OTR vs Local Driving Pay

There's a reason they call us road men - and a reason we call the "other side" city slickers..

To already gone's point though, I'm still up from last night. But on the bright side I get to go peach picking tomorrow - yes, I've committed my Sunday to picking peaches at a peach farm in Va. But I am a road man..

 

lol, how were the peaches?

 

The peach orchards were too muddy - the raspberries were pretty good though. The silly things we'll do right...

 

We make $27.50 an hour base. Anything over 10 hours goes to $41.25. So we work 4 days a week then pick up an extra day for overtime. Safety bonuses not included. So after one week we gross $1925 a week. However, the more you make the more you spend.

 

Got dag driver you guys are making money in vegas is that because the cost of living over there is high or u just getting money like that !!!!

 

No that's based on pay for most of our terminals. I've retired from there and since then the company has pulled their trucks from the Las Vegas market. But AZ,CA,OR,WA, and now even BC Canada are that way. But when I was there my pay was $23.50 an hour and since then they have gone up that much. It was nothing to make $20,000 to $25,000 in overtime. However, back then the cost of living was very low in Las Vegas and we all made a killing. Property taxes were one of the lowest and a nice 4 bedroom new house listed for under a $100,000 and I'm just talking about the 90's. We saw what was coming and got out of there and moved east to be near family.

 

There are some local jobs that pay by the load.

I drove B-train coal and so-called "mine water" tankers in Wyoming for a while, at either 3 or 4 trips a day (116 mi round trip) for $52 each. Two days off per week, extra runs if you wanted them (most weeks), and usually either 17 or 18 loads per week required during your five days on. Pretty easy work, actually. Tricky in the winter---150K lbs on 8-10% hills takes some finesse---but that was about it.

That comes out to about $48K/yr.

 

Actually an otr'er will back almost every night parking at a truck stop for the night unless you only sleep on the onramps or at pull through rest area's.

But I'll keep my local concrete mixer job at 15.50 pull pay is 18.50, it's work sometimes but I get to sleep in my own bed and make just a little more than I was when I was driving otr.

 

By Local I'm not sure what the OP means. There are many aspects of trucking that are not covered in such a broad stroke as Local or OTR.

A Local driver to me is a CITY driver who does P and D all day in a city or metropolitan area. You also have line haul drivers who might go between 2 set points each day. You also have drivers who might Drive one way out and sleep in a motel and then drive back. You also have drivers more regional that may go on irregular routes within a certain radius and return to a certain spot every day. You also have people who may haul from one point to another many times in a day and would get payed in numerous ways of all of these. Some are mileage , some are hourly , some are by the load and others by the ton per mile. All of these are seperate from OTR operations but would not really be called local in every case. Some say an OTR job is anything that crosses state lines or that consists of operation in more than one state.

Each of the jobs have advantages or disadvantages against another. All money earned is more dpendant upon the company being worked for and their pay schedule. To give you a completely general comparison is not feasable. For instance people trolling this thread have stated you dont get payed for waiting at docks as OTR. Well that is false and competely dependant on the company. Many do pay for incidentals like detention time, dropping and picking up trailers. Days away from home and many more. Some even pay if you have to wait too long for them to find you a load. Some will pay for getting their equipment serviced or washed out. The list goes on and on and your research is not so easily done.

 

I have a dedicated run,I make $26.40 an hour, for 4 ten hour days,$39.60 after 10 hours,which is every night.I sleep in my own bed,have a family life,and so far,have made $42,000 for the year.I'll never go OTR.