Average Salary

get your experiece and try and find a good local job. i started at werner making .25 a mile, then went dedicated with them and they bumped me up to .32 with about 2500-3000miles a week and was home weekends. i know werner doesnt have the best wrap out there but they have nice equipment and if you can get a dedicated account its worth it. the job i have now pays by the load and i make anywhere from 220-340 a day 6 days a week.

 

Bottom line:

You aren't going to become a millionaire while driving a truck. It just doesn't require that much skill to do, although it does require some skill to do it safely 100% of the time. You are going to start with a large company and you are going to be paid the least in the industry for doing so. Then you are either going to succeed, at which point you will move on to another company that requires more experience or is "specialized" and will thus make more money, or you will screw up somehow by being an idiot (or you'll have too high of expectations and will be pissed all the time and switch companies every 3 months), and you'll never really improve your situation.

You want to make money driving truck? Be prepared to accept the bad aspects for awhile until you've got a couple years or 500k miles under your butt, and then you'll start to see the good that comes after that.

If it was so easy and lucrative, there wouldn't be a driver-shortage. Then again, it's pretty easy what I do, and i'm grossing $55-58k/yr for a big company on 10-state regional dedicated (driver unload everything 20+ stops a week) and am home on weekends for a restart. But you have to do the time and earn positions like mine.

And all the "demand more pay, shut them down" people need to just go get a job at mcdonald's and stay off the road. We don't need you out here.

 

the best is local i went with pepsi 5 years ago started as a temp at 18 an hour then last year just got full time , and i am making 27 an hour, plus i have 3weeks vacation and over time after 8 hours regardless if you have 40 hours in for the week, so yes there are good paying truck jobs out there just put your time in.

 

If they gave them 2000 miles a week and .50 cents a mile I bet it would be even lower

 

i think i made 41k my first year

 

I thought about it but hell, I work 45hrs a week as a lumber yard supervisor/foreman and bring home 35k a year and home every nite. There is only one draw to the local stuff. The call of the road and hammering them 18 wheelers is deep down in my heart, cant get it out.