How are people making good money?

I keep hearing about people making good money in trucking. I understand if you have a lot of experience, are an owner operator etc. but people on this forum say they made good money their first year. I guess those days are gone. I also see a lot of people interested in trucking because of all the money they will make. I think that's why trucking has such a high turn over- once they realize the truth and quit after putting all that energy into it.

I worked for PAM teaming for about 3 months. The pay was ok but I was constantly exhausted and had zero free time due to trying to sleep in a bouncing truck with a partner blaring up music, screaming etc. and pulling all nighters, driving during the day, night, morning etc. The pay came out to about $11 an hour. Now the checks were big because I worked constantly and only rested really during our reset which was about 2 days out of a week. And I spent all that time basically sleeping because I was exhausted. Basically only thing I did was got to watch a few movies a week, eat, sleep and truck.

Now going with Schneider solo. My cousin who did trucking like 8 years or so started out making more money than I am and the prices have about doubled on everything since then. The pay is well below minimal wage if caught in traffic and other things. On a good day the pay might be $10 an hour. It averages out to about minimal wage. And I was actually with some of the better companies. I heard about some companies where the average pay comes out well below minimal wage. And this isn't exactly an "easy" job. It's dangerous and there's a lot of responsibility involved. It's not as exhausting as some other jobs at times maybe. I guess it's better than McDonalds, but there's a lot of training, school debt, massive stress and hardship, be away from home, have no life, no friends etc. in exchange for minimal wages. I'm curious where all the money is because I'd like to be getting some of it.

Now I'm sure after about a year that $7.00 an hour might go up to $10 or $12, but there are factory jobs that start people out at $10 or $12 and there's no schooling involved and you can be home every night. When a trucker talks about a big paycheck its because he works 70 hours a week. If you work 70 hours a week at McDonalds, let's break that down for you.

40 hours- $7.50= $300
30 hours time and a half- $11.25 = $337

$637

Driving solo new you would be lucky to average 2,000 miles a week maxing out your clock as best you can I get .29 a mile minus 2 cents the company keeps. .27

$540

Now of course if you work at McDonalds the problem is they won't give you hours in most cases. But I'm curious about all this talk of making money. Where is it and how do I get it? I have to say also there is a big difference between team and solo. Teaming you get pretty good weekly checks and solo seems the pay is about half that.

What I have to say is I like trucking a little better than minimal wage because I don't have to put up with annoying people as much. I would do trucking because I like it a little better, but as far as money goes, well not sure why anyone would start trucking "for the money". It's one of the lowest paying jobs out there because minimal wage laws and overtime don't even apply and long work weeks are expected.

 

You mean these guys at the truck stop that look like homeless people aren't making $1500 a week?

 

What baffles me is I could have taken a dedicated job which is local and its salary $700 a week. That is a lot more than I'm getting for OTR. Very confusing. Also my Grandpa trucked back in the 70s. He made like $35,000 a year. Adjusted for inflation that's like making $100,000 a year in today's dollars. As well people ten or fifteen years ago were making decent money as well. Not sure why the wages suddenly dropped. Seems like all the money is in local and dedicated runs or maybe working in an oil field or something.

 

Good money would be middle class as opposed to wages hovering around the poverty line. As in able to afford a house, car, mortgage, like a normal lifestyle. I guess only an elite few are middle class in America anymore.