What's a reasonable otr cpm for a brand new driver

I'm the one that started the .50 a mile suggestion. After all, the OP thread title is, "
What's a reasonable otr cpm for a brand new driver."

I suggested and believe .50 a mile at 11,000 miles a month OTR plus benefits is a fair wage for all the crap OTR truck drivers have to put up with. Certainly no one who has done OTR would disagree, would they?

Stop and think about it, driving around the country (in all kinds of treacherous conditions) in 200k dollar equipment delivering loads that value tens of thousands of dollars. Most company drivers averaging what? 45k a year? Only getting home a few times a month etc.

In reality, putting 70 to 80 hrs a week with all the sitting, loading, unloading and babysitting loads. Run the REAL numbers and it's not hard to see that OTR trucking as a profession is pretty lame financially.

 

Tell yourself whatever you want and make excuses I'll make money.

 

Methinks somebody missed the sarcasm of the quoted post. (At least I hope sarcasm was intended)

 

Just kind of nitpicking here, but...
It's not ".36cpm". That would be less than a penny per mile. Should be "$.36 per mile" or "36cpm" or "36¢ per mile". The trucking companies get that wrong all the time...

 

And how many drivers do you have?

 

None

None, but I work with guys who have one year experience and guys that have twenty years experience. You can tell a distinct difference just by watching their pre-trips or lack thereof. the twenty year driver carries tire thumpers, uses flashlights in the dark, gets things fixed, pops the hood on the truck checking oil, water, belts etc. The young inexperienced ones don't have any tools, wear shorts and flip flops, use their cell phone as a flashlight, only carry their headphones and iPod with them, and need a gps to find the interstate.

They also log in and sit in the trucks waiting for the pre trip time to expire, leave the yard with the doors unsecured and swinging, and have no idea that our trailers have slack indicators to show you if they are out of adjustment because they never check. Bear in mind I have worked here six years and have seen it all. Has your company ever fired a driver for pulling a trailer up the highway 100 miles before noticing his rear trailer axle was completely gone, and all he had done was opened the doors to see if it was empty and took it? Has your company ever fired a driver who passed his exit and got stuck trying to back up the entrance ramp? Has your company ever told a driver to bring a truck back because it was missing wheels? Mine has, and it's the young drivers every time.

 

Well, I'll add that there are "poor excuses for drivers" at ALL experience levels. And on the flip side, you can find great drivers at all experience levels, too. Years and decades of real-world experience is worth a lot, especially when the going gets tough, but it DOES NOT guarantee a 100% "safe driver" who is never prone to screw-ups or taking shortcuts.

 

A

Agreed, you can have a driver with ten years of experience that can run van, flats, dump, tanker, and knows the industry in and out. Then again you can have a driver who has repeated one year of experience ten times.

 

I'm a fairly young driver myself 22 and only been employed since February but I wouldn't say it's the young drivers I believe the driver should be tought properly I was and I tend to catch all the little things on my pretrip