Indian River

Do they have automatic truck too or is it just manual?

 

Oh hell no, I'm not happy over here lol, I think I'd be happier at IRT for sure, so it's not just the extra miles or the extra cents. The freaking in-cab camera staring at me all day, the slow *ss truck that I can't stand, which made me missed an appointment last Friday because of how slow it is, and the way they operate, we deliver one load per day, so in a week, we usually deliver at least 4 loads, imagine doing that in Flatbed... I like the long loads, like the one from Alabama to Maine, good things most of our load are preloaded and pre-tarp, but we still have to un-tarp them. Like I said before, they're not a bad company, in fact they're a decent company, if what I stated earlier doesn't bother you, but they do bother me, A LOT lol! So that's why we're no match for each other. One more thing, if I'm average about $1200 here, and I'm getting .52 cents, I should be able to make more with .60 cents at IRT right? And yes, we get paid weekly.

 

The 2017 tax bill eliminated the personal per diem tax filing for W2 employees. Previously you could individually claim for any unpaid per diem you were eligible for. I basically added up all the days I was away from home x $56 daily allowance and subtracted income reimbursements from that amount.

It wasn't too much hassle and resulted in about $400 extra on my tax refund. Not a life changing amount, but would be nice if company drivers could still get it.

 

That's why people say un trucking you can't focus on the weekly and go by the monthly because some weeks you may miss the cutoffs but it all equals in the end.

 

I never pay attention to settlement from week to week as some weeks I will have a $0 settlement and other weeks will be over $3,000. All depends on payroll cutoff and hometime etc.

Instead I keep a spreadsheet and enter my gross and net pay each week and look at the year to date total to see how I am doing. 2024 was slower than previous years, but I still averaged $1830 per week gross.

My take home average wouldn't be of any use as dependents, insurance electives and other deductibles can vary significantly, but if you are still curious it was $1439 per week.

 

Very few automatics from what I was told.

 

Mann, thanks!! This breakdown is helpful, basically looking at the weekly pay is irrelevant lol, makes sense cause some week, especially when I'm going home, I make about $600, $700 for that week. As long as the average is higher than $1200 at the end then I'm good lol.

 

My highest check here was $2270, drove over 3000 miles that week, 3000 X .52 would've been about $1500 but I got a bonus that week for about $400, so that's why it went to $2270. It'd be nice to reach that every now and then with just the miles lol, the bonus would be a plus.

 

There may not be an option to opt out of per diem at Indian River. I can't remember. But one good reason to do that is to make your income look better on your W-2 to apply for a mortgage or other big loans. The W-2 will usually only show income without per diem and even if it shows per diem it's in a separate box that most creditors will ignore, no matter what you tell them it is for.

Caledonia has a few automatics for drivers who have a bad left knee or other leg problems. Being able to drive a manual is still required here in case your truck breaks down and you need to use a spare. They once had a driver with an automatic restriction and his truck was down for weeks for major repairs. They didn't have a spare automatic truck for him so he was just sitting. They don't want those kinds of things happening anymore, so manual experience is required now.