

$25/ hr? There are jobs like that out there. I have one, I get paid mileage but it figures out to more than $25/hr, because I do not sleep in a truck or stay in a motel, I sleep at home everyday. I work nights, 10-11 hours per night, no p&d, no weekends, get paid for delays, not unionized, stricty to a relay point and back.

$25/hr for all time spent gone would be enough to make me go back over the road.
It all depends on what you want to do, I really like what I do now, I have a lazy man's job, I drop and hook and that's it. Some can't take doing pretty much the same thing everyday and that's the part I have the hardest time with, but after 8-1/2 years of doing this I've gotten used to it, a neccessary evil that goes with the pay.

 

Let's make some assumptions.

First, Compensation for the typical salaried position is calculated on a 2080 hour work year.

Second, As an OTR truck driver you work 7200 hours a year. I submit that when you are out you work 24/7. Sure you get your 10 hour breaks but, they don't feel like time off and you don't magically get 10 hours every day like clockwork. Hence, you work 24/7. Taking away two weeks for vacation, leaves 50 weeks. Assuming you are out three weeks and get three days off this means you work 300 days times 24 hours a day equals 7200 hours.

Let's assume you gross $60,000 a year. This is a handsome salary for a truck driver. Can I get an AMEN?

$60,000 divided by 7200 hours equals $8.33... per hour.

in contrast

$60,000 divided by 2080 hours equals $28.85 per hour.

Brothers and sisters, by these assumptions, most of us are working for less than minimum wage. Can I get an AMEN?

Brothers and sisters, by these assumptions, we can only assume that big trucks and the smell of diesel when coupled with the power of testosterone has created 21st century slavery.

Can I get an AMEN?

 

Your calcs seem correct, they deserve an AMEN!

 

Yep if you don't mind doing 4 years in the Military and then still spend another $2000-30000 to get your A&P (Airframe and Powerplant) license.

You could go to a tech School and send between $15000 and $30000 for 18 months and get your A&P license and get out making $13-15/hr on a 40hr/wk gig.

A&P license gives you authorization to sign off your own work and return an Aircraft to flight. If that aircraft goes down for any reason your subject to criminal investigation. If they find you were at fault in any maintenance you go to jail.

Mechanics at Chevy Ford and Chrysler dealers get paid better and take less responsibility. I KNOW! I have Been there done that. Made $18.50/hr walking in the door with no training. My lead was making $26/hr.

Only reason I left is dealership was new and the hours were so un-predictable. $1200 1 week and $300 the next 2 weeks.

 

What does this have to do with my post??

 

The only OTR'ish job I can think of like that is Wal*Mart. They are not allowed to disclose their pay rates or annual compensation but they are well in excess of $25 per hour for all time spent for the company - even sleep.

On our long 12 hour turn night runs $27 - 30 per hour would be the average by the the end of the shift when all mileage and hourly compensation is added up and divided by the 12 hours. FedEx Freight and UPSF road drivers would do a lot better - faster trucks, little higher mileage rate, and longer runs with less or no dock work. Both of them would be well over $30 per hour by the end of the shift.

Most all of these jobs are tough to start out at because they're based on seniority, but nobody with any time in quits. If you can suck it up for a year or two it's worth it in the end for most people.

 

Those type of jobs were much more common in times past, but times change.
It has been too costly to bring trucks home empty every trip, for one thing, like we used to do.
Another is the liabilty issue. Companies consider it a risk having their own equipment running up and down the road, when they can just pay a common carrier to do it.
Benefits wise, in my state for instance, the amount an employer contributes to a trucker's workers comp is among the highest rate of all professions.

The mfg, company I once drove for has only 8 real full time drivers for about 60 trucks. The rest come from a temp agency and they come and go as needed with basically no benefits, and drive at a lower rate.

 

That's right jakebrake12, I have pretty good seniority where I'm at but even our lower seniority guys average #$25/hr with the mileage and hourly pay divided by the hours worked. We fortunately don't have alot of runs where you have to make your money with the hourly pay. I don't have to work on the clock to make my money because I'm on 550+ mile relay runs.

Some folks just don't need, nor want to be home eveyday, I know I didn't when I was still with my ex-wife. But that being said, I've made more money every year running this LTL job than I ever did over the road.

 

AMEN. More stupid things have been done under the influence of testosterone than anything else. Including putting life, freedom, license and pocketbook at risk so that a trucking company CEO can deny all responsibility as he lines his pockets while paying you less than a McWorker.