Is experience worth low pay

Take it driver, put in a minimum of 9 months, (preferably a year) then re evaluate your situation. If your happy, and it looks like you are going to get moved up the pay ranks, cool. If not, start looking

 

@BuddhaTrucker

I did a 5 month doing flower delivery to a national chain. They took new CDL's and season lasted 5 months.

I got the experience and used the dough to buy my first truck (1998 volvo) and still have money left over for my maintenance acct.

I'd say...just do it, but always have an exit plan.

 

i

i should have realized right off the bat, it was going to be milk.

this can be a great opportunity for you!

say for instance that you get an offer to drive gasoline tanker, higher pay, MORE benefits, etc, then you are most likely golden, since (if i am correct) milk tankers are open boore, not compartments? that means you have to really learn how to haul that product with all the forward momentum of the milk, sloshing up to the front, pushing you into an intersection when a red light comes on..>!!

gasoline tankers (i hauled a couple of times) have compartments, and cut down "some" sloshing, not all, but hey, you'd be so golden IF you wanna give up that milk gig...

very best of luck to you, GRAB IT...!!!!!!

 

I have seen greenhorn drivers with no or little tanker experience have bad accidents and sometime in the mid 90s I actually remember hearing about a rookie getting killed. Driving a tanker REQUIRES a set of skills that just any driver does not just have. My only comment is MAKE DANG SURE YOU KNOW HOW TO ACTUALLY HANDLE A LIQUID FILLED TANKER. Sometime around 2005 or 2006 I remember watching a greenhorn park a tanker facing a wall. He was going way to fast and when the liquid made that return splash it actually drove the tractor through the wall. I know tankers have baffles to prevent this splash back, just saying know what the hell you are doing and what you are driving before you put a tanker on the road!!

 

Yep. Buy a full coffee from Starbucks. Get in the truck, take the lid off, then put it on the floor. When you can drive for a day without spilling a drop, you can drive tanker.

 

16 x 40 = 640 gross. Erm it's ok. Nothing special. It's actually average for a newbie.

If you hung in there doing this for a few years it wont be too much longer than that before you see that you are on top of your pay chart. Experienced drivers are valuable and the pay reflects that.

My version of hourly pay is pretty simple. No experience = .50 a mile to start this year if 50 mph is average possible with a governor and or speed limits then the hourly basic should be 25.00 to start. It matches. But no one is going to pay you 25 if you don't argue your cause to get it. They will hand you 16 and snicker. You will want to stand up and fight for that 25 an hour based on speed average.

My school of tanker is really simple. Purchase a large tall coffee from McDonalds. Place same on the cab floor without lid ahead of your shifter.

Drive.

Don't you spill the #### coffee. You get to clean it up until you can keep a fresh coffee upright for one hour. Once you do, then you qualify for tanker work. I never stick a newbie with no experience whatsoever into a tanker without someone with him or her to prevent stupid mistakes possible by Newbie.

 

You will have steady hours, as those farm tanks have to be pumped out every day. I liked hauling milk.
Your commute is a little long, but like you say, you can sleep in your pickup if you have to.
You will likely get some experience chaining up in the winter.