What's good about this job?

I make $19.23 per hour base pay, plus commission, home nightly, weekends off, uniforms, 401k, free health dental eye, family coverage $36 every other week.

pd vacations, motel rooms although I've only rarely been stuck out over night. all holidays off paid.

I LOVE MY JOB !!! but I went out and got it and yes was always looking for something better.

I'm not happy and think I am worth more and as soon as I convinced somebody of that I pulled up stakes and am off on my merry way.

1 kid headed to college and one headed to highschool...

I started at transport america, loved the job... and I didn't whine... but I was looking for improvement and found it. (in my opinion)

forum rambo??? that's a funny one.

What I am trying to say in the second post and this one is that people are often unhappy and blame the company they are working for. That's a misdirected philosophy in my opinion since companies like people only pay what that have to. How often you go back and pay extra for your groceries just because they were good?

My competition for a job is not the company. It is the other worker drivers standing around me. The employees set the wages more so than the companies do. I say this because it is a bidding process.

AD: Looking for knuckle-head to drive OTR. full-time no benefits, 10 cents per mile, home every 6-8 weeks, needs a strong back to load and unload floor stacked lettuce.

OOOOOHHHH no takers??? next ad will up the price and so on and so forth until the position is filled.

Now, no it isn't totally this simple but darn near...

If everyone refused to drive for less than 75k a year... we'd all be getting 75k a year. The better of us would be making 90k. It's what ever the market and the individual will work for.

btw: minimum wage $7.50 X 40 hpw X52 weeks per year = $15,600

most do not get over time because the boss won't pay $11.25 per hour for over time.

in fact most don't get 40 a week. this makes you full time and entitled to benefits. 2 - 30 hpw employees cost $450 vs one 60hpw for $525.

And yes, most, as in majority of; cashiers do make minimum wage.

Friday I met with a new company after a week on the phone with them, weds I do a physical and pee test, the following monday I meet for safety training. This one has fewer paid benefits but is worth more cash in hand when its all said and done. So as you can see, I am a rather greedy individual. My true alligiance is to myself and family and not the company republican store front.

It's just why whine? Trucking will make you a living or a very good living, the fact you have to work for it changes nothing. You are only limited by your efforts and abilities.
Meaning you ain't gonna be a brain surgeon and you won't advance if you don't push yourself...

ohhh crud!!! I'm on my high horse and ranting in addition to being afraid of heights.

If you ain't happy, don't settle for what you got, go get something better.

 

Safety is the most important part of the job and following the rules to the best of your ability but after that, there's only one rule in OTR trucking. IF THE WHEELS AIN'T TURNIN', YOU AIN'T EARNIN'. That's the number one rule.

This means you won't be cherry pickin' your loads (at least you won't be doing it long if you do). You'll have to go places you'd probably rather not from time to time to keep the wheels turnin and management happy in order to get the "gravy".

You'll have times when you'll have to deal with equipment issues, and that means down time. I'm here to tell you, sitting around is only good when you want to be and at the place of your choosing, not when you're in the middle of nowhere and your truck's in the shop, or because you need to do a 34 hr reset because you had a short day or two and zero's behind them and can't pickup enough hours to do anything.

To me that's the worst part about OTR trucking. Some weeks you make a killing and the miles seem to fly by and other weeks you have problems and that sometimes results in low miles hence a small check. It does get lonely from time to time, I don't care who they are, every trucker gets lonely on occasion but it will pass. It seems like you see a lot of happy couples out there when you know you won't be seeing you're girlfriend/wife for another couple weeks and you know you've been out there too long when even the hideous looking women start becoming attractive.


The good about trucking is different for everyone I think. For me, it's getting to see many places that I would likely not otherwise have EVER seen. I went through Oregon on I-84 and the scenery is truly BREATHTAKING! Especially to someone that grew up on the east coast.

When you get trips that go where you want to go and have enough time to "sight see" just a little, are my favorite. I don't need 4000 miles a week, and I'm plenty happy with 2300-3000 miles a week, which occasionally does allow time to check out some of the beautiful sites in this nation.

If you think you'll always be a "paid tourist" think again. It is a job and freight has to move everywhere and all the trips you make aren't gravy. Sometimes you have to sit at docks for hours. Even if you make detention pay, you'd make more rolling down the road. Not to mention, if you have other stops to make, it can get a bit stressful when a customer takes forever to get you unloaded when you know you have to be somewhere else in a hurry.

The pay is good BUT you have to budget your money because there are gravy weeks and there are bad weeks. It's not like a 9 to 5 where you get the same check each week or close. Of course I'm talking about being a company driver but I imagine this applies to O/O's as well.

