Magnum ltd - fargo, nd

Well not with that attitude.

 

Shut down at the Columbus, IN Wally World. 485 miles to reciever, and when my 10 is up I'll have a little under 9.5 hours to make my 4 pm appointment...should be manageable. Anyone recently been on I-40 through the Smokies? I know they were replacing a bridge in that area, and last time i took that route earlier this year it was a total cluster

 

The bridge is replaced. Some construction still going on but all 4 lanes were open last week when I went through the Gorge

 

Parked next to a Heartland Express truck. Brand new 2023 T680. And get this. It had a 10 speed standard. Made me do a double take.

 

Just ran some numbers. I'm at $45,166 gross for the year. Will probably finish in between 60k-65k gross for the year. If I ran the rest of the year without taking anymore hometime (which won't happen) I could maybe get in the low 70k's gross.

I realize every trucker on the internet is making six figures per year working only 3 days per week, but for me personally I'm pretty happy with finishing at around 60k gross for the year. I make sure to take ample hometime, one of the reasons I came onto this company. I probably average 7 days off per month. Sometimes I'll stay out 6 weeks but then I'll take me a week and a half off, so it all kind of evens itself out. I also had that long 3 week vacation to Europe at the end of July/early August as well. I'm pretty happy with the work life balance.

Though one thing that I'm keeping in mind, I also had a $3,000 sign on bonus that is/will be paid to me all in the 2022 tax year. So whatever my final number for the year is, I'll have to subtract 3k from that number going into 2023 if I want to estimate what my gross income for next year will be (if I still take the same amount of hometime that I take now).

Although I'll be getting my 1 cent yearly raise as well in October, so if I run 100k miles in 2023 then that's an extra $1,000 gross annually. Which would cut that loss of 3k income from the 2022 sign on bonus down one third, to 2k loss of income instead of 3k loss of income.

I think if I ran harder and took less hometime, I probably could've grossed 80k this year. So while obviously I'de like to gross more than 60k-65k per year, I can't really fault Magnum for it because the money was there on the table for me, I just chose not to take it because of hometime and that big summer vacation I had.

We'll see where I'm at for my 2022 annual gross in several months and see how the start of winter plays out. As of now expecting to finish around $60,000 - $65,000 for the 2022 year.

Overall I'm pretty happy, don't really have any complaints here.

 

I'm at $38,358 gross for the year. If I get over 50k gross I'll count myself lucky. Not sure what my YTD miles are but i picked up my truck a week before Christmas with 195k on it. After my run up to Fargo. It'll probably br sitting a bit over 275k. Obviously those are odometer miles, and I frequently drove 150-250 miles home, which obviously aren't paid miles. I lived in Michigan at the time and all but one load home delivered out of state..usually to Ohio. Kinda in the same boat now. I live in central Kansas and I'll usually drop in the OKC area, then drive 4 hours home. Not to mention i take more hometime than the average person..then always get home a day or two early. It's a frequent occurrence that i want to run 3.5 weeks with 5 days off, and it usually turns out to be around 3 weeks with 7 days off. That's not Magnum's fault. I suspect that's why my pay is much lower than most here. In terms of Magnum's lanes i live out in the sticks, so it's hard for them to find me a load to get me home on the day requested. Hopefully with my move things will change. Still living 4 hours away from nearest drop customer, but the OKC area has daily freight delivering there.

 

Your pay is lower because your base pay CPM is lower. That's a large part of it. I think you and I are probably taking about the same amount of hometime if you're averaging 7 days off per month.

I'm at 45k for the year and you're at 38k for the year. I think I remember you saying you make $0.52 CPM base pay, right? I'm at $0.58 CPM base pay. Right off the bat, if we both do 100k miles per year, I'm at 58k for the year and you're at 52k for the year. That's going to be a $6,000 difference between us in pay, right there.

If I remember your story right, you had less than a year or less than 6 months with Schneider, meaning that while I'm assuming Magnum didn't make you go out with a trainer at Magnum, they probably put you on the lower end of the payscale since you didn't have a year or two experience, right?

If my memory is correct on that, then that would explain the pay difference between you and I because when I signed on with Magnum about a year ago, I had 2.5 years experience (will have 4 years experience come January). I signed on at (I think) $0.54 CPM and then we got a $0.04 CPM (again I think it was a $0.04 CPM) raise across the board for all LTD OTR drivers, which brought me up to $0.58 CPM base pay.

Third, those consistent deadhead home miles are brutal. That all adds up. I realize living in a rural place like Central Kansas or wherever you were in Michigan probably played a big part in that though.

Last, did Magnum give you the $3,000 sign on bonus when you came onto the company? You came on with Magnum a month after me so I know they were (and still are to this day) giving out that 3k sign on bonus, but I don't know if that applies to CDL drivers with no or little experience? That would affect your pay as well.

 

I signed on with Magnum as a trainee. But since i already had said experience with the Pumpkin, i had a trainer for only 2 weeks, which ended up me just sitting a week because my background check was delayed, and actually driving for about 1.5 weeks before they had my trainer dropped me off at the LTL terminal in Scottsbluff to pick up my truck.

I got hired on as a trainee at 43 cpm. When i hit three months with the company in March my pay got bumped to 48 cpm, and then the company wide raise shortly after put me at 52, where I've been since.

And yes i got the sign on bonus. The first two have already been paid out, I'm due for my final one of $1500 near the end of the year, most likely my first check in December.

I'll also admit that I've been a bad kid and forgot to to my safety videos most of the time, but ever since May I've done them and gotten my safety bonus. Only .03 cpm for cruise and idle bonus but something is better than nothing.

And unlike Michigan, i at least have reliable loads on both ends of hometime, even if said customers are a few hours drive. Deliver in the OKC area, then pick up from Ponca City after hometime.

 

Sitting in the Fargo yard until tomorrow. Any decent sit down restaurants around here that are worth my money?

 

Not watching safety videos definitely hurt you as well. Do you have your hazmat endorsement? That's an automatic $0.01 CPM guaranteed every month as well, even if you're not running hazmat loads you're still getting that extra 1 CPM by just having the endorsement on your license. I've only ran one hazmat load since I've been here (1 year anniversary coming up next month) and I got an extra $0.05 CPM on that load. I've made way more money with my $0.01 CPM bonus by having the hazmat endorsement than I have on my $0.05 CPM hazmat pay on the loads themselves.

Anyways, I hope I didn't sound rude in my response to you. I was just trying to give you a reason as to why your pay might be lower than others.

On the brightside though, if you're usually (or always) going to Ponca City coming back from hometime, that actually puts you in a great lane because you're guaranteed to go into Jenn's region right away. I would think that your new location right now in Kansas will be an upgrade (as far as Magnum loads go) over where you were in Michigan just for that reason alone. There's times where I've been out for 3 weeks and I haven't gotten sent to Jenn or Miller's area not one time (although that's kind of rare and only happened once or twice). Not to mention that the Ponca City to Twin Cities run is probably one of the better runs that the company consistently has, I love that run.