Difference of earnings over a lifetime Dry Van VS specialized trucking

Wife and I with FFE over 9 months and with another outfit dedicated to McKesson for a total of 10 months and change managed to gross 65K together in that time period 306 service days. Perdiem made it possible to apply 14K against taxes of that amount of pay filing jointly. That made a big difference.

We provisioned the truck out of Larimie walmart once a month with 6 weeks food, fluids, chem toilet supplies etc. Running team for Reefer work. I don't think it really matters what is on your 5th wheel because the pay is what it is. This was back in 2001.

Prior to 2001, my wages varied. Usually net between 500 and 1000 per week somewhere in there. Being a trainer makes a salary each week, FFE paid over 1800 gross weekly. But you cannot count on that kind of living because it depended on your students, if any and how well they did. If they did not do well it's either against them or on you because you failed. FFE wanted to make wife a trainer also and we spent a couple of weeks contemplating such a future should we have accepted. (Something like 130K gross each year, taxes in range of 50K and mountains of money left over.

Our expenses at the time were next to nothing, Utitlties less than a hundred, house and cars paid off and the annual property tax of about 300 or so. So... there is no real expense other than food and services consumed by the truck. The telecommunications was the biggest expense believe it or not. The cell phone was 120 and the house phone another 110 each month. Somewhat disgusting. One of the reasons my prepaid service is around 11.60 a month and the cheap smart phone is paid off now. Prior to that it's mexican cards for long distance. Something like 10 bucks for 6 hours worth. But you lose huge amounts every time you made a call.

Ive rambled enough. Ive had paychecks of 0.00 and Ive had overflowed in money but too tired to spend and party that weekend. Sleep time. lol.

 

Using this site BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS you can break down wages for trucking by a variety of Occupations.
The following is a General Search; One occupation for multiple geographic areas. I did
Occupation: Transportation and Material Moving > Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers, by State, and chose 3 random states.
https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/occGeo/One%20occupation%20for%20multiple%20geographical%20areas

One occupation for multiple geographical areas

Occupation: Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers(SOC code 533032)
Period: May 2016

Area name
Wages Hourly median - Hourly 90th percentile - Annual median - Annual 90th percentile
California(0600000)
20.81 - 30.71 - 43,280 - 63,880
Illinois(1700000)
21.86 - 34.30 - 45,470 - 71,330
Ohio(3900000)
20.07 - 30.40 - 41,740 - 63,240
Footnotes:
(2) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by 2,080 hours.

Data extracted on March 31, 2017

You can download the data into either Excel or OpenOfficeCalc.
My preference is Open because
1. It uses way less resources, and is less likely to freeze up if you do extensive work with formulas.
2. It is FREE openoffice.org

I have OpenOffice 4.1.3, It takes some getting used to how things work, but I really like it. It will open and convert an existing Excel file however, if you use Name Ranges you may find that the Formulas that use the names will have to be adjusted. But that's for another post.

 

Good thread... good points being made..

There really is more that goes into it than just the annual salary... I think it is lack off that understanding that is why so many drivers struggle and get stressed...

I recently took up acrylic painting as a hobby and took a couple classes.. and something the instructor said really stuck wiat th me because it applies to much more than painting and it certainly applies to trucking..

She was answering about which paints are the best, for beginners and for later for professional artists.. her off the cuff answer was..
"The best paint for beginners is the paint that fits into their budgets and suits what they are going to paint... you don't need high quality high priced paint if you are just going to paint too relax and maybe give away to family and friends."

She went on to explain, that it isn't about using student acrylic paints vs professional grade paints that makes the difference.. it is knowing how what paint you are using works.. because different paints, blend different, go one different.. if you use a light body paint and want to do some heavy texture.. you just add some medium to your paint.. you don't have to go out and but a heavy body set.. and artist that switch from paint to paint struggle more and get stressed because they don't know each one well.. so when they mix colors they can't get the color they want.. with this set these three paints give you this color but in another set it will be different because of the difference of pigment in the paint..
so, get what is in your budget and learn to work with it.. later if your budget is larger and you want to upgrade fine.. you will just have to learn that paint..

I think it is that way in trucking.. work for the best company that your qualifications and experience will get on with... learn how to be successful within that company.. also, evaluate yourself and if you know you will never want to pull tanker, then you don't need the endorsement.. if you know you are only going to want to do drop n hook dry van, then look for the best company that you can get on with.. if you want an opportunity to try you hand a van, reefer, flatbed and maybe tanker.. then look for the best company that offers you that.

But, the first step for any driver is to get that first year.. see if they even like trucking... 45% of those who go to CDL school are no longer trucking within 90 days..

 

OP you have two different issues conflated.

Who you work for has more bearing on your wage then what trailer you pull.

Endorsements have nothing to do with pulling dry van or some other trailer. Lots of dry van loads require endorsements and some dry van jobs pay quite good.

If your too cheap, lazy, or dumb to fill out all your endorsements good luck on finding a job that pays top wage. This is a competitive job market in trucking;their is no shortage of drivers and a lot of companies pay around minimum wage still.

And by the way, when a truck drivers dies on the job, and a lot of them do, no one bothers to check what endorsements he has. Mistakes happen regardless of what the license says.

 

Fewer jobs available for specialists. If your rig is set up for oversize/overweight with a low boy flatbed, you can't reasonably take a load of flat cardboard and make it worth your while.

I had this problem in a previous career, too. More money in specialized engineering work, but fewer jobs to do, have to move farther away to get/do them, and one little thing changing in the industry eliminates the need for what I was doing.

Work up to specialization, if you're new to the game. It's probably not the right place to start, anyway.

 

Probably about the same. I have seen the big oversized/overweight hauler type drivers sitting for a week or more between loads.

Meanwhile the cheap dry van haulers continued producing big miles during the same time period.

 

I'm not a real good example, because I've done a variety of things over the years. Started out with my own 'refuse' company in the late 70's / early 80's, sold it after many years, worked for the phone company in between, and had to get CDL-A "legal" in 2000, went OTR for a few places hauling vans, then Twins for Fedex/LineHaul, and finally into tanks. My lifetime income from trucking is kinda all over the place. I do real well now, hauling tanks; better than what y'all posted as the 'average,' and I customarily don't haul hazmat. I can, and I have, but it's not standard for me. Sorry I couldn't be of more help!

 

my best year OTR was $75k

first year oilfield tanker was $115k and continues

 

As far as endorsements and additional pay, I can't say, but at least get a passport and a TWIC card. Being able to run into Canada makes you more desirable, because a LOT of truckers can't get across the border due to their records. The TWIC card usually gets you into prisons, etc.

 

It is something that can't be measured because there are too many variables.