Is Making $800 a week as a NEWBIE possible?

cheeto

there are lots of threads on newbie pay, hours, how long out, what it's like on the road etc.

The job is not just about pay. You have to consider many other things besides just the money. Driving OTR is a lifestyle. Can you make the money-possibly. But it costs money to live on the road. Do you have a family you will be leaving? Can you live in a closet 24/7? Skipping meals and sleep I am sure you are used to being in the fire department but days on end with no shower, no bathrooms,no real rest?

Please do some research on OTR driving and read some threads on here -there really are alot of threads here in the newbie section. I am not trying to discourage you at all-just trying to give you some things to think over.

Good luck and Welcome to The Truckers Report

 

If you do some searching on this forum you will find that you can make that amount but many don't.

You can also find out a lot about the big otr companies but not so much about the smaller local ones. If you're looking at the big ones do some reading in the bad trucking companies section.

I don't really have an answer to your question will suggest a few questions you should be asking yourself.

Are the several reasons for a career change things that are going to go away by choosing a new career? I ask that because I see the Fire Department as a noble career with decent income potential and usually pretty good pensions. I don't usually discourage anyone from trucking but giving up a (assuming) stable job like that for the uncertainties of starting out in trucking is a pretty risky move, especially with the way the economy is going. The large majority of new truckers don't make it past their first year for various reasons.

If it doesn't work out can you go back to the Fire Department?

Do you want to be a trucker of do you just not want to work for the Fire Department?

Other than that, look around a few threads in this section and I'm sure you'll find BigJohn54's standard copy/paste with a lot of good info.

 

$3200 a month,,,

Hey, when you leave your job are they hiring?

 

Until Obama came along, I was grossing $1,000 to $1,200 a week almost every week of the year. It took me 6 yrs to get to that level, unfortunately now that Obama has tanked everything, I'm doing $900 a week gross.

 

I made $3200 in a month, that's easy.



Oh... net? ....

 

It can be done, but as newbie it's unlikely. A lot of drivers with a couple years or more are struggling to gross $750wk. A lot depends on motavated you are what your driveing record is and if you get hired by a "good" company.
I was lucky with little exp. I fell into what your looking for. No I'm not going anywhere

 

At my oldjob was making 650.00 biweekly with OT like710.00

 

I would suggest to expect closer to 2100 miles a week than 2700 as a rookie. Always better to undershoot the estimate. Then on top of that depending on hometime you want, I would only estimate it at 3 weeks a month.

so with a lowball estimate. 2100x3x.28cpm = 1764 a month.

Now I know people are going to say "you can make more than that", and that's true. However, when you estimate bills would you rather expect low and gain more. Or expect a ton, and hit the low end of the spectrum?

 

Once my training was over I was making $800-1200/week take home. I drove team right away though which is a significant increase in pay for a beginner at my company. About a 31% increase in fact if the miles stay up. Of course there is a slow week here or there but that's life.

 

You already have the job a lot of us wish we had. You have retirement, hospitalization, good pay and the respect of the community you serve. We have none of those things.

If you screw up like some of us did and leave your solid career to come in here you'll regret it and hate yourself for not staying put. Don't do it- retire first, then try it. That way when you find out that trucking is empty promises and lies, you still have a retirement to live on while you search for a new career. I promise you- things are NOT better here.