Looking to go back OTR

thats true about the 24 hour is a little high.....but i have to say a good 18 hours a day between driving,waiting to be loaeded and unloaded and the siting in traffic...

Most drivers do around 18 hours in a day using the 500 mile figure....

 

You're right, we don't get paid enough. Life's not fair, my mom taught me that at a young age. Maybe if it aggravates you that much you're in the wrong industry. Yeah, sometimes trucking sucks. I could go on and on about the bad points, anyone could. Some of us are in it for the love and not the money. I LOVE the smell of diesel, the thunder of jakes with straight pipes, the hum of tires on the pavement and the view from up there in the cab. So, I'm willing to ride out slow freight and bad economic times to do the job I love. Maybe one could say I'm holding on to my sanity by a few tattered threads but I'm living my dream and trucking is my passion.
That's my TOTAL TRUTH.

 

You gotta love this job during these hard times.

 

I like to call that height the "cleavagesphere"

 

You are right, truckers do not get paid enough, but this is nothing new.
Alot of posts on this forum talk like all of a sudden the bottom fell out and truckers started getting screwed.
It has been like this for as long as I can remember, and that is awhile, I first started driving in 1976, and it was the same then. Some drivers had little to complain about, except for the normal stuff, and others complained about every aspect of their lives, and blamed it on trucking.
OTR truckers have never been paid for all of the hours they put in, that is just the way it is and will always be. You gotta love it!
When I started, I had a brand new peterbilt cab-over (ya, i said cab-over) and was making .25cpm, and I loved it. I wasn't making much money but I didn't care, I WAS TRUCKIN'. Things were the same back then, dispatchers were idiots, shippers and receivers didn't care that you only made money when you were driving, and four wheelers were always in the way. But I was enjoying what I was doing, when I did it. The driving part!
Apparently there are alot of other drivers that feel the same way, when you look at the number of trucks on the road. They love the driving, and put up with the BS to continue doing what they love. If I was as upset and miserable as some of the drivers on here, I would walk away and never look back.
But chances are, when you are serving burgers at MacDonalds and a big rig drives by, you will get that churning in your gut, and wish you were driving again. I know, been there! In the 33years since I first drove, I have bounced back and forth between trucking and construction (hence the Trucker: 20 years) When I was working construction and saw a big rig, I would get that feeling, and wish I was driving 'cause I do love it.
The pay, the aggravation, thats the way it is and always has been.
Suck it up, or find a new job to b%&#h about.
Maverick

 

Of course, my situation is different in that I truck for the sheer enjoyment of it. The bulk of my income is as a paid escort to wealthy women in and around The Scarsdale area. Somebody's gotta do it.

 

the whole "$175.00 divided by 24 hrs" is really not accurate, since you arent "on duty" for all of those 24 hrs, professor.

 

1pissedofftrucker is right. It's a crap job for crap wages. As long as there are wide-eyed newbes looking for a new "adventure", the trucking business will always suck.
I like big trucks too, but I don't work for slave wages. I got an education and left the business. I feel sorry for truck drivers. I know your pain.
Funny the BS you hear. "Well you just haven't found the right company". Folks, there is no "right company". Don't let anyone BS you, the majority of OTR drivers only make between 20 to 30,000 per year. No one is going to pay a lot of money to drive a truck. There is always a sucker willing to do it for next to nothing. If you are not making a minimum of a grand per week, you are wasting your time. Even that isn't really worth it, but no less than that. I've heard all the BS stories. Guys claiming to make 100,000 a year driving a truck. In your wildest dreams pal. Yeah you'll make 100,000 total in about 4 to 5 years.
It's a sucker deal geared at making the company money, and the driver none.
Look, even if you made .40 CPH, which is premium pay, you would have to average 2500 miles per week, 50 weeks out of 52 weeks per year, to make 50,000 for a year. That ain't gonna happen folks. You ain't gonna do that sittin' up to days at a time. Sitting at docks all day for free. Going thru ice and snow, up steep mountains in under powered trucks, breakdowns, flat tires, etc.
The trucking business sucks period. No drivers are making "big" money. Like someone said, the companies and their recruiters do one hell of a job promoting a product that simply doesn't exist.

 

gives up any hope......goes down to his local mcdonalds...and applies.

 

This is fuzzy math done by someone who would be better off working at Wally World. Here is the "Truth" about trucking.

1: It's NOT a job. It's a life style. If you look at it as a JOB then you should go away.

2: 500 miles take about 8 hrs of driving. Now thats driving time. Get in ,shut the door and drive. 500/65=8

500x.35=175

175/8=21.87 that is the real value of what you are being paid to do. DRIVE!

If you work for a company that dosen't pay detention time they you are with the wrong company. Anything after 2hrs is paid. $12hr.

Now 175x7=1225 a week thats for 56 hrs of work. Thats more then twice what you get with the math above for 50hrs.

This IS the truth about trucking. It's not a JOB it's a life style. It's not for the weak of mind,body or spirit. Cry babies need not apply