The six-figure club.

I get fed at a lot of my stops that doesn't help lol

 

I'm 6ft 2in and my weight is anywhere from 143 to 165 depending on how lean I try to get. I was down to 9.3% body fat a few months ago. As I'm sitting here responding to you eating chocolate I need to get my ##* back on my fitness routine.

 

I also like to cook so does Mrs cardfan. Tonight we had smoked venison roast with Amarillo eggs,corn and funeral potatoes.

 

Oh I.love to cook and eat I also have a terminal sweet tooth. I'm on high blood pressure and enlarged prostate medications so I try to stay as fit and lean as I can. This time of year is always a struggle because of the holidays and I get a horrible case of seasonal depression.

 

Rent/housing costs 1500 minimum really anywhere. If not close to 2k. That's 20k a year for housing alone. Having to own a car for a daily commute is going to cost a few thousand a year between gas, maint., ownership, insurance, etc. Not living in the truck just costs so much #### money. With OTR you can be completely free of society. Pay for food and phone bill and that's about it. It really adds up.

I've done OTR, Regional, and Local. Local paid a whole lot more usually but the work was usually way harder and the commuting killed it. And most local guys are doing 12s. At least every job I've done and been around. I had no life OTR. Had no life Local. Regional is nice if it isn't the home for a 34 crap. 4 days out @ 13-14 hours each day and a 3 day weekend was the best schedule. Run hard and turn on 10s and get back and have a life away from that ###### truck.

 

Not sure what you're looking for, but here goes:

When I was with Schneider, I was "Regional OTR", coming in for extended 34s - generally leaving out Sunday and home early Friday morning. I was averaging about a 5 1/4 day work week - some weeks being 6 days, some being 3. I could tailor my TAH around my schedule, and was making low $100s. I didn't work all that hard, and generally got a nap every day.

Then Schneider changed the pay structure, doing away with accessory pay and adding pay for all on duty time, which effectively cut my pay by about 2%. I looked around at my options - around me, the reputable LTL companies are all 30 minutes south, with the city drivers making less than I did OTR, so I decided to stay put and advocate for change. The change came, and it addressed some of our concerns about structure, but the rates would have resulted in another 1% pay cut. So I decided to do that which I'd rather not - work nights.

I'm making 20% more now, but have about $3,000 more in commuting costs and my energy bills are about 50% higher. The last 3 months I was at Schneider I used 10 gallons of gas, I use that in a week now. And the drive home in the morning is irriatating, to put it mildly. I'm maintaining safe following distance in morning rush hour and pissing off everybody. It took a good 6 months to adjust my sleep schedule, and once I did it's not so bad but I'm no where near as productive on the weekends. I gained a bunch of weight and am in the process of losing most of it. Some of it is muscle mass as I choose to work the dock - for the money, the exercise, and sleeping in a day cab sucks. More of it is having to exercise portion control. OTR there is a limited amount of space, and once I ran out of snacks that was it - no more until I got to the house. Now I can stock up when things are on sale, and when the impulse hits I can graze to my stomachs content.

As to the work - different excrement, same smell. I hate seniority systems - last November and December I was working 3.5 day weeks, but one of the senior drivers was taking all the weekend work. I miss being able to arrange my work life around my personal life. I hate sharing a truck. I miss the varied work environment and being able to use my skills and work ethic to outperform. But on the plus side, maintenance issues are virtually non-existent, and when they do happen the shop is top notch. I don't miss trying to park at truckstops, and I REALLY don't miss having to help other drivers back into a spot. I also REALLY like using my own bathroom. On the whole, while I'm making more, I'm also working more and have higher costs. It's still a net positive, and long term it's a good choice. Even if I could wave a magic wand and get my old pay structure back, I'd stay where I'm at because industry trends indicate the pain points of OTR are only going to grow.

 

Your experiences have been different than mine but again the $30,000 difference could've been invested. Are you investing the $1500 a month thats not going towards a mortgage?

 

Contrary to popular opinion, Schneider is smack dab in the middle in regards to pay, and slightly above the middle at 'top out'. The training is top notch, and if a driver can learn the system and make it work for them it's a pretty cushy gig - assuming they live convenient to a drop lot.

 

Extra shifts are you the old timers, and guys with 3 kids.

I wanna work less shifts. Gimme 4 x 40s.

I hope Gen Z makes trucking crash and we get some labour reform

 

At Schneider were you pulling tankers?