Pay

When trucking on Fantasy Island Do you ever pick-up and deliver freight? The only way .31 cpm is close to 18hr is if you get to cruise around the freeway at you pleasure and you find someone stupid enough to pay for it by the mile. That is not trucking. That is not going to happen.

 

Everyone is hounding this guy but 31 isn't horrible. I started at 33 and am doing fine now. Yes it sucked at times, but I supported myself, my 2 children and was able to save up and by my own truck. From a dealership not a lease purchase. Now we are doing fine. I have a separate trucking account that every check goes into and I pay my self 25% of each load. I'm actually at home now for a week. Not because there's no load but because I chose to be. Everything is paid a month in advance and I have plenty saved for anything that could occur.

Don't let everyone tell you it can't be done. It can. 2 1/2 years ago I was in your shoes wondering if I was making the right decision. People say I haven't been doing this long enough to own a truck. I say why not? I successfully led 66 Marines in Afghanistan doing combat operations. Why can't I own a truck. I say it's jealousy. People get scared to take a chance. People say why do that because they are comfortable making a grand a week with benefits. But the guy that pays them that grand a week is a guy like me that took a chance. The guy that started their insurance company is a guy like me that took a chance.

Who cares if you have to sleep in a truck away from your friends and family and miss the occasional holiday. A guy like me slept on the muddy ground hoping not to get his butt shot off in a foreign country. A guy like me had cold coffee and a stale cracker on Christmas away from his family. And now, a guy like me decided he wanted to be home on the 4th to shoot fireworks with his children. A guy like me just finished seasoning the ribs that are being put on the smoker tomorrow night for the 4th.

If a guy like me can make it with some hard work, dedication and a don't get in my way attitude, then a guy like you can too.

It you want to do it, then do it. If you think you might want to do it, then do it. If you want to and don't then 20 years from now you might ask yourself if you should have. Everyone said I couldn't do it. Those people still drive company trucks working for a guy like me

 

Ever thought about going into flatbed...pays pretty good and if your an outdoor kind of person it might be perfect for ya

 

To address the pay and school/company options from my experience: I went to a mega sponsored school in March. I went to a different mega that paid me more than original mega and is paying for my school tuition. First day as a solo driver in my own truck was Apr 22. I now make .41 and average 433 miles per day (all miles from last 30 days not including hometime). So yeah, you can do better than kllm.

As far as how much that is per hour.. That depends. If you take 433 miles per day at .41cpm ($177.53) and divide that by the average of ~9 hours driving per day, I make 19.72/hr. But that means that everything but driving is unpaid. I usually work the entire 14 hours in the day. As in I start the day and do stuff including sitting at shippers and napping in sleeper but in the end my workday is 14 hours long. So if you take that number as actual hours worked, then I make $12.68/hr. However I sleep in the truck. And I'm not home. So technically you could say I work 24 hours a day. So. If you take that into consideration, I make $7.40/hr.

However that's stupid. You can't compare trucking to a job that pays by the hour. Unless youre local and getting paid by the hour.

I can take the $177.53 per day and calculate what I'd make per week/month/year from that. But that's if I never go home. But let's say I take 36 days off a year (that's 3 days per MONTH). Then I'll make ~$58,400 a year. Not bad averaging that for not even 3 months on the road. But that's not a lot of time off.

Anyhow. I'm single, no attachments and my stuff is in a storage unit. I don't take even 3 days of hometime a month. But that's me personally. Everyone is different and you will do what you need to do.

 

What about werner?

 

Why not call around for yourself instead of relying on second hand information

 

The recruiters lie all the time?

 

In my experience every recruiter I spoke with was straight up with me on what the pay was.

Sides if you believe a driver and then go to talk with a recruiter and the information is different it just plain wrong, you're gonna accuse someone else of being a liar. Take the information straight from the horse's mouth. But remember if it's too good to be true, it probably is.

 

Trucking schools (160-hour, GOOD schools) run from $2500-4500. MOST are eligible for student loans, BTW.

At most, say $4500.

At your proposed company you make .31 CPM for a year but they pay for school.

At a decent company, right OUT of school, they will pay .36-38 CPM.

Assuming 2200 miles per week, that's $110-154 per WEEK less than you'll be making if you pay for your own school. (And a lot of decent starter companies will give you a LOT more than 2200 per week).

Over the course of a year, you just paid WAY MORE money than if you paid for your own school.

It's a longer road, and you have to stay with it (which 80%+ of new drivers DON'T So you will OWE money if you quit) but if you can find NO OTHER OPTIONS, then the bottom-feeder 31 cpm company may be your only option.

I found a state program which paid almost all of my schooling and I started at 42 CPM doing flatbed. Do your research. A brand new driver should be able to make 42k or so the first year and up from there up to about $60k per year with a couple of years under their belt. (More for O/Os and more for specialty/team, etc.

That's about what the job pays.

Trucking is NOT a high-paying job for 99% of drivers. You do it because you like doing it, not because you need the cash. A second job will net you the same money for LESS hours per week and you can be home every night. Or spend that $5K-$10k on a decent tech school and make $60k being a machinist etc.