Beginning at the Beginning

My average bring home my 1st year was $600-800 a week. Go direct deposit to your own bank and then you can just ATM what you need, I made the mistake of spliting the pay 60/40 , with the 60% going direct deposit and the 40% coming to me on the road through the ComData card(one of your fuel cards) but I ended up having to use the ATM once a week if I needed money or not, and at a cost of about $3.00 a week it started adding up quick, plus I had way more money on me then I need out on the road, I was coming home with $1000-1200 stashed in the truck. I asked my tax man , and he told me to take the per deim if it was offered, your getting taxed less on the money you make weekly instead of trying to write off $54.00 a day at the end of the year. plus there is still stuff you can write off, your CB, any money your spent at C1 up front, Flashlight, gloves, ect... it work for me , I have per diem with the company I work for now too. USA paid for all hotel bills during training, but it was a super 8, no frills, no big bills. You still get the $350.00 a week, by then end of my training, I had bought my CB(cobra 29ltd on sale at Pilot TS) and had the money to get a Sirius radio for my solo truck. I bought a cooler and iced my drinks for a 9 months, then had a USA driver in Vandalia quitting sell me a 12 volt cooler and a Cobra 29 ltd Nightwatch both for $70.00 and he had been the less then 90 days so they were both like new, I gave the CB to my Dad and I am still using the cooler. When I started working for USA I was over $11,000.00 in debt by living out of the truck for 5 weeks and then staying with my parents or my brothers, heck I even took hometime in California with friends out there once, I had my debt cleared in less then a year , bought a 1999 ex Michigan state police Tahoe for cash= means I owe nothing and can get basically storage insurance since I was only driving it 5 days every 5 weeks, costs about $40.00 a month with State Farm. All my bills are direct deduct from the bank and I am buying my own house now. you start out making that .27 a mile and the per diem knocks it back to .22 I think(because USA charge you a .03 admin. fee)but that means about half of all your paid miles are tax free, you'll get your rasies too, at the end of me 1st year I was making .33 cents per mile/per diem and I had 2 checks from C1/Driver Solutions for money I had over paid during the year that totaled almost $1100.00... which to me is way better then owing them about $5000.00 for just getting me a CDL.

 

Congrats on passing and I wish you well with USA. I've been with USA for about six months and have few complaints. My miles are good (2700-3000 miles) and I bring home between 500 and 700 weekly. I too, am going to start staying out for 5wks and going home for 5 days. I don't know why I didn't do it before. I get along with my DM, but I do also have many qualms about night and weekend dispatch. Either way like it was said earlier don't let small stuff get to you, because if you quit before your contract (if you have a contract) is up the only person you'll hurt is yourself. Don't whine excessively. Some of my classmates got into the habit of whining over every little thing and watched as there miles dwindled until they finally quit, owing DS five grand. I am still contemplating whether or not to stay with USA after my year is up or if I'll stay for a little bit longer. As long as nothing drastic happens, however, I'll more than likely stay. Good luck again and see you on the road.

 

i've been driving for them for 15 months and was making .36 a mile after a year.i guess things have changed but i've been paying .01 a mile for per diem.and it is worth it the tax break at end of year has helped me and my wife alot,she's a registered nurse and we made 130.000 last year and year before and only had house to deduct so we owed 5-6.000 a year.as far as dispatch don't take to much at least after you've been here awhile.last month i got 2 back to back 250 mile run's in pa.when the next one was a p/u in bethel and a 120 tire del.that i would have to help unload i complained sarcastically over q-comm and got it replaced with 1300 mile run.it also help's to not have any accident's,tickets and pass all dot inspection's and no logbook violations for 14 month's[got lot's of safety points to purchase items from the catalog the sent]and ALWAY'S deliver ontime.iv'e heard plenty of younger driver's at the terminal's[best to avoid them except as convenient 10 hr.stop if it's late]saying "i got tired so i stopped here and i'll be late but i don't care".your primary job is to deliver freight period and on time i get tired of getting loads that are level pink or red because no one care's.

 

but doing them Red and Pink level runs as you know gets you the "we can count on this guy" status thus you get taken care of miles wise when you not near a Red/Pink alert load...

 

You're exactly right. When I first started I was getting between 2000-2200 miles a week. I didn't complain and then got a few of the Red and pink alert loads. I bust my butt to get those loads there ontime, and it paid off. After about the 3rd one I noticed that I was getting longer and longer trips. Now I've been getting between 2700-3000 miles a week. The last month was an exception because my truck broke down and some other stuff went wrong, but I'm confident that my miles will go back up once I get back out there. I have been late a few times, but I let them know asap. They are still a little upset but less than they would be if you didn't let them know it ahead of time.

 

i agree that the red and pink helps get you a positive rep.{i hope}but my ontime delivery won't off set the late del.of others and if we lose wal-mart/sams club we might as well look for another company.as for being late i can tell if i cannot make final when i read the load ###.and call and tell them i cannot make it before i start the engine.the p/u time[as you know]i ignore because nine times out of ten your late already.i bust my butt to del.ontime or early on every load and do it but lately it does'nt seem to be enough, guess i'm making to much money

 

If you take per diem and your base pay is .27 you will make .2475 per mile. Your pay stubb will show .1475 in one column and .10 in the substinance column thus adding up to .2475 per mile. It cost 2.25 cents to take the per diem option. The .1475 is taxed the .10 is not.

 

I don't know if you heard or not, but we already lost the Wal-mart/ Sam's Club dedicated runs to Hogan Transport. I was told that it was because Wal-mart violated their privacy agreement with USA and told Hogan how much USA was charging so Hogan was able to undercut USA.

 

No had not heard that i just did a walmart load to Temple Texas on Friday