Local Short Haul vs. OTR

OTR drivers don't get $11 an hour when not driving and many of them don't get $450 a week TAKE HOME .
I'd say OTR would be a bad choice . With no OTR experience 4 to 6 weeks working 60+ hours a week at $300 to $600 a week GROSS to start plus the possibility of being rejected by a trainer before soloing and taking less than he is now at times .

 

Well I may be wrong, or I may be right. He's in "farming" country. He has not specified where. In the tiny towns around farming areas, you'd be lucky to get a job at Wallyworld for 7.50 per hour. I know, I've been there. He's working for a farmer not a big OTR Trucking company. It is his first-- in other words he has not done 1 year OTR and would not even get hired onto one of those companies that require it, like Crete carrier and so on where he "Could" make 900 per week. Logically he is getting nice money for a person just out of school who got a job with a farmer.

Sorry to be stubborn about it, but that is my take on it. You cannot compare apples and oranges-- some person with 30 years as an OTR trucker can't compare with someone who just learned trucking and is working for a private employer in the Hinterlands.

 

Most companies will not give you credit for a year of local driving. They want to see OTR experience. I suggest you try to find an OTR opportunity as soon as you can.

 

Do you have benefits and pension plan with the farm driving? If not, get with a regular trucking company fast. I've seen too many drivers that worked 30-40 years and then retire with nothing but Social Security. They spend the rest of their life counting pennies and hoping they have enough to last to the first of next month.

 

If you like being home just stay there. I would take that job in a second. Im gonna be on a new company hopefully soon....but i drve otr and i am only making about 400 to 475 a week. Im still in my first year but still....

 

You should be making at least twice that, even in your first year.

 

Then help me out here...cause that would be nice! Ive been thinking abut asking my dispatcher about it but not sure if that would be out of line. I am signed up for the per diem thing, maybe thats whats screwin me...but i would think that much...
I mean i keep pretty busy... i havent been sittin all the time...

 

2 loads per day @ $50 per load x 6 days per week = $600 per week, or $1200 in 2 weeks. You say that you "sometimes" get a 3rd load, and that you get paid $11/hour when you aren't driving....but you are already short of what you claim you are paid BEFORE all of the "extra" pay is included. It just isn't adding up. The numbers you have provided, $900/week would be closer to what I'd expect to see IF you are running the loads you claim to be running....unless of course you are having a huge chunk of your check withheld for taxes. The government wants their cut of your wages whether you work for a farmer or a commercial trucking company.

If the driver is required to take care of the maintenance and repair of the truck, and the driver is being paid for his time maintaining and repairing the truck, then how can you claim the company "won't" maintain their own equipment? They have a "mechanic", but that mechanic is busy maintaining other farm equipment to make sure the crops can be planted and harvested on time, sprayed at the appropriate time and manner, and the grains can be properly stored and dried until they can be trucked out to market. He shouldn't have to stop maintaining the equipment he is paid to maintain just to take care of the equipment the driver is being paid to maintain.

Farm operations are not subject to the HOS. He has no 70 hour work week limit, no 14 hour work day limit, and no 11 hour driving limit....especially not during harvest. As long as he's driving a farm truck, and only hauling stuff for the farm which employs him, he doesn't even need a CDL....only a regular license of the proper class for the vehicle he's driving.

So here's a thought: Since you are being paid by the hour to maintain the truck, why don't you actually maintain the truck? Look it over from time to time. At the very least, you should inspect it at the beginning and end of every shift and fix anything you find wrong with it. Listen for air leaks...get a spray bottle with some soapy water to help you find those leaks....and then fix them when you find them at the shop before they have a chance to break while you are on the road. Locate the exhaust leaks and fix them....even if it is just welding a patch over a hole to stop the leak, replacing a clamp, etc....nothing all that difficult to do. If the brakes don't work, you shouldn't drive it....fix them...or at the very least figure out WHY they aren't working and let the mechanic and your boss know what is wrong. The fuel tank issue could be as simple as a plugged up crossover line. Have YOU done anything to try to figure it out though? Close the tank valves, remove the crossover line, blow it out. Heck, you might even find that one of the valves are already closed (perhaps the driver before you only used 1 tank and didn't want to fill that other tank because he can carry more grain if he's not hauling around as much fuel) and that would solve the "only 1 tank works" problem. Have you done anything to look into ANY of the problems the truck is having? Or do you just complain about it? These trucks really aren't all that tough to work on, and I'm sure if you run into any problems along the way THAT is what the mechanic is there for....not to do your job FOR you, but to help you out if the job is more than you would reasonably be expected to handle.

The age of a truck really doesn't matter either. Heck, my Mack...the truck I bought a few years ago and drive every day hauling stuff around....is the newest vehicle I own, and even it is 13 years old. The engine is rated for a certain level of power, no matter how old or new it might be. It could be a brand new truck with a 300 HP engine under the hood, and it is going to climb hills slower than a 20 year old truck spec'd with a 500 HP engine...and there is nothing you or anybody else can do to change that, it is just the way it is.