Another good thing about trucking is from time to time, you can sleep in that extra hour or two (sometimes three)if you like. As long as the run you're on allows it. IF you can't stand waking up the same time each day, trucking isn't like that for most people OTR. The loads you get vary and sometimes you have to readjust your sleep schedule, but I have never had any problems getting plenty of rest.

There are many different avenues of trucking and various amounts of physical labor in each different aspect of trucking. What I like about dry van is I don't have to touch the freight! The cool thing is, I do have the option on occasion to unload if I so choose, but for the most part, that decision is up to me. But that's not to say it doesn't involve physical activity on occasion and driving is a physical activity and can wear you down on long days.

There are a lot of positives and negatives in OTR trucking, I can't explain it but some days I'm smiling ear to ear and feel like the luckiest man alive and thinking I can't believe they're paying me to do this. Other days I'm cussing up a storm and aggravated and thinking what the hell am I doing here?

I suppose the good about trucking is not having the bad days? I dunno. I've had more good than bad and that's why I'm still doing it.

 

Actually, the pay IS pretty darn good for certain types of drivers that have gotten off of OTR and into the LTL business, or other types of local driving that is paid by the hour.
I'm a big fan of paid by the hour for any kind of company driver, not just local, though you will probably never see that ever happen.

The point is that the pay doesn't suck for EVERYONE. I've met plenty of OTR drivers that are taking home 70k and even more per year. Does that kind of pay suck? I'm taking home 50k per year plus bonuses and a truckload of benefits that I - don't see anywhere in the trucking industry that's for sure - and though that isn't "GREAT" pay in terms of drivers making 20k more than me per year, I am quite happy with it.

But then again, I only work 44 hours per week to get that kind of pay. But, even if you are working 60/70 or in reality a lot more when you add all of it up per week, so are a heckuva lot of other people out there in totally different kinds of businesses. Look at the salaried managers that are making great money but - have no limit to the hours they have to work to maintain that kind of pay. How many bosses do you know or have seen that are there early and still there late? LOTS of them. Firefighters - the norm anyway - is 24 hour shifts. On 24, off 24, on 24, off 24, on 24 off 24 on 24 more and then 3 or 4 days off.

No, I have to agree with the ex-military guy that was talking about attitude. You are either happy with it or you're not. If you're looking to make 100k per year, trucking probably isn't the business you need to be in. We had a guy who quit not too terribly long ago to go OTR. He's kind of a newbie (2 years) - dunno when anyone thinks a person isn't a newbie, I guess I figure you need to experience all of it for a while before you can say you're a veteran driver - but anyway, he goes to work for one of the big companies in search of more money. I warned him long before he quit not to do it, but he was bent on doing it, so I just shut up - live and learn, I figured, he's going to find out that OTR isn't the dream he thought it was.

And so it was. After only 2 and a half weeks, he quit that company, begged the general manager of our main branch to come back, and he allowed it. His words: "My attitude has gotten a WHOLE lots better since I went with that company", speaking in terms of money and just being content with what he was doing.

Another interesting thing I was reading online the other day was the railroad commission's statement that they're ready to take on more freight and see less trucks on the road. Well of course they are! Lol. I was wondering if they were attempting to prophesy that some of these giants might go belly-up and that the freight would in turn be handled by rail. Trucking will become profitable again if/when cheap freight goes away. I dunno what freight rates are on rail - but you figure that 3, 4 or 5 power units pulling a mile long chain of cars can probably/definitely give the trucking industry pretty good challenge in terms of competition.

It's getting interesting to see where all of this is going simply via the fact of fuel prices.

 

I can only echo what you said. I will add, that it's actually nice to be in some places for time off Nothing like a new town, with nice people.

 

Trucking is hard work!! and will never be easy. OTR is the tuffest gone for ever and veryshort weekends at the house. The thing I hated the most was coming home for the weekend (1 out of 3) and seeing the wife and kids. Wanting so much to be there for them. And to watch them grow up. I was even on the road when my First wife passed. I was only 350 miles from the house. But I wasn't there for her. Anyway Your kids grow up and move on and you don't see much of it. just a visitor in your familys life. My kids today still have ill felling for me because I was home for mom when she passed.

I have seen real neat places. the one thing that is very true Is tha because you are taller then the cars you see more of the world around you.

Trucking is what you make of it! It was great and the worst job I ever had. A lot of of companys will work with you But I have found that the bigger companys work their own system and if you don't fit then to bad.. Med to samll companys have been the best for me.

