Stagnant wages in trucking?

In order to put that in perspective, how much has the dollar deflated in that time? If the value deflated more than the pay increase then you're worse off than when you started.

 

I started at .25 per mile at Swift in 2008.

 

2018 dollars are about 72% the value of 2008 dollars for a total loss of 28% of its value over a 10-year period so in order to break even over the 10-year period, we would need a pay increase of 28% over that $0.25 per mile at the beginning of the 10-year period.

 

19 cpm in 82. 440/day in 18 & done.

 

How many times have I heard the great news - the dollar is strong increasing our buying power on imported goods. Or the other great news-the dollar is falling making our exports more affordable. Its all manipulated. Soon as things get a little heated up they raise interest rates to slow it down. Part of that includes keeping unemployment at around 5% anything below that puts pressure on wages anything above that your lucky to have a job.What Im starting to hear now about People finding it harder to afford to buy a home sounds very familiar. Everyone buying a Truck. Everyone’s got a new car. 0% credit card offers in the mailbox everyday.Let the good times roll!!! Then it peaks out and all the Reasons are explained to us by so called experts. To me it’s like hooking a fish let him run a while when he tires you slowly pull him in. The trick to surviving a downturn is not getting hooked

 

I dont use credit card.
No new car. I paid in full for my car it's a semi. But it's just sitting.
I rent.
Someday I will be on the path to self sustainment.

 

My Grandfather started working at Chrysler on the line at 48 yrs old .only bought 1 new car in his life. Built the cars for 16 yrs bought 64 Dodge $2400 I’ve still got the paperwork.18 mo financing.12 yrs to paid off his house they bought in 1950 for $12k. And He Had Bought 70 acres on Hwy 70 near Crossville Tn. Nowadays It’s different. Like Grandma always said It’s not what you make it’s what you spend.She used to send me to store with an extra dime for a candy bar. I’d usually be about 3 cents short and would have to go back for the candy bar!!!A lot can be learns from the old folks for sure. If only I would have listened !!!

 

My parents never kept sweets or pop in the house. Mama would bake a cake or a pie for special meals. Otherwise it was maybe some jello for desert. We drank juice or water with the meal. "candy" and "pop" was only a special treat. Like I said in another thread. I remember sitting in the local Truck Stop drinking a cold coke listening to my father talk to other drivers.

 

I looked it up. In 1980 the median annual income for a truck driver was $38,000. According to the CPI inflation calculator you'd need to make $130,000 to have the same buying power as $37,000 had in 1980. Although I'm skeptical of the CPI because it doesn't include food which is a definite household expense or the cost to buy a house because a house is classified not as a consumer good but rather an investment asset. The average house price in 1980 was $47,000 or about 1.2X the truck drivers annual income. Today a truck driver makes about $50,000 a year and the average house costs about 7X that. Well, they gotta keep you broke and living in their truck. That's the OTR fleet retention plan us to keep you so broke that you can't afford to leave. That's why I hang up and flag as spam any contact from any recruiters because a good company doesn't need a team of recruiters. I don't except any cents per mile jobs at any rate and I also don't pay any attention to sign on bonuses as those are usually paid out over some long period and companies seem to think that bonuses will compensate for crap pay. I also definitely don't care how new your autoshift Freightliner Cascadia is. A fresh turd is still a turd. If anything it's more gross.

 

That’s horrible money bro. No offense but it’s $11-$14 an hour net. My son makes more than that at Starbucks with tips take home. He doesn’t work 70 hours though. I only did two months over the road with prime but as a trainee I took home almost that and I think mileage was like $.50 a mile to start.

To me driving over the road is a huge sacrifice and I think most people also do, otherwise they wouldn’t have problems keeping people in this industry so therefore it would stand to reason that it should pay more not less. You’ve got no work life balance and no quality of life sitting in a truck. If that’s the life you want to lead that’s fine but I wouldn’t do it man. There’s 1 million other things you could do and have an actual life doing them bringing home that money. Granted that one doesn’t buy much these days anyway.