Going from class B to Class A, Likely with Prime

No I can't. With my class B right now I can make maybe 2600 a month tops, and that is in the winter working 14 hour days and making commission on the propane I deliver. in the summer I do good if I clear 1800 a month. This is gross, not take home. even at 2000 miles a week I can make $2640 year round and where I am at there is no chance for any kind of a raise ever and it is the same with pretty much everyone else around here. I could go do oil well driving and make like $20 an hour, but then again, I would be gone from home even longer than I would be on a truck. There are dump truck jobs that pay well but I don't have time for someone to die so I can compete for his job and maybe have a slim chance of getting it.

So in general, no, I am not nuts, I am desperate maybe but not nuts.

 

Yeah, there are a few things off with that math. I have been otr before and am perfectly aware of the lifestyle. If I start out in a LW which is likely then I will be making .33 cpm to start on regular runs and at the 2500 average that the prime drivers claim they run then that works out to $825 a week and when I am in the NE region I make .41 cpm which works out to $1025 a week. With that said, I am not naïve enough to think I will make that every time but I am also literate enough to know that I will also do better than those numbers at times. Oh and you can't count taxes against that because I pay the same amount no matter what I do.

I get something big like this life change in my teeth and I will dig and dig at it to learn all I possibly can about it before I make my decision. I am not uninformed when it comes to the pay, equipment or benefits of these companies. Just ask my wife, I have drove her batty with this every since we decided this is the route I will be taking. Oh and I mentioned in my welcome thread that my wife is diabetic and having some minor health issues..... the job I currently hold charges 200 a week for insurance that has a 1500 dollar deductible, no doctor copay and doesn't hardly cover diddly squat, so that will be a move up as well.

 

Yep. this is 24/7 but you have to take into account what I would have to do to match this paycheck. I work for $10 an hour now and a penny a gallon commission on my propane. In the winter I make that $2600 at about 70 + hours a week.( yes I exceed my hours ) this amount is gross as I said so you round up a feq dollars on primes pay per week for a 2300 mile average to $1000 a week, that's $4000 a month, that's a 52% increase in wages. Now add 53% to the hours to match and that 107.1 hours to match the same pay. Like I said before, I can go work hauling sand or water for the oil industry but then to make the same money I will also be away from home for months at a time, working 12 hour days and using a good chunk of the extra wages to drive back and forth and paying for motel. No matter how you add it up, the only way I am going to make it is to jump on a truck full time. I don't have time financially to do college or anything else to make more bucks and what you are not getting is that I am not after more per hour but bigger paychecks per week which I will get doing this. We cannot pay rent, utilities and food to survive on for &800 to $1200 every 2 weeks. it's just not happening. I have spent a year and a half trying. In fact I am to the point now that I am likely going to get sued just trying to hold back the money I need to get this job started because someone isn't going to get paid for at least a couple of months and probably more than one someones, LOL.

 

I know about the trucking life, I have been around it all my life and I did drive OTR on a bobtail team for a while, so I have been there too. I would have to agree with some on here and say it is a lifestyle even more than a career. I got no dreams about getting rich, I do however expect work that will make a decent living for a change and supply health insurance for my wife and kids. I will have my permit, going to go take the tests for double and triples and combination as soon as I get my glasses back so I can pass the eye exam. I also know about the pay at Prime to an extent and know they pay better than any training company out there.

My intent is to eventually go to a company with a decent lease program to own my own truck but that way off in the future for now. I also have a good idea of who I am going to eventually. But to begin with, I have lived close to Prime's home office all my life and despite what some of the naysayers claim in here, I know that they are a decent company that strives to treat their drivers reasonably. As with any company this doesn't always happen largely due to employee relations that slip under the radar but they do try.