Driver pay should be going up soon....don't ya think?

As long as there is high unemployment, there will be newbies willing to do your job for .25 CPM or less.

Don't look for high wages anytime soon. With the credit card bust, and the commercial real estate collapse coming, along with prime mortauge default, don't look for any gains in employment anytime soon. Drivers are considered expendable. Anyone without a job thinks they will strike it rich in the trucking field. For everyone that leaves, 50 will be waiting to replace them.

Union jobs will have to negiotate for lower wages, or the company will shut down in many cases. That's my forcast. It may be right or wrong. But I'm betting on right.

 

Give your self a 8,000.00 bonus or more and don,t pay rent. Work for co.s that have freight that matches , the economy. And if that dies off, jump into what is moving, intermodal is booming right now, partly because I,m close to Chicago.

 

If nothing else, they will follow the pay raises in the contract. All I can say is enjoy - those are some beefy pay rates.

 

Last year I made 7 K less then the year before and so far this year I am 500. YTD less then last year. But, the good thing is we go rid of 3 trucks out of 12, so more work for the 9 that are left, if it stops raining so we can work. We haul concrete pipe so weather affects our schedule.

 

I remember my Dad pulling loads (mostly hot ones) before 1982 was making $0.87 cpm per mile HUB! That was $2.60 per mile today using 1979 as a base in this consumer price index calculator from a government website. The cost of Fuel was much lower than to, around $0.50 cents a gallon or $1.49 in today's money. Go back and watch those old 1970's truck shows like BJ and The Bear, BJ claims he can haul a load anywhere anytime for $0.85 per mile. Taxes on fuel were much lower, authority cost less, base plate cost musch less. You could start your own biz really easy even under regulation. It was the golden age of trucking, now it's all crap.
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

Here are some other things to think about:

*My first job in Trucking 2001, start wage was 0.31 CPM today that should be 0.38 per mile for starting out, using that calculator

* Min Wage in 1979 was 3.35 an hour and today that would be exactly $10 per hour today.

 

can you justify it?

 

Yes,......