Confused about pay

I'm on elogs in a 65 mph truck best I've got is 2780 maxed out clock but then again I typically run east coast 400-600 mile runs

 

Try 409.14xxx miles per day for your $55k @40 CPM. Trucking isn't a 5 day work week for most people especially otr drivers.

You must realize your tax liability will be less driving a truck as you get meal allowance on federal taxes.

 

Milage pay is just part of the equation. All companies have accessorial pays in addition to milage pay. Here's an example from Pride Transport website:
Drivers are paid in several ways. Depending on your assigned fleet, you may be paid for any/all of the following:

• Mileage or Hourly Pay
• Produce Stop Pay
• Non-Produce Stop Pay
• Layover Pay
• Breakdown Pay
• Detention Pay
• Fuel Share Bonus
• Mileage Incentives
• Truck Recovery Pay
• Refer a solo driver
• Refer a team partner from outside the company
• Vacation time
• Military Leave
• Personal holiday
• Bereavement leave
• Sick time
• 401-k Plan
  Pride Transport provides a 401(k) retirement plan with Transamerica. We are fortunate to be part of the UTA’s (Utah Trucking Association) Multi-Employer Plan (MEP).
  Better yet, we currently have a 10% match of the employees’ contribution.
  Once employees have met the hours requirement and six months of employment, they are eligible to enroll.

 

Keep in mind 401k's vest in Annuity form and pays out over 7 years when cashed out. Your best bet is to capture the exact percentage of employer contribution that is maxed out. It's hard to explain and easier to do so when you are a employee of a state government or federal government. HR will tell you what the Employer contribution percentage will be and that will be what you need to contribute to capture max money from employer each payroll. In about 5 years it vests about 100% and you will be able to after that collect the proceeds over 7 years as a annuity which is also taxable plus gains taxes.

I suggest being very careful where you direct retirement money, if you have that much left over on your pay. Make sure you build savings for trucking purposes first. So that if anything like a destruction of the money system or really bad weeks, you will not be without money to meet your family's obligations plus your own requirements each week out here in the USA.

 

At Magnum, we could push 4000 on e-log(not every week)....in a 63 mph truck. The efficient drivers there that get the miles could turn 12k+/month. At Big G, I ran 12,200 paid (actual miles were 13k+, because they pay short route miles). Contrary to what some believe, e-logs don't hurt miles unless you have to run illegal to keep your miles up.

 

Does Magnum Ltd. hire in Utah? Do they hire in California?

 

Your only going to average about 120,000 miles a year. It's not like you just drive all day because you want to. You have loading and unloading time. Just for an example it take about 1-2 hours just to get a shower at the truck stop. From the time you park truck and walk inside. You might have wait 30+ minutes for a open shower. You need to have shower credit for the truck stop you at or buy 50-60 gallons of fuel, at home you just take quick shower anytime you want.

Companies and people love to talk averages because if you don't make the average it must be your fault. You don't get paid if the truck is in the shop for repairs at most trucking companies. These new emission truck can be a nightmare of repairs. The 2017 and newer seem to be pretty good now but get older truck and it could be throw the average out the window. You want to go home for any holiday? That will kill your averages. I think even a 120,000 would be difficult to reach your first year. ELDs this December will put a big shock into trucking I think because you got a lot of people running paper logs.

Most driver don't quite because they are making $55,000. Just take the pay per mile x 120,000. That's why people quite 120,000x$0.30 is $36,000 that if you can even drive 120,000 paid mile.

Try finding a company that has gauranteed minimum weekly, you wont find may I only know of a couple because the trucking companies won't take that risk. They are not going to be on the hook of their are not loads or it's a slower couple of weeks. That's why they talk averages or say stuff like our TOP drives make $65,000. It all makes it sounds like if your a hard working person you can make the same thing.

Not sure this is true but a little trick I hear about a big company in Salt lake City. They would take Total driver pay they paid for a year and divide that by how many driver are working for them at that time. It giver you and average pay per driver. But it didn't take into account they may have actually have 11,000+ drivers working during a year because they have like 102% turn over rate. So the average is higher then the real numbers.

 

I'll share that when I ran with the FLD 120 pegged at 72 in my avatar with the 500 detriot, I turned in a minimum of 14000 miles a month. Now don't ask me stupid questions about logging, I turned in legal logs to benefit the company and that was that. I got paid very well for my time out there. It might have been a 160000 mile year if I made it that far. It was getting to where I was replacing engine oil twice a month with high enough miles to require it, that was the barrier we could not over come as far as legality.

I did burn out really badly, the owner; Dowdy he was kind enough to let me be released from his employ in good terms but when you run that hard and do not take regular breaks and time off you are less than useful to any employer. I still consider 1998 my best year ever besides 2001. As far as trucking was concerned. With the right tractor, the right "Fit" and enough power to run the west anywhere it turned me into a sort of a bad termed super trucker. It was a monster to behold.

 

Either this recruiter at sage has NO idea what truck drivers actually make or they are just trying to fill classroom seats. 40k is more likely. Starting out you'll probably be getting about .35 a mile not .40+ and miles between 1500 to 2000 a week until you show that you can deliver on time and and be reliable. All will depend on what company you go with and a few other things.

 

Bottom line is, at the "typical" apprentice driver start, $1000 /wk gross is going to be "very optimistic" and you may not get there until about month 7.

There's so many variables and unknowns related to

• Where you begin
• How you begin
• Your motivation
• Your expectations
• How quickly you learn how to work the system to maximize earnings potential
• How the cards are dealt
• Your ability to learn and progress
• Your ability to not screw up early
• Any constraints you do or don't self-impose
• Etc

It's a tough [new] job to excel at for most. Some do well, some don't.