If it wasn't for me screwing up my left shoulder I would be doing heavy haul.
I work with heavy haul drivers now, But it is not like it was when I was a driver. I still get a good night sleep every night.

 

I love my job and look forward to each new day and the challenges it will present.
I drive city LTL, and every day the freight is different, so is the traffic. I enjoy the challenges of difficult docks, and getting nasty freight off without the luxury of having a forklift do the work always.
I sleep in my own bed every night, which is not the case for most of the people on this site. IMO I have found the perfect job for me.
Rodcannon, good luck to you!

 

One thing I criticize about some of these veteran drivers, is they're careful not to say anything that may discourage potential newbies like you from becoming a trucker. Comments like "trucking is what you make of it" or "you do whatever it takes" are ominous clues that OTR trucking may have a dark side. When I first became a trucker in the early 80s, I didn't have the internet to research this profession. Television was full of trucking school commercials, and shows like "Big Wheels," or movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" were being shown to glamorize the profession. They portrayed truckers meeting beautiful promiscuous women, hitchhiking along a road. She smiles, and gives a flirtatious look at the trucker, as she eagerly climbs on to his truck. In every receiving dock, he arrives to find a crew of lumpers, anxiously waiting for the trailer to bump the dock, so they can unload the trailer in record time, and send the trucker on his way to pick up his next load. What I was not aware of, was how these shows and movies were produced.

Prior to getting approval to create a movie, or TV shows, a synopsis description of the TV or movie project is sent out to solicit investors to fund the filming cost. For example, if you want to portray the the hero of the show to be smoking a cigarette, this will entice kids to take up smoking, & emulate their big-screen heroes. So as a movie producer, you send a synopsis to companies like Phillip Morris, Inc., who will see the potential increase of cigarette sales, when young kids are inspired to take up smoking, seeing the hero beat the bad guys, wins the love & affection of some beautiful woman-in-distress heroine, & lives happily ever after. With stories that sensationalized & glorifies trucking, synopsis descriptions are sent out to the American Trucking Association, and other state-level truck lobbying groups to solicit investors to sponsor the funding cost of filming these movies. If the show or movie is a hit, investors get their $$ back, plus interest. If its a bust, its a tax-deductible write off for investors. The write-off qualifies under "research & development" IRS tax code loopholes, for allowable business expenses. For the ATA & other trucking lobby groups, its a win-win-win investment. They use TVs & movies to recruit new drivers, they earn a return on investment if the movie earns box office sales, & because the show is shown nationwide, its a lot cheaper than advertising in every newspaper in the country. Movies & TV shows are propaganda tools to entice people to becoming truckers.

I will give you the same advice I've given to all newbies. This is advice I wish someone had given me, when I started trucking in the early 80s. If you enter this profession, do OTR trucking for 12 to 14 months, & stay with the same company, no matter how bad pay & working conditions are. After you've established your 1-year of driving experience, begin to target local, hourly-paying driver positions. These other OTR drivers are telling you they earned $1,000+ a week, but they don't say how many hours they had put in total, to earn this gross pay. From personal experience, I falsified logbooks & worked 100+ hours a week to maximize the money I can earn. If you comply with hours of operation laws, I guarantee you won't earn the high dollars these other drivers claim they're making. This is what they mean when they said "trucking is what you make of it." You must be willing to put in 100+ hours a week, & put your personal life on hold, for the good of the economy.

These other OTR drivers are going through a DENIAL state of mind. They choose to ignore the evidence that is all around them. They're bringing in immigrant truckers from 3rd-world nations who can do the job for less. People from the middle east, former Russian republics, & southeast Asia are being recruited and given a working visa to come to USA & drive OTR 48 states. They're under contract to stay out 3 or 4 months, before the company will pay their plane fare to go home & see their families again. The US-government, under pressure from big-business who are concerned with high freight shipping cost, had passed NAFTA. Under the guise of free-trade, we are allowing Mexican-domiciled trucking companies, and honoring Mexican CDLs in every state. We are now a global economy, & the USA must compete with other nations to sell American-made goods. Other countries can sell the same products much cheaper than USA, because they have cheap labor. To compete with these foreign manufacturers, the USA must lower its cost of producing American goods, without angering American voters.

