How much can you expect to make local?

Crappyfornia: take home $1600-1700 a week. 70 hours.

 

20 to 30 bucks an hour with plenty of overtime huh.
And they can't keep a driver in dirt poor Detroit.
So what's the problem.

 

Far from dirt poor up here, and most of the guys are pulling 16 - 18 hour days. Or, not working due to weather, it is a crap shoot with these outfits. 20 years of road construction in the works right now. I have several friends doing it now, both have hopped companies multiple times. The work is there if you can handle the BS. Me, I own my truck outright, no desire to go there.

 

So is it worth it to keep doing OTR? I don't see the advantage, honestly, based on the responses in this thread. I was always told the pay was better OTR because "everyone wants a local job."

I'm weighing my options.

 

eh? Who told you otr pays better than local? I guess it depends on your location. 15/hr is slave labor over here in chicagoland. It's $800-1800/week here but 70/hrs in 6 days

 

Less than highway, and longer days.

When it's busy, you don't get personal time on work days, but you get to sleep in your own bed every night. Pay is also less when things aren't busy, you aren't working a whole lot (unless you work for a company that gets drivers to do things other than drive).

If you really want to be home every night (have a spouse, children, etc) then it would be a great decision to keep those relationships healthy... but if you don't, then keep driving long haul, the pay is more than worth the living out of the truck.

Spend some cash on things to make it more comfortable (fridge, better mattress, microwave, etc) and take your home time when you get it (burnout is hard to beat). And when you are home, distract yourself from trucking and do things completely unrelated to work. It'll keep you going long term. Also, take all your vacation days in full every year.

 

*My* OTR pay is better than the $825 per week you quoted in the original post. No way I would go local for that kind of scratch. Going local would mean needing a car and the expense of gas and insurance etc which could easily eat up $1-200 of that weekly pay.

No thank you. I'll stick to my sleeper even if it means having to smell piss every time I park at a truck stop.

 

Its all about what you want. I got a wife and 2 girls. I work 45 to 50 hours a week, no weekends, no nights. Better than 23 a hour. Im happy. I could make more tomorrow, but the trade offs aren't worth it.

 

Dump truck drivers here in NY can do quite well. And if you work for a company that gets state rate on some jobs you’ll really rake it in. Then when the season is over you can go plow snow for the state.

 

A trash truck driver in NYC, starts out at $98k a year.