Experienced truckers: what drives the low first year income potential for newbies?

I see this stuff posted every day here and it makes me shake my head and laugh. New driver goes thru school and gets CDL, now it's what can so and so company do for ME.
You just got your license for crying out loud. Unless you have been around trucks for years and just turned old enough to get a CDL, you have no clue what the real world of trucking brings.

Like a prior poster said...New drivers hit things, get lost, damage equipment, etc. etc. etc.

Look in another thread..."Can I bring my gas barbeque along when training???, Can I bring my 2 month old baby?, Does the truck have a baby seat in the sleeper?, Can I bring a steamer trunk for all my belongings?, Does the truck have room for my loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter?

COMMON SENSE.

One of the stupidest things I see and hear all the time from so called professional is: "I can't find this place because my GPS will not pull it up" SERIOUSLY??? What do you all think we did before GPS came out?

I and millions of other professionals managed to rack up millions of miles and find every address with a map.


Stop worrying about how much you are going to make and shut up, listen, and learn. It looks pretty stupid when a driver is standing in the shop when the truck just got brought in on the hook and the clutch and transmission is hanging out of it. As a result of driver error...now go in and ask for a raise.



LOOK-LISTEN-LEARN

 

see there's the problem..as long as the line of unemployed stays long and they think they can be trained for peanuts the low pay wont stop..

 

Climb ONE step at a time... Don't rush! DO your job right on the first time!
Don't follow the crowd and stay lazy at truck stop joking around.
THEN the $$$ will have the way to you!!!
And remember one thing, YOU HAVE TO LOVE WHAT YOU DO!!

"To be successful, the first thing to do is fall in love with your work." ( Sister Mary Lauretta)

"The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else…The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career!" (Earl Nightingale, Motivational Speaker)

 

depends, some dedicated is a ton of work, accounts like dollar general etc your unloading the trailers for several hours a day and its back breaking labor, Walmart dedicated is really easy with a quick drop and hook, I do Target dedicated and we have to do a double drop and hook at every location and some of these stores have much tighter more difficult docks than I did a lot of time OTR. I do more backings in a single day than most drivers do in over a week. Before they hired me they even asked how my backing skills were and told me people normally leave because they think its a lot more work. The pros is that I make a consistent check over $1k a week like you mentioned.

 

yep dont be lazy, there have been countless times I will go into a terminal to hear drivers complain they have been sitting for days, I would ask if they are getting load offers at all "yeah but I didnt like the load or where its going" well you idiot, this is why you sit and make nothing and I snatch the load you declined since its going somewhere your not willing to go....

 

Not by much.Do you realize how demeaning that is and what companies think of the driving force?Its an insulting wage,embarrassing wage and an insult to their intelligence.Adults are suppose to be making more then teenagers do but its the other way around in trucking.

 

Or food service.....

 

Higher insurance rate on new drivers with no track record. Bottom feeder companies CDL factories. They dont want to pay a lot till you start making them a lot of money. Experienced drivers know the dedication it takes to drive permanently (thus theyre in a position to turn down the job if the pay is too low. NEW GUY is forced to pay back schooling,physical,drug test,lodging,bus ticket there etc. Example: new guy tried to do my 10 stop route and couldnt do it. Brought 4 deliveries back. Made 14 stops for the next day. (No extra time for backing in to docks,figuring out how to navigate into places etc.

 

You know how you just drive your car to work?
When you get to that eye rolling point driving a 70-120 ft long truck weighing 80-100,000 lbs, you're experienced.....

 

Just to add something to this. The companies impression of the driving force is based solely on what they see walk through the door looking for employment. They are perfectly happy to practice the "revolving door philosophy". They pay lower wages because they offer on the job training. Whereas other companies will not let less than 5 years exp. even fill out an app.