Since 1986 when IRCA (Immigration Reform Control Act) was passed, the US government had secretly helped businesses replace Americans with illegal aliens. On the surface, IRCA was intended to make it difficult to hire illegal aliens. Upon close examination, they had slipped loopholes to allow businesses to LEGALLY hire undocumented aliens. The law required job applicants to furnish Social Security card, birth certificate, & state ID card as proof of legal right to work in the USA. The law DID NOT require employers to authenticate (verify) these documents. This means FAKE social security cards, FAKE birth certificates, and FAKE id cards are allowable forms of documents. The only thing that's real with what illegal aliens carry, are the social security numbers. The numbers belong to people who are either dead, or young minors who will not realize they had been the victim of identity theft until they apply for credit for the 1st time.

In the trucking industry, illegal aliens had used their fake documents to secure CDLs. To accomodate illegal alien's entry into trucking, most MVD (motor vehicle department) publishes CDL booklet in Spanish, & allows translators during written test. Most MVD had hired Spanish speaking driving test officials, to increase the number of illegals driving semi trucks across the USA. Evidence to prove that illegals had secured CDLs, are the increased reports of truckers fleeing the scene of an accident. Police and LEOs (law enforcement officer) responding to a call of TAs (traffic accidents) involving semi trucks, are finding more incidents of truckers abandoning the equipment, and fleeing from the scene. These truckers are fearful their fingerprints would be crossed-referenced with INS records. A record check will reveal they had been deported in the past, and had slipped back into the USA.

From an accounting & business perspective, it doesn't make sense to hire American truckers, when immigrants on working visas, & illegal aliens with valid CDLs, can do the job for less. Todays global market economy has forced big-business to find ways to bring the cost of labor down. The passage of NAFTA is a step towards bringing our shipping cost down, at the expense of the American truckers' paychecks. Issuing CDLs to illegals, and recruiting immigrants on working visas to drive trucks, are more compelling evidence that powerful people with nefarious intentions are manipulating and changing the demographic racial makeup of the blue-collar labor force. They're slowly slipping illegal aliens in every low-skilled job to bring the cost of American-made goods down. The American people are too naive and gullible to recognize the evidence all around them. There are over 10 million gainfully employed illegal aliens across the USA, & a number of them are entering the trucking industry.

This is why I've decided to pursue a bachelors degree; American truckers are slowly being replaced by cheaper immigrants, and they're too stupid to recognize it.

This is what you're up against if you become a trucker today.

 

No=one is in denial. The question is what's GOOD about it, not what's BAD about it. EVERYONE knows what's bad about, it's written over and over and over and over on a thousand different threads on this site. ANY profession IS what YOU make of it. If you desire to whine and complain about veterans ignoring the "reality" of trucking today, it only goes to show what kind of person you are. You can whine and complain about any kind of job, and if you are "naturally inclined" to do so, then that's going to be your take whether you're sitting behind the CEO's desk or flippin' burgers at Jack In The Box. This job sucks, that job sucks - that's what YOU make of it. Not everyone has the same take.

Immigration and naturalization has ALWAYS been there, is this supposed to be some shocking revelation? Many of them come over here and work their butts off and get something going for themselves. So, you think Americans, therefore, CAN'T?

Illegal Aliens serve their purpose - I hate seeing them over here, but it's a problem that simply isn't going away. It would be very interesting to see what would happen to certain industries if, by some magic, all of them could be lifted to the sky and returned to their homelands all at once. Farming, construction, textile to name a few would go belly-up, if only temporarily. They have infiltrated every part of our society, and they are just about EVERYWHERE now. Arizona used to be the shining beacon of light for illegal alienism, not anymore. Sheriff Joe has spent millions of dollars finding these people as well as a state law that was put into effect as of January 1st making it a huge fine for companies that hire illegal aliens.

I guess from reading your post I think you seem to have a fatalist attitude - the whole system is sinking, not just trucking - otherwise known as the sky is falling. Since when was life guaranteed to be a walk through a rose garden?

 

I can say that when u start truck driving, you'll either start hating it or start liking it, within 10 to 48 hours.

My very first drop (with my trainer) was in a unlit gravel lot at midnight. The trailers were packed in there like matches in a matchbox. Plus, it was raining, windy, and fairly cold.

I'm very thankful I found a good company to work for.

 

Freedom, driving, responsibility, ever changing environment, challenges, being around big trucks...I could go on. I spotted trailers before getting into trucking, and ever since, I have been hooked. Sure there are bad days, but the good days outweigh them. I enjoy the lifestyle and being paid to do it. Im single with no strings attached, so its a perfect choice for me. My expenses for one month total less than one paycheck, so this job is also saving me money. No fuel costs until I come home, electric bills at around $20/mo...
I cant help it when I get to recievers/shippers. I just cant imagine doing their job all day. I simpily couldnt do it. It takes all kinds of people to keep this country running.