Highest pay for new drivers

Something I found useful for comparing different companies and their rates, for trying to factor in accessory pay. If you estimate having a 2500 mile week on average (fair for new drivers I've been told, don't be unrealistic when planning), each CPM is 25.00 dollars a week. Just remember that when one company has a few less CPM, but has higher detention, stop pay, fuel/safety bonuses. If tuition reimbursement is in the picture, it pretty much turns into 1 CPM for each $100 of reimbursement assuming a 2500 mile week again.

What I see to be the highest earning first years, just from what I've heard on here tho are
TMC
Melton
US XPress (Teams only 48cpm with hazmat)
Crete/Shaffer

Systems freight and Maverick seem good as well, but I haven't looked into them as much. They come pretty recommended on this site, as far as student hiring companies go.

Look into Schneider Bulk (tanker). Not sure about pay, can't be too bad, but it gets you tanker experience. Get yourself the experience to make better money faster.

 

I can say from personal experience that TMC is a great company to start off with if you aren't afraid of flatbed work.

I brought home an average of 800$ (~1000ish gross) per week after insurance, taxes, etc etc. That was being home 50/52 weekends and quite a few 3 day weekends due to holidays. I'm sure if you aren't as attached to your house as I am, you could do considerably better.

And get your passport. Those canadian loads pay insane freight rates!

 

Shaffer .35 cpm

 

maverick starts students out at .33cents by end of 1st yr there at .43cents plus pay for performance bonus after first full quarter drove. can make up to .6cents more per mile. 25$ tarps also has some sort of school reimbursement not sure how that works????

 

Conway pays noobs base of .38 after their first year pending no breakdowns hinder your mileage
Benefits suck and that's probably about about to become screwed up with "incentive bonuses"
...huehuehue

 

The lowest is CR england at like .16 cents a mile, no that's not a misprint. The next lowest is Swift.

 

I just talked to my newbie friend that i grew up with..He is on his way to 70,000 for his first year trucking..He makes .38 cents a mile.Plus he lumps his loads

What i see with him is this.He does not whine about being on the road.He goes wherever they tell him.He works very very hard and sacrifices his ''hometime'' to make the money.He goes with the flow and it is bringing him in alot of money for a 1st year driver..He accepted the reality of having to ''put in his time'' to get that 1 year EXP.

He told me last night he has 7,000 saved in the bank so far.This took him 4 months to save.His goal is 20,000 by his 1st completed year.He has a 2014 KW with E-LOG and a trip pac on the truck.His truck goes 68 mph..

Much to my own opinions about being a ''new'' driver,it can be done..

 

What company is he driving for? Im interested

 

Lumping his own loads; I did that for years pulling reefer. Could make anywhere from $200.00 - $500.00 weekly under the table doing that. After unloading, sell the pallets and make another $50.00 - $120.00 under the table. First you have to find a reefer company that allows driver unload. For several years my road expenses were zero out of my paycheck. I don't know which reefer companies allow driver unload now. The company I worked for didn't care about the pallets or lumper money. It's since been bought out by another company.

 

Not trying to bring back the dead here, but I just thought about this thread and the importance of accessorial pay after getting my paycheck this week. It was a perfect example of what I alluded to in my previous post.

I only had 1,537 miles last week, of which 1,420 were loaded and 117 empty. If I were paid strictly mileage pay, I would have only grossed 697.68. However, due to my accessorial pay (37hrs of layover, loading and unloading pay, nyc deliver pay, and bunk pay) I was able to gross over $1,400.

Obviously not every week with so few miles works out quite that well, but typically my accessorial pay makes a slow week bearable come payday. It greatly reduces a lot of the stress you see that some guys have over miles.

Just some food for thought when you new guys are out job hunting. ..