$8.00/hour? seriously?

I wouldn't dispute his math too much. At the company for which I drove two years ago, I once divided my weekly gross pay by all on-duty hours in my log book and calculated that I was earning, on average, $10/hr (my logbook was accurate because the Safety & Compliance department had begun correlating logbooks to the truck's GPS and suspending drivers from dispatch for 1-3 days for non-compliance. One driver received a two day suspension for flagging a tire-check at a service centre, when the GPS showed the truck had been stationary for 20 minutes).

My current rate of pay when working locally is $17/hr. My weekly hours are generally 35 hours per week in the winter, and 50-60 in the summer. I receive time-and-a-half after 60 hours, and sometimes I do qualify for it (Please note that I work under the Canadian hours of service, where one can legally be on-duty for 14 hours per day). Generally, my day is 6am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. I rarely ever work weekends, and if I do, I only work two or three hours on a Sunday afternoon.

Sometimes my dispatcher will ask me to help out with the US work. My carrier's mileage rate is .42cpm on hub mileage, $50 layover, $25 for extra stop-offs after the first, and delay time after two hours at a rate of $14 per hour. Since my carriers runs LTL, the mileage and stop-offs add up very quickly. Moreover, the service area allows drivers to be home every weekend, but also be home one night during the week!

Contrary to popular belief, quality trucking jobs do exist. Unfortunately, I didn't get this job the normal way. Unlike most drivers, I made a point of obeying and respecting my Safety & Compliance supervisor at my previous company (he was hard to argue with: 40 years running 10 provinces and 48 states), and when he heard I was frustrated as hell with the company, he made some phone calls to an acquintance of his on my behalf and set up a job interview for me with my current carrier. I never even had to take a road test!

 

You forgot the most important thing...Time to Go Fishing!!!!!!!!!

 

I used to work for a roll-off waste company, and we had one driver who always brought a rod to work. Knowing he had a family and typically put in 12 hours per day, I asked him where he found the time to go fishing.

"I make time," he replied.

Real anglers don't wait for the opportunity!

 

I am soooo with you Chief. It has come to that as far as I am concerned. That is why I am now working locally.

I still drive more than enough to call myself a truck driver (500-600 miles a day, 5 days a week) but I am in a truck that will run the speed limit, I get paid a % of the load and it's a darn good percentage too, and I am home every night. It's a far cry from 8 bucks an hour as well lol.

Granted, I leave the house at 4am, drive 50 miles to where I work, hop in my Pete, drive it another 40-60 miles to the rock crusher, and then start making runs to road construction all day until around 4-5pm, drive it back to the yard, and then have to drive the 50 miles home again hahahahaha, that's a crap load of driving but my average day makes me 250 bucks, some more, some less but the majority is 250, it's worth it to me to commute that far and basically have 0 life monday through friday to not have to put up with some moronic dispatcher who has never seen a steering wheel tell me why I am not making any money living in a 72" box waiting on loads for 2-3 days at a time.


OTR can eat me, and that sucks because I really enjoyed it, just not enough to do it for free.

 

Do ya have the legs for it?....Hope it doesn't look like you're riding a chicken!...JK...congrats...

 

I almost forgot about the time to go fishing!!!!!,........I guess I am excited!!!

 

Thank you!!!,...

 

I see now where you got 85 hours from. That was how you were figuring your time-and-a-half overtime on 70 hours. Still, I can't see any professional driver needing 70 hours to turn 2,000 miles.

If it makes you feel better to say you're making 8 bucks an hour, then whatever man. I wasn't trying to start an argument with you...but stating that 2,000 miles a week requires 70 hours to turn is still a flawed equation.

I just got laid off from a dedicated run. 513 actual miles a day, 500 paid miles, drop and hook on both ends. I was making 35cpm. I left my house at noon and was back home at 9:00pm, paperwork done on days I didn't fuel and 9:15 on days I did fuel. So 9 hours per day times 5 days a week is 45 hours. add 2 1/2 hours for pre-trip and post-trip and 30 minutes to fuel twice a week, I was putting in 48 hours, driving 2565 actual miles and bringing home $875.

So, if I used your number, I should've been making (40 x 8 = $320) (8 x 12 = $96) ($320 + $96 = $416). Less than half what I was actually being paid.

I was actually making about $16.80/hour # 35 cents/mile. (40 x $16.80 = $672) (8 x $25.20 = 201.60) ($672 + $201.60 = $873.60).